Photo/Illutration Sumo wrestlers arrive at Nagoya Station in colorful “yukata” summer cotton kimono on June 26. (Pool)

When a coterie of sumo wrestlers disembarked on a platform at Nagoya Station just after 3 p.m. on June 25, the distinctive smell of the hair oil that they use wafted through the air.

Some passengers took photos of them as they rumbled past. 

Others admired the wrestlers’ enormous physiques, with some cheering them on, yelling, “Good luck!“

The 200 wrestlers wearing colorful “yukata” summer kimono arrived on a Shinkansen, ahead of the start of the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament on July 9.

Such a train, which transports sumo wrestlers together to a tournament site, is commonly known as a “sumo train.”

A sumo train is a typical feature of a sumo tournament taking place outside of Tokyo. There are six sumo tournaments a year, three of which are held outside the capital.

However, the sumo train had been suspended since the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka in 2020 as sports circles have refrained from traveling in a group under the COVID-19 pandemic.

One longtime sumo fan who came to Nagoya Station on June 25 to see the spectacle was Hideharu Tsuruta, a 72-year-old resident of Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture.

“I’m looking forward to watching heated matches in Nagoya, where the temperature is high,” said Tsuruta, who has been a sumo fan for 60 years. 

The Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament will be held at Dolphins Arena in Nagoya.

Before the start of the tournament, a ritual called Hono Dohyo Iri will be held for the first time in four years at Atsutajingu shrine in Nagoya’s Atsuta Ward. In the ritual, a new yokozuna, the sport’s highest rank, ceremonially enters a dohyo, or sumo ring.

The ceremony will start at 1 p.m. on July 1.

FASTEST PROMOTION

A banzuke ranking of sumo wrestlers for the July tournament was published on June 26 and it showed that Hakuoho was newly promoted to the top-ranked makuuchi division.

He was promoted to the highest division after only three tournaments since he debuted as a professional sumo wrestler.

It is the fastest on record since the Showa Era (1926-1989), tying Endo, who was promoted to the division in the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament in 2013.

Another noteworthy development for the July tournament is that the “one ozeki” state will not exist for the first time in four tournaments.

Only one ozeki, the second-highest rank in sumo, competed in the three tournaments since this year’s New Year’s tournament.

However, Kiribayama was promoted to ozeki after the last tournament in May and assumed the new ring name “Kirishima,” joining Takakeisho at the rank. 

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