The Roving Ronin Report

The Sumo festival in the small town of Wadayama in Hyogo Prefecture may not have the most skilled sumo wrestlers or the heaviest for that matter but they make up for it with a lot of energy and for their grandmothers with cuteness.  To celebrate the autumn harvest, the boys of the village gather at the local shrine to wrestle with each other in sumo fashion wearing the traditional sumo loincloth known as fundoshi. Officiating them is a referee dressed in stylish robes of the Heian Period (794-1192) known as a gyoji.  The boys range in age from about 5 to 11 or 12. There is no ritual significance in the age of the contenders. It's just that most of the boys feel embarrassed to stand around in a loincloth once they start Junior High School.  The purpose behind the sumo event other than to give their grandparents something to awe about is to bring good fortune to the community. This harkens back to sumo's origins before it became a professional sport. In ...

Nakizumo at first, second, and possibly third glance looks like some kind of baby psychological torture but the ritual is actually for the babies' health and wellbeing. Nakizumo is sumo wrestlers trying to get babies to cry. The first baby to cry wins.  The gyoji (referee) will goad the babies on by saying "nake! nake!" which means cry. The wrestlers will gently rock the babies and grimace at them. If that doesn't work then the judges come into the ring with devil masks to scare the little ones into crying. All of this seems like some bizarre baby torture but in old days when infant mortality was high a crying baby was seen as a healthy baby. Nakizumo goes back some 400 years and parents still bring their babies to have them scared for good luck and long life. Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo Competing babies get a blessing first   You look ridiculous ...