Vancouver sumo club aims to push the ancient sport into modern times
Sumo Sundays describes itself as 'Canada's only all-bodies sumo club'
Eva Yu said she started watching sumo matches last year and quickly became a self-described "super fan."
"I can talk forever about sumo," Yu said.
Her interest in Japan's national sport eventually brought her to Sumo Sundays, which describes itself as "Canada's only all-bodies sumo club."
On Monday, Yu entered the sumo-wrestling circle, known as a dohyo, to compete in the 2025 Vancouver Basho, an amateur sumo exhibition hosted by Sumo Sundays at the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall in the Downtown Eastside.
Yu said the transition from fan to competitor was "exhilarating," and she even went home with some hardware. She said she won the competition's Fighting Spirit Award, in part because of her pre-bout ritual, which was a tribute to recently-retired pro sumo wrestler Hokutofuji Daiki.
"Hearing the cheers, hearing the silence before the bout, it all amps you up just for that moment of connection with your sparring partner," Yu said.
Sumo Sundays offers drop-ins and workshops to teach the ancient sport — one that has for centuries been the domain of physically-imposing men — to people of all shapes and sizes.
Sumo Sundays co-founder Kayla Isomura said they first got involved in the sport at the Powell Street Festival, a celebration of Japanese Canadian arts and culture, which has for decades held sumo exhibitions organized by a group named the Sumo Fun Club.
Isomura's first attempt at sumo consisted of "just flailing around in the ring at Powell Street," they said.
"But in the last few years since we started Sumo Sundays, we've been able to teach other people different sumo skills and doing it in an all-bodies, gender-inclusive environment," Isomura said, who added that Sumo Sundays now organizes the Powell Street Festival's sumo exhibition.
Isomura's fellow co-founder Shane Pecknold said one of his goals is to prove that sumo — like other forms of wrestling — can be practised by people of any size and "isn't just for big people."
Weighing in at around 155 pounds, he said people are often surprised to hear he participates in sumo.
"Typically I hear, 'You don't have the right body for it,'" Pecknold told Radio-Canada last year. "I know different. I feel like not just sumo, but any sport should be open to anybody who wants to play."
He said one of the things that drew him to sumo is the Japanese concept of ganbaru, the act of doing one's best and persevering through adversity.
Isomura said the club aims to teach sumo's ancient traditions and techniques to people who might otherwise think the sport was not for them.
"You don't really have to be any specific way, you don't have to be super athletic, you don't have to be super strong," Isomura said. "A lot of the time we're just here having fun, rolling around on the floor laughing."
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With files from Radio-Canada’s Alexandre Lamic and William Burr