How to see Sumo Wrestling in Japan
If you want to see sumo wrestling in Japan, there’s a couple of options - but if it's top of your bucket list, then the Grand Sumo Tournament is worth changing your plans for!
The grand sumo tournament was the single best thing we did in Japan. Although it was part of an extremely stressful day (entirely self inflicted by my trying to fit too much in - shock), it was an incredible atmosphere. It’s such a unique sport, and was a joy to see the Japanese fans so animated and caught up in the action.
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How to see Sumo wrestling in Japan: what are your options?
If you can, absolutely attend the real thing - the grand sumo tournament - I’ll explain how to do that below.
Sumo Training
If you’re not able to line up your trip dates with a tournament, then your next most authentic option is to witness a morning sumo training session - you can do this at one of the sumo “stables” in Tokyo. There are many guided tours like this one offering opportunities to watch the sumo training, but you don’t actually need a tour.
A guided tour would give you more information, but if you’re short on time (and money), you can just go down to the stables in the mornings, no booking required. The only stable which allows public viewing is Arashio beya - the training schedule can be found here.
Be aware that the sumo wrestlers will not be at the stables during the grand tournament dates, so always check the schedule first if you’re hoping to see them.
Sumo tour
Jungyo, or the provincial tour, is a tour around various towns and cities throughout Japan to promote the sport - there are training sessions and a mini-tournament each day. This takes places outside of grand tournament dates. Dates, locations and booking information can be found here:
Sumo show
There are various sumo “shows” that can be found throughout Tokyo, often combining dinner with the show. This may be your only option if the wrestlers are all away at a tournament and you were unable to secure tickets or fit it into your timeline. Options include this one, which takes places in an old sumo stable, or this one, which allows participants to challenge a sumo wrestler themselves!
Grand Sumo Tournament
This is undeniably the best, most authentic way to see sumo - the actual Grand Sumo Tournament. We loved it so much, we booked tickets to see the tournament in London when a tournament was held there a year later!
There are 6 sumo tournaments a year, so I would absolutely recommend trying to time your visit to Japan during one of these: 3 take place in Tokyo, 1 in Fukuoka, 1 in Osaka and 1 in Nagoya.
Tickets go on sale around 5 weeks before the start of the tournament - the exact dates that the tickets go on sale are listed for each tournament here.
While tickets are supposed to be quite difficult to get hold of, and this wasn’t in my original plan, so I was actually less organised than usual, but we still managed to get tickets around a month in advance. We went to the tournament in Fukouka, however, I suspect that if it was a tournament in Tokyo, it might be more competitive to get tickets. Nagoya is another host location, and can be easily reached by bullet train from Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka.
How to book
The ticket system was a bit convoluted - we had to pay for them online on the sumo website and print the confirmation, then visit a 7/11 combini for them to print the actual tickets when we arrived in Japan (you can do this at any point before the tournament). Although it seems a bit backward, it was actually very easy.
This is the Japan Sumo Association website to book tickets directly. It details the sumo tournament dates and the dates that tickets go on sale. We booked a 4 person box for 2 of us. It is designed for 4 people sat cross-legged 2 in front of 2 on the cushions provided. (You must take your shoes off as well). However, if you are very tall like Chrisy, we would have struggled to fit 4 of us, so it was perfect for 2. You pay for the whole box regardless of how many people are in the party (we were a bit confused when purchasing the tickets as it will give you tickets for 4 people). We had a great view and can highly recommend these seats over the individual chair seats (which had sold out by the time we bought tickets anyway).
Don’t ignore locations outside of Tokyo
When planning your itinerary, consider logistics rather than just distance - the bullet trains (Shinkansen) are so fast and convenient that you can cover large distances in a short time frame if the connections are good. With the sumo tournament, I initially dismissed it because the tournament on at the time we planned our trip was in Fukuoka - a quick look at the map and I thought it was too far out of the way to consider. However, looking at the bullet trains, it was actually very easy and doable as a day trip from Osaka (about 1.5hrs by shinkansen).
Tips
The Grand sumo tournament runs for 15 days, with the final challenge on the last day. We actually loved being in Japan at the time of the sumo tournament - every hotel/hostel we stayed in had the sumo on the screen each evening, so we could follow our favourites even after we had attended the tournament ourselves!
The lower ranked sumo wrestler bouts take places earlier in the day, with the top division wrestlers competing later in the evening (the big names start from around 2pm). Your ticket is for the whole day, but many spectators arrive for the last couple of hours only. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we wish we’d arrived a bit earlier!
There are some snacks and food options in the atrium area.
Oddly, we were not allowed to take “big” cameras (ours is not that impressive, but it is a DSLR camera) into the tournament in London but they were absolutely fine in Japan.
If you have the opportunity to see sumo in Japan, do it!
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