During the morning hours of Saturday, sumo officials, athletes and sumo fans gathered in the Ryogoku Kokugikan to observe the consecration of the clay fighting platform – the dohyo – for the Hatsu Basho. The proceedings took under an hour, and featured a number of rituals to bless the participants, the venue and to enshrine divine energy into the dohyo itself.

With the ritual complete, it’s basho time! Less than 24 hours from now, we will have our first matches. Frankly, I can’t wait.

I have wanted for years to observe this sumo ritual, and it was fantastic to see first hand. For those of you interested, some additional images from the event below.