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Things to Do in Ryogoku Before Watching Sumo: A Walking Guide for True Sumo Enthusiasts
Updated: 6 days ago
Most visitors to Ryogoku walk from the station to Ryogoku Kokugikan in two minutes and spend the rest of the afternoon inside the arena. They see the bouts. They applaud. And then they leave.
What they miss is the neighbourhood itself.
The streets around Ryogoku Kokugikan contain the entire history of professional sumo — its Buddhist origins, its samurai context, its spiritual foundation, and the stables where today's wrestlers train. All of it is within a 90-minute walk. All of it is free.
This guide covers the eleven stops that transform a sumo tournament into a complete cultural experience. It is designed to be walked before entering the arena — so that when the salt is thrown and the wrestlers collide, you understand not just what you are watching, but why it matters.
The neighbourhood of Ryogoku is that context made physical.
Table of Contents
1. Things to Do in Ryogoku: Why the Two Hours Before Watching Sumo Matter
There is a principle that runs through everything EDO KAGURA does: understanding comes before experience. It applies to sumo more directly than to almost anything else.
A sumo bout lasts, on average, less than ten seconds. The decisive moment — the tachiai, the instant of first contact — is often over before most spectators have registered what happened. To watch sumo without context is to watch ten seconds of movement and miss everything that gives those ten seconds meaning.
The neighbourhood of Ryogoku is that context made physical.
Within a 90-minute walk of Ryogoku Station, you will pass the temple where professional sumo was born, the site of the most famous act of samurai revenge in Japanese history, the birthplace of the man who negotiated the peaceful end of the Edo shogunate, the shop where wrestlers buy their equipment, the shrine dedicated to the god of sumo, and two active stables where today's wrestlers train.
None of these places requires a ticket. None requires a reservation. All of them are within walking distance of each other and of Ryogoku Kokugikan.
The walk takes between 90 and 120 minutes at a relaxed pace with a group — including time at each stop. It is designed to end at the arena — so that when you enter, you carry everything you have just walked through with you.
The salt lands differently when you know what it means.
2. Nakamura Stable — The First Stop in Ryogoku's Sumo District
Walking time from Ryogoku Station: approximately 4 minutes
The first thing most visitors notice about Nakamura Stable is that it looks, from the outside, like an ordinary building.
What takes place inside is professional sumo training — the same gruelling daily practice that produces the wrestlers you will watch this afternoon.
Nakamura Stable is one of the closest sumo stables to Ryogoku Station, and it is home to one of the most remarkable wrestlers currently active in professional sumo. Tomokaze competed at the top division before suffering an injury so severe that amputation was considered. He fell from the top division all the way to the lowest ranks. He then climbed back.
He still cannot move his right ankle. He holds a disability certificate — believed to be the only active professional wrestler to do so. And he continues to compete.
The stable itself is not open to visitors. But passing it on the way to the arena is a reminder that the wrestlers you are about to watch have, in most cases, given more to this sport than is visible from the upper tier of the arena.
Sumo is not simply a sport. It is a discipline that demands everything from those who practise it — and Nakamura Stable, seen from the outside on the way to the tournament, is as honest an introduction to that fact as anything inside the arena.
3. Eko-in Temple — Where Modern Professional Sumo Took Shape
Walking time from Nakamura Stable: approximately 6 minutes
Eko-in Temple was founded in 1657, in the aftermath of the Great Meireki Fire — the most destructive fire in Edo's history, which killed an estimated 100,000 people in three days and destroyed more than half the city. The temple was built to provide a place of memorial for those who died without family to mourn them: the nameless, the homeless, the forgotten.
In 1768, professional sumo found its home here.
Kanjin sumo — tournaments held to raise funds for the upkeep of temples and shrines — was performed within Eko-in's grounds for the first time. The wrestlers who took part were not simply athletes. They were performers in a religious tradition, and the crowds who gathered to watch them were, in the eyes of the temple, donors.
In 1909, sumo's first permanent indoor venue was built on the grounds of Eko-in itself. Known as the first Kokugikan — and nicknamed Dai-Tessan, meaning "the great iron umbrella," for its distinctive dome — it was Japan's first Western-style domed iron structure, with a capacity of approximately 13,000 spectators. It was designed by Tatsuno Kingo, the architect who also designed Tokyo Station, together with his apprentice Kasai Manji.
