Big in Japan

An early morning in late November in the peaceful glades that surround an ancient temple complex. A Shinto priest in sombre silks slips through a sliding door; a maple leaf catches the breeze. Suddenly, the silence is broken by the crunching thwack as two 400lb slabs of prime meat collide.

It is the 15th and final day of one of Japan’s six annual sumo tournaments: the Kyushu Basho, held every autumn in the balmy southern city of Fukuoka. A group of visiting wrestlers have begun their pre-breakfast workout in one of the outbuildings of Torikai Hachiman-gu, preparing for the afternoon bouts at the arena three miles away.

Sumo is as much ritual as sport and you would expect it to guard its mysteries, but visits to such training sessions are commonplace, ranging from highly organised stops on the tourist circuit to the more low-key arrangements in place in Fukuoka and elsewhere. Get up early, mind your manners and take your shoes off, and you too can join a small, silent crowd of sumo worshippers as the various rikishi go through their paces.