A spectacle on both sides of the sumo ring
TOKYO — As the leader of the free world, and a man never shy around the spotlight, President Donald Trump is rarely a spectator to the events surrounding him. Leave it to a bunch of sumo wrestlers to steal his thunder.
On Sunday, inside the Ryogoku Kokugikan, a stadium near the Sumida River here, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced Trump to Japan’s national sport. It was the last day of an annual grand tournament, and most of the 11,000 fans in attendance sat on mats and cheered the loincloth-clad wrestlers as they barreled into each other with forces that seemed to defy physics.
The president settled into a low-backed chair near the raised ring to take in the final few bouts. It was one of several exceptions the Japanese made to sumo’s rigid rules to accommodate their guest.
Trump watched intently at times as the fleshy men stomped their feet or threw handfuls of salt around the ring to cleanse the dirt, and he periodically asked Abe or his aides questions about what was happening before him.
During his time at the sumo stadium, there were signs of support — a large Trump 2020 sign greeted the president as he approached the arena. And Trump seemed to make an entrance similar to one at any “Make America Great Again” rally — he clapped, fist-pumped and waved.
But within seconds, the crowd’s attention turned back to the tournament at hand, the first since Japan’s new emperor, Naruhito, ascended the throne this month.
Trump arrived in Tokyo as the first U.S. president to come bearing his own trophy for a sumo champion — a 4-foot-tall object called the President’s Cup. When the last match ended, a wooden set of stairs was wheeled up to the sumo mound and Trump approached clad in slippers fashioned to look like real shoes.
The president bowed slightly as he entered the ring, and with the help of a kimono-attired sumo official, he handed the trophy to the champion.
Trump then addressed the champion, Asanoyama, who had sealed his victory the day before. “In honor of your outstanding achievement as sumo grand champion, I hereby award you the United States President’s Cup,” Trump told the wrestler. The president grinned briefly and clapped.
The president later summed up his day, which included dinner with his hosts at a hibachi restaurant. “That was an incredible evening at sumo,” he said. “We brought that beautiful trophy, which you’ll have hopefully for many hundreds of years.”