The Sumo Tournament

Finally, the day of the town sumo festival has arrived. I joined my counterparts at 6am to make "onigiri"(rice balls) out of sekihan, a mixture of white rice and azuki beans, flavored with salt, sugar and sake. Ten years ago, I was ten years younger and assigned to a different group. It didn't occur to me until this week that I am now in the 50+ group who wear the white aprons and do service. In a way, it is an honor but it also indicates that I am old. Hmmm. We completed our task of making 200 rice balls and took a little break before heading to the shrine grounds. (The guy who drove us up there has a hybrid Prius - nice car - really nice car.)

The men's group had met yesterday to complete the final preparations and decorations of the sumo ground. It looked very festive. The taiko drum corps from the town was assembling and several local vendors were setting up stalls to sell fresh produce and homemade pickles, shaved ice (kakigori), takoyaki (octopus and vegetables in a batter cooked in the shape of a ball), fresh pineapple spears, and some sweets. We cleaned the community hall and set up the various plates of food, including the rice balls we had made, boiled vegetables from the farmer's union, tangerines, fried chicken nuggets and pickles. We arranged the drinks for our guests and stood by to serve them as needed. In truth, we hung around most of the day in our aprons, watching the tournament.

It was a perfect autumn day and the crowd was in good spirits. The old men drank beer and heckled and cheered; the village women gathered in groups in the shade and chattered; and spectators wandered around the grounds. The sumo participants were all junior and senior high school club members from the area. After the Shinto priest blessed the ring, some salt, dried fish and raw rice were placed in the corners of the sumo ground. The boys did single bouts and sets -where they would go in rounds until one boy won three in a row or five in a row. They won cash prizes. After the official games, the top wrestlers participated in a ceremony for babies. I'd never seen this before. The babies were dressed in sumo aprons and carried by a wrestler to the ring where he and the priest performed a ritual for the health and strength of the baby. Most of the little ones screamed helplessly and you could tell that most these young wrestlers probably preferred fighting in the ring to carrying a screaming infant!

As if we hadn't had enough, the two local elementary schools formed teams and pairs of boys and girls in their PE uniforms had a quick bout with both winners and losers earning a small sum of money from the elders. The teacher was strict in enforcing the kids to follow the rituals of putting salt in the ring and bowing but technique was not important! It was just fun and even more entertaining than the real thing. When the sun was getting low in the sky, we cleaned up the room after our guests, picked up the garbage and put away tables and chairs and headed back to the village where we would celebrate!

For the women, this meant setting up the tables and arranging the food for all the men who had participated. We use our community center, a building about the size of a double-car garage next to our village god, which is like a child of the main Shichishogu Shrine (in town where the festival was held). Our little stone"god" figure resides in a cage - it always reminds me of the old-style zoo with the iron bars and helpless animal inside a space that is barren and too small. (Unlike the zoo, you are encouraged to toss coins into the cage!) Under its gaze, the women finally had a chance to sit down. We shared food, beer and camaraderie with our neighbors. (Men and women at separate tables of course - camaraderie only goes so far...)