Feb 10, 2021
A sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide at the start of the year forced the Japan Sumo Association to shelve its plan to hold the March tournament in Osaka.
Instead the spring meet like the previous four
basho will take place at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.
The move means that for the third time in the past 11 years, fans in the Kansai region will be without an official grand sumo tournament.
A match-fixing scandal in early 2011 that rocked the sport and led to the expulsion of more than twenty wrestlers and elders resulted in that year’s Osaka tournament being called off. Although with the scheduled start date having been just two days after the subsequent Great East Japan Earthquake, the meet would most likely have been unable to go ahead in any case.