Tokyo / Ryogoku & Kiyosumi / Theatre

Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo

両国国技館と相撲 りょうごくこくぎかんとすもう

Sumo's home stadium — three fifteen-day tournaments a year, a museum, and the stables where practice starts at dawn.

EssentialHistory · Local life · Book ahead · Food · Early morning

The Kokugikan hosts the Tokyo tournaments in January, May and September: fifteen days each, the ring under a Shinto roof, the top-division bouts from four in the afternoon in a hall of eleven thousand that goes quiet before each charge. Tickets sell out weeks ahead for the last days; the first week is easier. Outside tournament time the museum in the building is free, and the district's sumo stables let visitors watch morning practice — from about seven, in silence, on the floor by the wall — through tours that book weeks ahead. Chanko-nabe, the wrestlers' stew, is served at restaurants run by retired wrestlers on the streets around.

Don't miss

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A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
For tournament tickets, box seats are four people on cushions; a single arena seat upstairs is the sensible choice.
Best time
January, May and September for tournaments; any weekday morning for practice.
Allow
180 min
Station
Ryogoku (JR), west exit, 1 minute; Ryogoku (Oedo line), 5 minutes
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.sumo.or.jp · Map

Appears in

In this area: Ryogoku & Kiyosumi

Museum Worth it

Edo-Tokyo Museum江戸東京博物館

A life-size Nihonbashi bridge, a kabuki theatre and a merchant's house inside a museum shaped like a warehouse on stilts.

120 min · Ryogoku (Oedo line), exit A4, direct; Ryogoku (JR), 3 minutes
Garden Essential

Kiyosumi Garden清澄庭園

A Meiji stroll garden of stepping stones across a carp pond, built by the founder of Mitsubishi with stones from every province.

50 min · Kiyosumi-shirakawa (Hanzomon / Oedo lines), exit A3, 3 minutes
Museum Worth it

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT)東京都現代美術館

Japan's largest contemporary art museum, in a park east of the river, with a collection that starts in 1945 and a library of art books.

120 min · Kiyosumi-shirakawa (Hanzomon / Oedo lines), exit B2, 9 minutes

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