The building's history was turbulent. It burned down in 1917, was rebuilt in 1920, was destroyed again in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, was repaired and reopened in 1924, and was burned once more in the air raids of World War II. After the war, it was requisitioned by the Allied occupation forces. Following its return to Japanese hands, it became Nihon University's lecture hall, and was demolished in 1983. A commercial building now stands on the site.
With the original Kokugikan gone, a temporary replacement was built in Kuramae in 1950. A permanent Kuramae Kokugikan followed in 1954. When that building closed in 1984 due to age, the current Ryogoku Kokugikan — the building you will enter today — opened in 1985, returning sumo to the Ryogoku neighbourhood where it had been held for more than two centuries.
The connection between sumo and Buddhism that you will see today — in the referee's robes, in the ceremony of the ring, in the spiritual weight carried by every gesture on the dohyo — took shape in this courtyard.
A stone monument erected to commemorate generations of sumo elders (toshiyori) and to celebrate the development and prosperity of professional sumo.
4. The 47 Ronin — The Samurai Story Behind Ryogoku
Walking time from Eko-in Temple: approximately 6 minutes
In the early hours of January 30, 1703, forty-seven samurai entered the compound of a nobleman named Kira Yoshinaka and killed him.
They had been planning the attack for nearly two years. Their master, Lord Asano of Akō, had been ordered to commit ritual suicide after drawing his sword inside Edo Castle — an act provoked, his retainers believed, by Kira's deliberate humiliation. When Asano died and his castle was confiscated, his samurai became rōnin — masterless warriors, stripped of status and income.
The forty-seven did not accept this outcome.
What followed is the most celebrated story in Japanese samurai culture: a story of patience, sacrifice, loyalty, and the willingness to accept death in the pursuit of honour — retold for three centuries in kabuki and bunraku theatre, and in countless films and television dramas to this day. The forty-seven Rōnin avenged their master, surrendered to the authorities, and were ordered to commit ritual suicide. They did so, without exception.
The site of Kira's mansion is now Honjo Matsuzakacho Park — a small, quiet space surrounded by white walls. A statue of Kira stands inside, along with an ancient well used on the night of the attack.
A stone. A plaque. A few words.
That understatement is exactly right. The forty-seven Rōnin did not act for recognition. They acted because their understanding of loyalty left them no other choice. Standing here, it is possible to feel the weight of that commitment in a way that no museum exhibit can replicate.
5. Katsu Kaishu — The Man Who Saved Edo, Born in Ryogoku
Walking time from Honjo Matsuzakacho Park: approximately 4 minutes
A stone marker stands on a corner in Ryogoku, noting that this is where Katsu Kaishu was born in 1823.
Most visitors walk past without stopping. They should stop.
Katsu Kaishu was a senior official of the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1868, as the Imperial forces — led by the domains of Satsuma (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) and Choshu (present-day Yamaguchi Prefecture) — advanced on Edo and the shogunate faced final defeat, it was Katsu who negotiated directly with Saigo Takamori, the commander of the Satsuma forces and the most powerful military figure on the Imperial side. The result was the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle.
If that negotiation had failed, Edo would have become a battlefield. The city that is now Tokyo — with its temples and gardens and sumo stables and everything you are walking through today — might have been destroyed.
It was not destroyed. Katsu Kaishu made sure of it.
The peaceful survival of Edo made it possible for places like Ryogoku to continue developing into the cultural district you are walking through today. Because the transition from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Meiji government was achieved without destroying the city, Edo became Tokyo — not as a city rebuilt from ruins, but as a city that carried its history forward. The sumo you are about to watch, in the arena at the end of this walk, exists in part because one man chose conversation over conflict in 1868.
Katsu Kaishu's influence extended beyond the negotiating table. Among his most famous students was Sakamoto Ryoma — a samurai from the domain of Tosa (present-day Kochi Prefecture) who became one of the most celebrated figures of the late Edo period, and whose face is recognised by virtually every Japanese person today.
Sakamoto Ryoma brokered the alliance between Satsuma and Choshu that made the Imperial restoration possible, and proposed the concept of Taisei Hokan — the peaceful return of political power from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Imperial court. Teacher and student together shaped the moment when Edo became Tokyo: Katsu through negotiation, Sakamoto through the alliances that made negotiation possible.
Sakamoto Ryoma was assassinated in 1867, one year before the surrender he helped make possible. He has since become the subject of countless films, novels, and television dramas — one of the most romanticised figures in Japanese history.
Standing at the birthplace of Katsu Kaishu, a few minutes' walk from the site of the 47 Ronin's most famous act, it is worth pausing to consider the thread that runs through this neighbourhood: from the samurai loyalty of 1703, through the revolutionary diplomacy of 1868, to the sumo arena at the end of this walk. Ryogoku has always been a place where history happens.
