Grand Sumō Hits London: Success for Second Five-Day Tournament Ever Outside Japan
From October 15 to 19, London’s historic Royal Albert Hall played host to an exhibition tournament featuring Japan’s top sumō wrestlers.
The event has created a legion of new fans and given Britain’s small but sturdy amateur sumō scene a mighty push.
For a while this October, social media feeds seemed to fill with photos of cheerful, colorfully dressed, and somewhat unusually portly London tourists, including sumō wrestlers in front of Buckingham Palace, on rental bikes, posing on the Abbey Road crossing, enjoying a pint in a pub, and cuddling Paddington Bear.
If the aim of the Grand Sumō Tournament held at London’s Royal Albert Hall from October 15 to 19 was to raise sumō’s profile outside Japan, it was surely a yokozuna-class success.
But the day before the tournament, staff were still busy with final preparations for only the second-ever five-day tournament to be held outside of Japan.
Author's summary: Sumō tournament in London attracts new fans.