The bashoiri – the arrival of sumo wrestlers before a tournament – unfolds outside a venue in Tokyo. With the sumo lifestyle still dictated largely by tradition and the Japan Sumo Association, the wrestlers emerge from cars that they cannot drive, wearing robes that denote their rank, and sporting chonmage haircuts, looking splendidly anachronistic as they interact with mobile phones and pose for photos with fans. Colourful and carefully crafted to highlight the hierarchy of sumo wrestlers, Mari Shibata’s film is a brief glimpse at the unusual intersection of tradition and modern celebrity that this sport occupies in Japanese culture.
Director: Mari Shibata
Website: NOWNESS
videoHistory
In the face of denial, this film uncovers the hidden scars of Indonesia’s 1998 riots
21 minutes
videoSports and games
Young Palestinians find fleeting moments of freedom at a West Bank skate park
13 minutes
videoSocial psychology
What happened when a crypto scam swept over a sleepy town in the Caucasus
18 minutes
videoFood and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
videoSports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
videoArt
Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
15 minutes
videoVirtues and vices
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
5 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order
28 minutes
videoAnthropology
Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?
4 minutes