6. Lion-do — Where Sumo Wrestlers Buy Their Clothes
Walking time from Katsu Kaishu's birthplace: approximately 4 minutes
Professional wrestlers need clothes too — and finding them in Tokyo is not straightforward when you weigh 150 kilograms.
Lion-do is a specialist clothing store for waists of 100 centimetres and above, located a short walk from Takahashi on the same street. It exists, in large part, because the wrestlers who train and live in Ryogoku need somewhere to buy jeans, polo shirts, pyjamas, and formal wear that actually fits them.
The store also carries wrestler-specific items — rikishi undergarments, traditional yukata, and sumo goods. Stepping inside is a reminder that the wrestlers you will watch this afternoon are, outside the arena, ordinary people navigating an ordinary city in extraordinary bodies.
Please confirm opening hours before visiting.
→ Lion-do
7. Takahashi — The Sumo Shop That Makes Ryogoku Unlike Anywhere Else in Tokyo
Walking time from Liondo: approximately 2 minutes
Takahashi is not a souvenir shop.
The area around Ryogoku Kokugikan contains shops selling sumo-themed merchandise to tourists. Takahashi is something different. This is the shop where professional wrestlers come to buy what they actually use. The majority of Takahashi's customers are active professional wrestlers — not tourists, not collectors, but the men who will be competing in the arena at the end of this walk.
Mawashi — the thick silk belts that wrestlers wear in competition. Bintsuke abura — the wax used to set the topknot that only sekitori are permitted to wear. Zabuton — the cushions thrown into the arena when a yokozuna is defeated, in a tradition the Japan Sumo Association has repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, attempted to discourage.
To stand in Takahashi is to stand in a place that exists for sumo rather than for tourism. If you want to buy something, the wrestler's hand-printed tenugui towels are among the most authentic sumo souvenirs available anywhere in Tokyo.
Please confirm opening hours before visiting, as they vary.
8. Nomi no Sukune Shrine — The Spiritual Heart of Sumo
Walking time from Takahashi: approximately 12 minutes
This is the longest walk on the route, and it is worth every minute.
When you arrive, your first reaction may be surprise at how small it is — both the grounds and the building itself. Do not let the scale mislead you. This is the sacred shrine of the god of sumo, and its significance to the sport is out of all proportion to its size.
Nomi no Sukune Shrine is dedicated to the figure understood in Japanese tradition to be the originator of sumo. According to the Nihon Shoki, Japan's second-oldest chronicle, Nomi no Sukune was summoned by Emperor Suinin to wrestle a man named Taima no Kehaya. The contest ended with Taima no Kehaya's defeat. It is recorded as the foundational moment of sumo.
The shrine grounds contain a monument erected to commemorate every yokozuna in the history of professional sumo — from the first, Akashi Shiganosuke, who is believed to have been active in the early seventeenth century and was recognised posthumously as the first yokozuna, to the 75th, Onosato, who holds the rank today. Standing before this monument and reading the names — from Akashi Shiganosuke in the seventeenth century to Onosato in the twenty-first — is to feel the weight of four centuries of tradition you are about to witness.
When a new yokozuna is promoted, the ceremony of hono-zumo — the offering of a sumo performance to the gods — is sometimes held here. The rope the yokozuna wears during his ring-entering ceremony is a shimenawa, the same sacred rope that marks the boundary between the sacred and the ordinary at Shinto shrines across Japan.
The connection between sumo, Shinto, and the long history of physical contest as sacred practice is not decorative. It is the substance of what professional sumo actually is.
9. Nishikido Stable & Hakkaku Stable — Where Modern Sumo Lives
Walking time from Nomi no Sukune Shrine: approximately 6 minutes (combined)
Nishikido Stable and Hakkaku Stable occupy the same building block — less than a minute's walk from each other.
Nishikido Stable is led by former sekiwake Mitoizumi — a wrestler whose fame rests on the extraordinary quantity of salt he threw before each bout. In an era of memorable pre-bout ceremonies, Mitoizumi's salt-throwing became a performance in itself: dramatic, theatrical, and entirely genuine. He believed in the purification the salt represented, and the crowds responded to that belief.
If you have read Why Do Sumo Wrestlers Throw Salt? — the second article in this series — you will recognise Mitoizumi as the living embodiment of that ritual's most visible expression.
