Day 2 of the July sumo tournament in Japan finished a couple of hours ago! The tourney lasts for 15 days, so this is a great time to start watching!
Live / Replay:
- try searching on twitch, there are usually at least 3 different streamers providing live video feeds with English commentary, and it’s fun to have a community to chat with in real time. The top Makuuchi matches start around 3am US Eastern Time though. At least one of the streamers does replays all day, usually of the entire day (including lower ranks).
Video Clips:
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youtuber DonDon makes a daily video of the “best 10” matches listed in English with replays including on-screen English analysis (posted around 6am EST): https://www.youtube.com/@dondonsumo2/videos Besides the “best 10” of the top Makuuchi tier, DonDon also makes a “best 5” of the second Juryo tier.
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Broadcaster NHK makes a daily video that has all the top-tier Makuuchi bouts with English spoken commentary: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/ and here: https://www.youtube.com/@NHKWORLDJAPAN/videos These are usually delayed by a day, but are a great intro.
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NHK immediately posts individual videos of each top-tier bout listed in Japanese with Japanese commentary.
click here for instructions to see the NHK Japanese videos
They are re-doing their Japanese website. I THINK that to see the latest videos on the NHK site in Japanese, you look here: https://www.nhk.jp/g/ts/Z8WRRJ9K96/blog/bl/pm1VNbJpWQ/bp/pExrRxao2y/ and click on the topmost link that says “NHK ONE”, it should look like this:
Click “I understand” to acknowledge that you’re not in Japan (lel) and then scroll down til you see this button:
it might look like this:
click on that and you should see all the videos?!
For the listings in Japanese, try automated translations if there’s a lot of text. Alternately, look for something like: 9月14日 which in this case refers to the 9th month and the 14th day (September 14th). Automated translation doesn’t work that well on sumotori names, but this is a great opportunity to learn them by sight! (The JSA web site has pictures of them all.)
- JSA immediately posts individual videos of each of the highest-ranked 10+ matches listed in Japanese with no commentary, here: https://www.youtube.com/@sumo-video/videos
Additional fan youtube channels (I haven’t checked them out too thoroughly)
- https://www.youtube.com/@sumo-highlights
- https://www.youtube.com/@TheMawashiShow/videos
- https://www.youtube.com/@sumowithherbert
- https://www.youtube.com/@SumoFiles
- https://www.youtube.com/@LionSumo
- https://www.youtube.com/@Sumotop/videos
- https://www.youtube.com/@Wakanoho-8/videos
- https://www.youtube.com/@DarkCircleSumo/streams
Text Info in English:
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all results and standings and next-day schedule by sumodb
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more results and stats from sumostats, another fan site
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results and more info from the JSA
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daily writeups by The Mainichi (Mainichi Shimbun newspaper)
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occasional articles by The Japan News (Yomiuru Shimbun newspaper)
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for commentary, see the tachiai fan site
Intro to Sumo
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more English-language intro videos at NHK’s Sumopedia
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the wikipedia article has a lot of great information including on sumo terms.
“What are you waiting for? Go watch SUMO!!!”
This post got me watching sumo for the first time, so are there any channels you could recommend that breakdown a match in basic details?
I looked at DonDon, as suggested by OP, but it was just pointing out holds but it would be nice to understand what leverage a particular hold gives or why the wrestler went for that hold. Also, it would be cool to get some background on the combatants.
The best I found is a highlight real from Sumo Prime Time but I am not sure if that was just a Day 1 Special or if they will keep posting more throughout the tournament.
i started following through DonDon after stumbling on a post from this community in spring 25.
but it was just pointing out holds but it would be nice to understand what leverage a particular hold gives or why the wrestler went for that hold. Also, it would be cool to get some background on the combatants.
After watching a couple of tournaments you will be learning rikishis names, what their ranks mean (wikipedia is helpful for brief background checks).
Holds become self-evident after some time. (Then there’s Ura. Go figure 😅
People on this community are really helpful when you’re confused (there are always some obscure rules) or when you need some help because you can’t understand Japanese (you may think that the referee is insulting the wrestlers before every match when he yells “te wo tsuite” 🤣
I love the simplicity of the game and it’s minimal conception. Some matches last only a second, yet there’s so much going on in details. I keep my hands on the shortcuts and watch some of them several times; rewinding, studying. Some wrestlers are so quick on their feet, you can see how many times they changed their strategy in 30 seconds only after a careful review (donDon’s slow motion with pauses is a good starting point.
welcome to 2 weeks of fun every 2 months
Yeah great question, I wasn’t familiar with that highlight reel. I think Sumo Prime Time is associated with NHK, who do the daily highlights here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/sumo/ (with one day’s delay), there are some wrestler background videos on there too.
The Japanese broadcasts of the makuuchi top division have a commentator doing analyses; post-fight they may even bring out a guy in a mawashi in a mini ring and the commentator will go show what kinda holds were being used and why they work, etc. Ofc this is all in Japanese but if you’re watching a stream, the streamer usually translates as best they can. (on twitch at least, they’re required to have a streamer with an on-screen presence.) There are usually plenty of people watching to ask questions of. Several streamers do rebroadcasts too: https://www.twitch.tv/search?term=sumo&type=channels
ofc you can always discuss here! we usually have a post for every day of the tourney.
Hopefully we can see many healthy wrestlers this tournament!
Hopefully we can see many healthy wrestlers this tournament!
I’ve been watching the Sumo Highlights channel to watch the March tournament and tuned in yesterday to check out the current Day 1 matches.
The new stats/graphics they have are so cool! Really helpful to a noob like me to know what to expect, and I love the slo-mo recaps after the fights with being able to see things highlighted and terms spelled out on screen.
I can’t wait to see all the great action now that I understand things a little better.
Oh yeah that’s from https://www.youtube.com/@sumo-highlights right? I love that Radar Chart visualization and the win probability with ELO rating. I’m not sure who’s making those videos, so I suspect that channel’s gonna be taken down or move eventually, if it’s not authorized.
Yeah, that’s the one. It was much simpler in the March videos:
When I saw the new overlay yesterday, I was both thrilled, but also a little concerned it looked too good now and might draw too much attention. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts at least!
I just clicked on NHK’s Grand Sumo Highlights for the first time, and the narration is quite enjoyable.
Usually I watch Natto’s tournament coverage, but this was quite nice.
Onosato doesn’t look fit at all.
Hoshoryu, Aonishiki, and Kirishima looked sharp though.
Lots of young faces looking to make their mark.
I’m looking forward to a good tournament!
The Grand Sumo Highlights are awesome! I just wish they didn’t delay them like they do. (I think they play them same-day but only at certain times, not on-demand until next-day.)
something’s wrong with the sound in dondon’s videos for this tournament
I didn’t notice it in the first two dondon videos for makuuchi. Maybe it’s youtube playing anti-AI-scraping tricks sporadically? what exactly is wrong with the sound?
disabling “stable mode”, whatever that is, from settings, fixed it for me.
sound was very … unnatural (?), like the gyōji and the rikishis had microphones on them
