The dohyo matsuri ring purification ritual for the May Grand Sumo Tournament will be held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The Shinto ritual is performed to pray for the safety of the tournament, which begins on Sunday, and is generally open to the public for free. After the ritual, the public can also watch a ceremony to present the winners of the January Grand Sumo Tournament and March Grand Sumo Tournament with their victory portraits.
Attending the ritual will be the chairman of the Japan Sumo Association, stablemasters who serve as ringside judges and rikishi ranked at komusubi or higher. The JSA's head judge will oversee the ceremony's proceedings and offer a Shinto ritual prayer, thereby inviting the sumo god to the ring.
The god who descends to the ring will then move to the green, white, red and black banners hanging from the rafters overhead, from where the god will observe the sumo bouts until the end of the tournament.
During the dohyo matsuri, an offering to the god will be placed into an about 10-centimeter-square hole in the center of the ring. The offering -- sacred items called "shizumemono" -- includes kachiguri dried chestnuts, kaya nuts, salt, kombu, dried cuttlefish and washed rice. Sacred sake will be sprinkled on the offering before the hole is filled in.
After a series of award presentations and other ceremonies on the tournament's final day, the god returns to heaven. Rikishi who debuted at the tournament wish each other luck with a customary sanbonjime rhythmic handclap and then toss the judge into the air as if he were the god returning to heaven. After the farewell ceremony for the god, the tournament officially concludes.
During his victory interview at the March tournament, yokozuna Hakuho led spectators in the sanbonjime. The JSA punished him, as he showed a lack of understanding for the ceremonies and ended the tournament without permission.
-- Miki is a sumo expert.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