Hakkaku Stable is led by former yokozuna Hokutoumi, who currently serves as Chairman of the Japan Sumo Association. Hokutoumi trained alongside Chiyonofuji — winner of 31 tournaments, who competed at 127 kilograms when opponents routinely outweighed him by 50 kilograms or more. Two yokozuna in the same stable at the same time is, in professional sumo, extremely rare.
Neither stable is open to visitors. But the boundary between the sumo world and the street outside is thinner than it appears. On a recent walk past Hakkaku Stable, EDO KAGURA's founder encountered Oyakata Ooyama — formerly Hokutofuji, the wrestler known as the "Yokozuna Killer" — a wrestler who accumulated 7 kinboshi (gold stars, awarded when a lower-ranked wrestler defeats a yokozuna) over his career, defeating yokozuna Kakuryu, Harumafuji, Kisenosato, and Hakuho. Among currently active wrestlers, both Daieisho and Takayasu hold 6 kinboshi — meaning Hokutofuji's 7 surpasses even the best active record, a testament to his extraordinary ability to defeat the sport's highest-ranked competitors on his day. He retired in May 2025 and completed his farewell ceremony at Ryogoku Kokugikan in May 2026. He is now part of the fabric of this neighbourhood.
This kind of encounter cannot be planned or guaranteed. But it is the kind of thing that happens in Ryogoku — a neighbourhood where the boundary between the sumo world and everyday life is thinner than anywhere else in Tokyo.
The wrestlers who will appear on the dohyo this afternoon trained this morning — possibly here, possibly in other stables nearby. The distance between where you are standing and where they will be this evening is measured in minutes.
10. Yokoamicho Park — Where Ryogoku Remembers
Walking time from Hakkaku Stable: approximately 3 minutes (on the way to Former Yasuda Garden)
On the route between the sumo stables and the Former Yasuda Garden stands a park that most visitors pass without stopping: Yokoamicho Park, maintained by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
It is not a cheerful place. It exists to remember.
The park contains memorials for the victims of two of the greatest disasters in Tokyo's modern history: the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which killed more than 100,000 people in the Tokyo area in a single day, and the firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945, in which an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people died in a single night. Many of the victims were never identified. The park was built so that they would not be forgotten.
Standing here, a pattern becomes visible in Ryogoku's geography. Eko-in Temple was founded to mourn the nameless victims of the Great Meireki Fire of 1657. Yokoamicho Park was built to mourn the nameless victims of the earthquake and the war. Ryogoku has been, across four centuries, the place where Tokyo buries and honours those it cannot otherwise account for.
The shiko — the stomping exercise performed by wrestlers before every bout — is understood in Shinto tradition as an act of purification: driving evil spirits from the earth, stilling the ground, clearing the space for sacred contest. That sumo has been performed in Ryogoku for more than two and a half centuries, in a neighbourhood that has mourned Tokyo's greatest catastrophes, may not be coincidental. The stomping of the dohyo is, in one reading, a prayer — that the disasters which brought so many to this neighbourhood will not come again.
11. Former Yasuda Garden — The Hidden Oasis in Ryogoku
Walking time from Yokoamicho Park: approximately 6 minutes
This stop is optional and recommended if time permits.
The Former Yasuda Garden was constructed in the late seventeenth century as a daimyo garden, originally fed by the tidal movements of the Sumida River. It is free to enter and maintained by Sumida Ward.
The central pond was designed in the shape of the kanji character 心 — the Japanese word for heart or mind. A pump system now recreates the original tidal movement artificially.
Between the stables and the arena, the garden offers something the rest of the walk does not: stillness. The Tokyo Skytree is visible behind the trees — Edo-period garden, twenty-first century tower, existing simultaneously in the same frame.
Take ten minutes here before entering Kokugikan. The contrast is intentional.
12. Ryogoku Kokugikan — Where Everything in Ryogoku Leads
Walking time from Former Yasuda Garden: approximately 4 minutes
The current Ryogoku Kokugikan opened in 1985. Its predecessor opened in 1909 on the same site — itself the successor to the Eko-in grounds where professional sumo was held for 75 years before that.
The building you are entering is the latest structure in a continuous line of sumo venues stretching back more than two hundred and fifty years. The tradition it houses is older still.
The Sumo Museum, on the ground floor, is open without charge on non-tournament days. During the Tokyo tournaments, entry requires an arena ticket. Its exhibitions change regularly — please confirm current details before visiting.
The basement houses a dedicated yakitori production facility. The grilled chicken skewers produced here sell out. Buy them when you arrive.
