Sumo is very popular with foreigners, but how many actually watch sumo live in Japan? I would like to explain some essential but surprisingly little-known facts about Sumo.
Six sumo tournaments are held throughout the year: In Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan in January, May and September, and in Osaka in March, Nagoya in July, and Fukuoka in November, for a period of fifteen days starting from the second Sunday of the month and ending on the fourth Sunday.
Tickets go on sale around a month in advance, and seats very close to the ring, such as “tamari” and “masu” seats directly below the ring, are extremely popular especially for the last few days of the tournament, when the fiercest competition for the championship takes place. Tickets can sell out in a matter of minutes from the first day they are sold.
Although they are a bit further removed from the ring, Masu C seat tickets and chair tickets are readily available at convenience stores or ticket agencies and can be purchased after you arrive in Japan, so if you have the time be sure to enjoy visiting a sumo match.
Sumo matches begin from about 8:00 a.m. The first matches begin with banzuke, the lower-ranked wrestlers, with higher ranking yokozuna and ozeki stepping in the ring from about 5:50 p.m.
Sumo tickets are for the full day, but you don’t have to watch all of the matches. “Jyuryo” and “makuuchi” wrestlers, collectively known as “sekitori”, enter the ring at about 2:00 p.m. Especially worth watching is the “dohyoiri”, when all the makuuchi wrestlers are introduced by an announcer and enter the ring together. This generally happens around 3:45 p.m.
For these reasons, the best time for watching sumo is from about 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Another point of interest is that when the makuuchi enter from around 2:00 p.m, they do not use any back entrances, but enter from the main entrance normally, and for this reason many fans gather outside the venue to watch the entrance of the sekitori, known as the “irimachi”. Feel free to enjoy this as well yourself.
Inside, a retired former sekitori, known as the “oyakata”, take tickets and serve as guides, making it a great chance to meet famous sumo wrestlers of days gone by. Souvenirs that can only be bought on-site at sumo tournaments are also available, making souvenir shopping fun as well.
Watching sumo on TV and watching sumo live on location are completely different experiences, so if you get a chance, watching it live at the tournament itself is highly recommended.