Mind of Laura

Every two months, I find my reason to live again when the grand sumo tournament is held in Japan and is broadcast worldwide.

Back in 2019, we visited the world-famous Kokugikan, the Tokyo arena where sumo tournaments are held half of the year. I was so giddy seeing all the sumo merchandise, the middle-aged lady employees gave me a free poster.

I crammed that poster in my carry-on bag and through the Tokyo spring rains to eventually frame it and have it grace mine and my then-fiancé’s space.

I was immediately drawn to the centrally featured figure, covered in black, coily hair! I was so mesmerized that I proclaimed whoever this sumo wrestler was, he was my favorite.

It wasn’t until I started watching sumo that I learned the sumo wrestler, or “rikishi”, on the poster was Takayasu, who was half-Japanese and half-Filipino, almost like me! I would study Takayasu’s face and wonder if my future kids would similarly have his tanned complexion and mix of Asian features.

The semi-monthly tournament highlights air on our local NHK channel every night for 2 weeks. You know we tune in each night without fail, even though the America-Japan time difference basically puts us a day behind the match results.

Bouts could be as quick as two seconds with a “hatakikomi” or “tsukiotoshi”, the sumo terms for slap down or thrust down submissions, or as long as past five distressingly long minutes for the longest I’ve seen.

For the entire program, we are glued to the screen, analyzing rikishi stats and taking bets who’ll win.

Just the other night, the referee or “gyoji”, called to stop the match between yokozuna (the highest ranking in sumo) Terunofuji and lower-ranked rikishi Wakamotoharu when the latter wrestler’s loincloth, or “mawashi,” came loose.

That was Wakamotoharu’s match!! The gyoji had no right to step in and needlessly “fix” a mawashi that was sort of coming off.

Upsets like that keep us coming back. Each arm or foot placement, each second could cost you the match, affecting your record for the tournament, thus boosting or jeopardizing your ranking in the sumo world.

When this basho ends, a bit of myself will go dormant again until September when we’ll get to watch sumo in person – and I cannot wait to unleash my inner sumo fangirl.