The Fort Worth Press - Sumo walks 'tightrope' with first overseas events in 20 years

USD -
AED 3.67298
AFN 72.04561
ALL 90.426454
AMD 393.432155
ANG 1.790208
AOA 915.999514
ARS 1073.539026
AUD 1.662925
AWG 1.8
AZN 1.697767
BAM 1.784082
BBD 2.031653
BDT 122.253136
BGN 1.783472
BHD 0.376858
BIF 2990.649943
BMD 1
BND 1.345222
BOB 6.952794
BRL 5.8688
BSD 1.006157
BTN 85.842645
BWP 14.014139
BYN 3.292862
BYR 19600
BZD 2.021163
CAD 1.42256
CDF 2873.000253
CHF 0.852102
CLF 0.0249
CLP 955.539989
CNY 7.28155
CNH 7.319425
COP 4181.71
CRC 509.007982
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 100.583808
CZK 22.978968
DJF 179.18358
DKK 6.779725
DOP 63.5439
DZD 133.362103
EGP 51.122457
ERN 15
ETB 132.622212
EUR 0.908545
FJD 2.33545
FKP 0.774458
GBP 0.774045
GEL 2.749879
GGP 0.774458
GHS 15.595895
GIP 0.774458
GMD 71.511953
GNF 8707.867731
GTQ 7.765564
GYD 210.508552
HKD 7.76747
HNL 25.744128
HRK 6.846702
HTG 131.657925
HUF 370.294993
IDR 17107.05
ILS 3.786485
IMP 0.774458
INR 85.67875
IQD 1318.129989
IRR 42100.000231
ISK 131.650446
JEP 0.774458
JMD 158.686431
JOD 0.708901
JPY 145.790981
KES 129.302255
KGS 86.768798
KHR 4028.278221
KMF 450.497808
KPW 900
KRW 1464.820499
KWD 0.30762
KYD 0.838495
KZT 510.166477
LAK 21794.298746
LBP 90155.803877
LKR 298.335234
LRD 201.240593
LSL 19.187412
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.866591
MAD 9.582851
MDL 17.779704
MGA 4665.906499
MKD 55.945995
MMK 2099.820881
MNT 3508.612
MOP 8.055188
MRU 40.127708
MUR 45.169802
MVR 15.398803
MWK 1744.766249
MXN 20.65045
MYR 4.465959
MZN 63.909895
NAD 19.187412
NGN 1544.690307
NIO 37.026226
NOK 10.831075
NPR 137.348233
NZD 1.797835
OMR 0.384971
PAB 1.006249
PEN 3.697332
PGK 4.15325
PHP 57.403
PKR 282.466317
PLN 3.88355
PYG 8066.59065
QAR 3.667868
RON 4.521101
RSD 106.437007
RUB 84.490919
RWF 1450.034208
SAR 3.753164
SBD 8.316332
SCR 14.349108
SDG 600.552097
SEK 10.05059
SGD 1.346445
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.749585
SLL 20969.501083
SOS 575.051311
SRD 36.646502
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.804561
SYP 13001.844432
SZL 19.194527
THB 34.5575
TJS 10.95252
TMT 3.5
TND 3.081231
TOP 2.342098
TRY 38.009301
TTD 6.815964
TWD 33.163798
TZS 2691.722
UAH 41.414641
UGX 3677.993158
UYU 42.563284
UZS 13000.684151
VES 70.161515
VND 25800
VUV 122.117563
WST 2.799576
XAF 598.364424
XAG 0.033482
XAU 0.00033
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.744173
XOF 598.364424
XPF 108.789054
YER 245.649928
ZAR 19.33705
ZMK 9001.195602
ZMW 27.896921
ZWL 321.999592
  • SCS

