Sumo Tourists in London

I’m totally charmed by these snaps of some of the best sumo wrestlers in the world touring London.

The athletes were in London for a 5-day event at the Royal Albert Hall.

London’s Victorian concert venue has been utterly transformed, complete with six-tonne Japanese temple roof suspended above the ring.

It is here the wrestlers, known as rikishi, will perform their leg stomps to drive away evil spirits, and where they will clap to get the attention of the gods.

And above all this ancient ceremony, a giant, revolving LED screen which wouldn’t look out of place at an American basketball game, offering the audience all the stats and replays they could want.

Sumo may be ancient, and may have strict rules governing every aspect of a rikishi’s conduct, but it still exists in a modern world.

And that modern world is helping spread sumo far beyond Japan’s borders.

The tournament has already concluded; the winner, Hoshoryu, was given a giant bottle of soy sauce:

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