Before I knew, I was watching the match with sweat in my hands but then I felt like I wanted to enjoy the view from my own seat on the second floor so I went back again.
The match seen from the higher seats lacked powerfulness as compared to the first floor, but because you can watch with many people around I realized that there is another kind of excitement here. |
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View from the second floor
Can you see that the seats on the first floor are divided and those on the second are fixed chairs?
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After a while, the entrance of the maku-uchi rikishi started.
The formal entrance of these top rank rikishi is a bit different from that of lower rank rikishi, for they come in dignifiedly with a ceremonial "apron" called kesho mawashi. Kesho mawashi is a special kind of mawashi, which looks like a normal fundoshi (the wrestler's belt) with an apron attached to it. |
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| A traditionally woven Kesho mawashi has fine but gorgeous embroidery of gold and silver thread and is said to cost more than 2 million yen (approx. 23,000 USD). I hear that some of the finest ones have diamonds and pearls woven in.
As the rikishi enter the arena, they form a circle along the rim of the dohyo first facing the audience, and when the last one fits into the circle they turn inwards now facing each other and suddenly make a movement like a strange dance.
It does look like a strange dance when you see it for the first time, but in fact this is a ritual for entering the sacred dohyo. The formal ritual is much longer, but the ones performed everyday like this is somewhat simplified with less movements so that makes it look like a weird dance. |
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"Entering"
With the splendor of the kesho mawashi and the dignified entrance,
the maku-uchi rikishi enthuse the audience. |
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"This is the weird dance"
But it is a respectable ritual for the sacred dohyo. |
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Special Contents |
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