By Hugh Lawson
LONDON (Reuters) -London bids a fond farewell to Japan’s finest sumo wrestlers on Sunday at the end of their packed-out, five-day Grand Sumo Tournament, the ancient sport’s first foray abroad in 34 years and only its second ever.
The outsized and brightly dressed wrestlers have become something of a social media phenomenon during their stay, strolling around outside the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, riding along on rental bikes, and pulling pints in the pub – all while being photo-bombed by a dazzled public.
On the earth and clay “dohyo” raised ring it was back to business on the final afternoon, with the crowd warming up throughout the 20-bout card until the deciding clash between the two grand champions, or “yokozuna”, Hoshoryu and Onosato. Sumo wrestlers all go by just one name in the ring.
In the end the decider was a slightly clumsy affair, Hoshoryu managing to spin around and shove out the 191 kg Onosato to win the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record.
“I’m just glad to have got through the five days with no injuries,” he told reporters.
Asked how he planned to celebrate, he gave a wry smile and said diplomatically: “I haven’t thought about that yet, but I will do now.”
Lively wrestler Tobizaru, whose name means “flying monkey”, had earlier lost his long bout with Takayasu and thereby his own shot at the trophy, but he was rewarded for his efforts over the five days with the outstanding performance award.
His opponent Takayasu, a repeated runner-up but never a winner of one of the six major tournaments held each year in Japan, received the fighting spirit award.
But the biggest cheer of the afternoon was reserved for Ura, whose popularity in Japan appeared to have made the trip with him, as he picked up both the technique award for his amazing throws and the audience favourite award, voted for online over the five days.
While the sold-out London tournament has given sumo some rare international airtime, the sport now goes back to Japan and its long-running struggle to find new recruits. There are now about 600 wrestlers in the professional setup, well down from a peak of around 1,000 in the early 1990s.
Before the wrestlers all walked out waving to the crowd, the higher-ranking of the two grand champions, Onosato, kept his English nice and simple in a final farewell on behalf of all of them: “London is great. Thank you and see you again. Goodbye.”
(Reporting by Hugh Lawson, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
