On remote Omishima Island an intrepid sumo champion takes on the local shrine god. Guess who wins?
The Japanese call it “Hitori Zumo” – one man sumo. Each year on a tiny island of O-mishima in the Inland Sea the village holds a festival. 16 girls in traditional red and white outfits plant symbolic stalks of rice in the shrine’s paddy fields. And the best village sumo wrestler goes up against the local shrine god. If the God wins two out of three then he will express his pleasure in the form of an abundant harvest.
The festival takes place in early May and September on Omishima Island, Ehime Prefecture.
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Category: Travel
AloJapan.com