For sumo fans, the drama doesn’t end with the top tier of wrestlers

The first 10 days of 2024 saw the attention of sumo fans drawn to events taking place at both the highest and lowest levels of Japan’s national sport.

First up were various joint training sessions involving stables in the same ichimon (clan), which pitted top stars such as Kirishima, Daieisho and Kotonowaka against each other.

Those practices were followed by the Yokozuna Deliberation Council’s sōken (open training session) on Tuesday at Kokugikan in Tokyo, where yokozuna Terunofuji hogged the headlines.