Sumo stormed London this week. Social media feeds were flooded with the giant athletes pottering around London’s landmarks — downing pints of Guinness, recreating The Beatle’s Abbey Road crossing photo, weaving through traffic with surprising grace on Lime bikes. It was such an incongruous sight — sumo wrestlers rarely leave the sport’s native Japan — that you’d have been forgiven for thinking it was the latest AI meme taking over your TikTok doom-scroll.
But it’s all very real. For just the second time in the sport’s recorded history, which stretches back 1,500 years, a sumo tournament is taking place outside of Japan. London’s Royal Albert Hall is playing host to The Grand Sumo Tournament this week, bringing together the top athletes in the sport for five nights of ring-stomping action.
It’s a rare honour — and a greater honour still considering it was London’s Royal Albert Hall once again hosting sumo, last entertaining the crowds in the capital way back in 1991. The event sold out in minutes, with fans travelling from across the globe to see these superhero-like figures of Japanese culture, and Shortlist was offered a rare behind the scenes look at how it all came together.
From concert hall to combat arena
The Royal Albert Hall has been transformed for the occasion. Inside its rotunda a ring, known as a dohyo, has been constructed — a giant clay platform built over the course of three days with eleven tonnes of soil and clay. It sits beneath a specially-commissioned tsuriyane roof, similar to what would be seen on a traditional Shinto shrine, suspended from the eaves of the hall, in a nod to the historic venues that once played host to sumo.
Tradition and ritual play a large, captivating part in proceedings. A pre-event blessing of the dohyo happens behind closed doors, but even paying punters get a taste of the spiritual core of the sport — the Dohyo-ri (entering ceremony) sees the rikishi (the combatants) parade the ring wearing kesho-mawashi – ceremonial aprons – led by the gyoji, the referee, to rhythmic strikes of wooden clappers.
The rikishi then clap and raise their hands high, purifying the ring from evil spirits, before an elaborate ritual by the yokuzuna (the Messi of the sumo world, flanked by a sword bearer and ‘dew sweeper’) sees him ‘shiko’ stomp demons from the ring, encouraged by cries of ‘Yoisho!’ (roughly translating to ‘Let’s go!’) from the spectators.
It’s methodical, choreographed, and deeply rousing — the mostly British crowd (though liberally dotted with international and Japanese fans) is hushed, respectful of the tradition, but explodes into cheers and cries of the names of top fighters at the slightest provocation. It’s clear that there’s a hardcore contingent of sumo fans in attendance, usually starved of seeing their favourite rikishi in the flesh.
The greatest sumo in the world
And it’s a fantastic line-up they’ve come to greet. There are only 600 sumo in the world, and 40 of them are competing here in London. Not only that, but they hail from the Makuuchi Division — sumo’s Premier League, the cream of the crop. Better still, two of their number, Onosato and Hoshoryu, are yokozuna, the absolute greatest in the sport — in the 250 years that the sumo ranking system has existed, only 75 have ever achieved yokozuna rank, marking out quite how amazing it is that London can play host to this talent.
With a spiritual starter, it’s on to the main event — the wrestling itself. The basic rules of sumo are widely known — two combatants face off, using their strength and size to either force the other over the edge of the rope-circled ring, or down so that any part other than the soles of their feet hit the floor. But there are 82 recognised kimarite — or winning actions — used to come out on top, from leg sweeps to palm pushes to throws requiring gargantuan strength. It’s perhaps a cliche to consider sumo mere man-mountains, winning by pure heft alone, but the core strength on show is phenomenal — watching a 190 kilo man hold an extended balance on a single foot with the other foot pointing to the sky is quite the sight.
There’s one last moment of ritual before the action kicks off though, the shosha, which is one of the most entertaining parts of the whole event. Bowing to each other as they enter the ring, the rikishi receive chikara-mizu (power water) and wipe their mouths with chikara-gami (power paper) to purify themselves before taking on their opponent. The pair then stomp away rubbing and clapping hands to curry divine favour and spread their arms to ensure they’re concealing no weapons.
They then crouch and face each other at their starting lines, before turning to grab huge loads of salt to shower the ring in their shovel-like hands. Each has their own unique take on this moment — a rare show of personality and showmanship, tuned to ramp up tension, psyche out an opponent, and get the crowd in a frenzy.
10 breath-taking seconds
And then…BOOM! The clash of two absolute giants rings out through the cavernous hall. The sumo explode with tenacity and precision, colliding with such force that you can hear audible gasps from the 5,000 strong capacity crowd. The tension is split, the crowds scream and clap, and a victor emerges – whether through pummeling slaps, a technical throw down, or the brute strength of a lift and drop over the ring’s extreme edge.
With no weight classes in sumo, bouts can be true David vs Goliath style clashes. Brits love an underdog, and these matches draw the greatest response — when 135kg Tobizaru overpowers Shonannoumi, who has a 60kg weight advantage, the Royal Albert Hall erupts like an earthquake.
Though none of the 20 bouts last much longer than 10 seconds, they’re the most thrilling ten seconds of action you’re ever likely to see. The sense of tradition and occasion, punctuated with cannon-shot style explosions of power, is a breathtaking display to bear witness to.
When Alan Partridge off-handedly pitched “inner-city sumo” to an underwhelmed BBC commissioner, perhaps the hapless comedy personality was actually on to something — to be present at the Royal Albert Hall last night for the opening of The Grand Sumo Tournament was a rare spectacle that acted not only as a gateway drug to this most enigmatic of combat sports, but also as a glorious cultural exchange that no venue in the world other than the magnificent RHA could hope to contain. Here's hoping it can become a more regular fixture than just every 34 years — it'd still feel like a once-in a lifetime opportunity all the same.
The Grand Sumo Tournament continues through October 16th to 19th, and is streaming live on DAZN, Pluto TV, and the BBC (iPlayer, Red Button, BBC Sport and in-app).
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