    -0.0600

    10.68

    -0.56%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    22.71

    +0.22%

  • RIO

    -3.7600

    54.67

    -6.88%

  • BCC

    0.8100

    95.44

    +0.85%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    22.29

    +0.13%

  • JRI

    -0.8600

    11.96

    -7.19%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    22.83

    +0.7%

  • NGG

    -3.4600

    65.93

    -5.25%

  • AZN

    -5.4600

    68.46

    -7.98%

  • RBGPF

    69.0200

    69.02

    +100%

  • BTI

    -2.0600

    39.86

    -5.17%

  • RELX

    -3.2800

    48.16

    -6.81%

  • GSK

    -2.4800

    36.53

    -6.79%

  • BP

    -2.9600

    28.38

    -10.43%

  • VOD

    -0.8700

    8.5

    -10.24%

  • RYCEF

    -1.5500

    8.25

    -18.79%

Sumo walks 'tightrope' with first overseas events in 20 years
Sumo walks 'tightrope' with first overseas events in 20 years / Photo: © AFP

Sumo walks 'tightrope' with first overseas events in 20 years

Sumo is walking a "tightrope" as it prepares to stage events outside Japan for the first time in 20 years while also trying to preserve its ancient traditions, experts say.

Text size:

The sport will hold exhibition tournaments in London this October and in Paris in June next year, the first time the Japan Sumo Association has been abroad since Las Vegas in 2005.

Sports such as football, baseball and American football play domestic games overseas in a bid to gain new fans in emerging markets.

John Gunning, a former amateur sumo wrestler who commentates on the sport in English on Japanese television, says its centuries-old history and traditions make it unique.

"It's always a tightrope," he told AFP.

"If you start turning sumo into just a pure sport, you start losing a lot of the things that make it attractive or the whole reason that it exists in the first place.

"There's always the push and pull that sumo wants to continue the traditions but also try and keep adjusting and fitting into a 21st century sporting and business landscape."

Japan Sumo Association chairman Hakkaku, who goes by one name, has said it is "important to show our sport to the world", telling reporters that "our traditional culture has been recognised".

European promoters appear keen to make overseas events a regular fixture.

David Rothschild, promoter and executive producer for Paris event organisers AEG, said "the idea would be to have sumo going to one country or another in the world once per year".

- 'Gold dust' -

Gunning says there has been a surge in interest in sumo outside Japan in the last 6-7 years, especially people who got hooked on the sport from afar during Covid lockdowns around the world.

Sumo chiefs have made an effort to reach out to foreign sumo fans in recent years, in 2022 launching the Sumo Prime Time YouTube channel, which has 71,000 subscribers.

There is also more language assistance in stadiums in Japan for visitors.

Tickets for regular tournaments in Japan are "like gold dust", according to Gunning, who said many are snapped up by tourists who are visiting the country in record numbers.

The sumo-themed drama series "Sanctuary" was released on Netflix in 2023.

Gunning believes the trips to London and Paris are "pretty much automatically guaranteed" to be a success.

The events are a result of public demand from overseas audiences and "not a cash grab", he said.

The JSA organised their first overseas sumo exhibition in the Soviet Union in 1965 and have visited a diverse range of countries since.

The five-day tournament at London's Royal Albert Hall will be the second time they have staged an event there.

The two-day Paris tournament will be the city's third -- the first since 1995 -- and will take place at the venue that hosted gymnastics and basketball at last year's Olympics.

- 'Completely different' -

Sumo holds six regular 15-day "honbasho" tournaments in Japan each year, three in Tokyo and one each in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

When they are not competing, training, resting or performing in ceremonies, wrestlers take part in exhibition tours around Japan.

These domestic tours can last for almost a month at a time, and sumo journalist Shoko Sato thinks some will be scrapped to make way for future overseas trips.

"Overseas exhibitions would only happen about twice a year, if that, so I don't think anyone in Japan would be dissatisfied if that meant not having a domestic exhibition," she said.

Sato has covered sumo events in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Mongolia, and said the atmosphere at overseas exhibitions is "completely different".

"It's a bit more like entertainment," she said.

"It's not a serious competition but more like introducing sumo to people in an entertaining way."

J.Barnes--TFWP