You have now walked through two centuries of professional sumo's history, a foundational act of samurai loyalty, the birthplace of the man who saved Edo from destruction, the shops that supply working wrestlers, the shrine of the god of sumo, and two active training stables.
Enter the arena.
You have not simply walked through Ryogoku. You have walked through the history, beliefs, and traditions that shaped professional sumo — from the nameless victims mourned at Eko-in, to the samurai loyalty of the 47 Ronin, to the diplomat who saved this city from destruction, to the wrestlers who train in these streets today.
When the first wrestler steps onto the dohyo, you will see more than a sporting contest. You will recognise centuries of Japanese culture unfolding before you.
Why the Right Guide Makes the Difference in Ryogoku
Basic facts about Ryogoku are easy to find online. What is harder to uncover is how Eko-in, the 47 Ronin, Katsu Kaishu, and the shiko of the dohyo form one meaningful historical line — and why sumo has been performed in this particular neighbourhood for more than two and a half centuries.
A 2024 survey by Japan's Tourism Agency found that 90% of international visitors considered knowledge of cultural origins important, while the most common reason for not using a guide was that online information felt sufficient (32%). A location can be found on a map in seconds. Understanding why it matters requires something more.
At EDO KAGURA, our guides are trained to explain how places, people, and periods connect — not simply to recite facts. Read our guide on how to hire a tour guide in Japan for more on what to look for.
The salt lands differently now.
13. Beer Club Popeye — The Best Way to End an Afternoon in Ryogoku
Walking time from Ryogoku Kokugikan: approximately 5 minutes
The tournament ends around 18:00 with the yumitori-shiki — the closing bow ceremony. The question then is what to do with the evening.
Beer Club Popeye is the answer.
Widely regarded as one of Japan's finest craft beer bars, Popeye pours more than 70 Japanese craft beers on tap at any given time — the majority from small domestic breweries that are difficult to find outside Japan. The bar has been operating in Ryogoku since 1980 and has played a central role in the development of Japan's craft beer culture.
It fills up quickly after the tournament ends. Arriving early — or being prepared to wait for a counter seat — is advisable.
And there is one more thing worth knowing. During happy hour — Monday to Saturday, 3:00 to 8:00 PM — order any drink marked with a crown symbol on the menu and a complimentary snack arrives with it: french fries, daikon salad, pizza, tofu and tomato caprese, sausage, or a light pasta dish, depending on what is available. As the tournament ends around 6:00 PM, most visitors arrive squarely within happy hour. I know of no other craft beer bar that offers this kind of service — and this thoughtfulness may be exactly why the customers at Popeye are, without exception, smiling.
There is something about a room full of people who have just watched sumo together, drinking well-made beer in a place that has been doing this for more than forty years, that produces a particular kind of atmosphere. It is the best possible way to end an afternoon in Ryogoku.
Beer Club Popeye is available as an optional post-tournament add-on for up to 5 guests in the EDO KAGURA Grand Sumo Tournament Experience. Please indicate your interest at the time of booking.
If you would like to experience this walk with expert commentary before the tournament, join our Tokyo Grand Sumo Tournament Experience.
14. Things to Do in Ryogoku: Walking Route Map
The complete route — Ryogoku Station to Ryogoku Kokugikan
Stop | Walking time from previous stop |
Ryogoku Station | — |
① Nakamura Stable | 4 min |
② Eko-in Temple | 6 min |
③ Honjo Matsuzakacho Park | 6 min |
④ Katsu Kaishu Birthplace | 4 min |
⑤ Lion-do | 4 min |
⑥ Takahashi Sumo Shop | 2 min |
⑦ Nomi no Sukune Shrine | 12 min |
⑧ Nishikido Stable | 4 min |
⑨ Hakkaku Stable | less than 1 min |
⑩ Yokoamicho Park | 3 min |
⑪ Former Yasuda Garden | 6 min |
⑫ Ryogoku Kokugikan | 4 min |
Total walking time | approx. 61 min |
Total route distance: approximately 2,300 metres. Allow 90 to 120 minutes with a group, including time at each stop.
About the Author
Shinya Yamada is the founder and CEO of EDO KAGURA, based in Kagurazaka, Tokyo. He has followed professional sumo for nearly 50 years — recording every tournament on television to ensure he never misses a bout. As a judo black belt, he understands the body mechanics that sumo and judo share at their core. The walking route in this guide reflects decades of firsthand knowledge of Ryogoku's streets, stables, and stories.
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