MONTHLY NEWS Everyone Welcome at Thumb Sumo Tournament |
Wanna beat adults and become a champion? Then you should become a thumb-sumo wrestler! Sumo? Don't you have to weigh 200 kilograms and have the body of a bear for that? Not so with yubi-zumo, or "thumb" sumo wrestling, which is a 'barrier-free' sport that anyone can play. Children, adults, the elderly, individuals with physical or mental handicaps - anyone can play as long as they can move their fingers around. And it's a great time to start, because now there's even a national championship. This is how the game is played. First, face your opponent and shake hands. Then curl your four longer fingers to get a firm grip on each other's hand. Hold your thumb upright, facing your opponent's thumb, just like the wrestlers at the start of a real sumo bout when they face each other at the center of the dohyo ring. The referee calls out "Ready, Go!" and using only your thumb, you must capture and hold down the opponent's thumb under your own. The hottest thumb-sumo scene is in Kushiro, which is one of the colder cities in Japan. Kushiro is located on the southeastern coast of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, and temperatures drop to a shuddering minus 20 degrees Celsius in wintertime. It was here that the first-ever All-Japan Thumb-Sumo Championship took place last summer, followed by the second, on July 6 and 7 this year.
It all started with a local volunteer group's search for a barrier-free activity that everyone can enjoy. "Someone mentioned thumb sumo, and we knew we had a great idea," recalls Kaori Sasamoto, a member of Challenge Kushiro 24. Since there were no official rules for thumb sumo, the group set their own. Under the "Kushiro Rules," a bout consists of two rounds, one for the right hand and the other for the left. The time limit is 60 seconds per game, and victory is scored by holding your opponent's thumb under your own for two seconds. Ms. Sasamoto and her friends even built portable wood-and-styrofoam dohyo boards, so that players can strap down their elbows for support. More than 1,000 participated in the pre-championship matches that doubled as qualifying games. About 40 contestants entered the championship itself, while another 40 joined in on the day, according to Ms. Sasamoto. Live commentary on the matches added to the excitement, which in some cases went too far. "In the final round, some enthusiastic grownups got carried away, and two or three dohyo boards were broken!" she laughs.
Matches took place between individual contestants or teams of three, under five classifications, from lightweight to heavyweight. But you don't need to be an adult or have long fingers or a heavy body to become a winner, Ms. Sasamoto says. "You really can't tell who's going to win. In the pre-tournament round, there was an elementary school kid in Kushiro who was beating adults." Masatoshi Okawara, that unbeatable fourth-grader, went on to become this year's lightweight champion. In the heavyweight division, Shinji Zaitsu, a man in his late 20s, clinched his victory after a heated final battle against a high school girl. Ms. Sasamoto hopes more people will come to join in next year's tournament. "My secret ambition is to see finger sumo become an Olympic sport with official rules." Photos: (Top) People gather to play thumb sumo; (middle) Being in a wheelchair is no barrier to playing thumb sumo; (bottom) An elementary-school champion beats on adult. (Kushiro Thumb Sumo Club) |
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