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Relaxing in Ryogoku
Experience Sumo & the Edo-Tokyo Museum
Welcome back to yet another one of my in-depth area guides. Today, we will be taking a look at a section of Tokyo known as Ryogoku. Home to both the Kokugikan Sumo Arena and the amazing Edo-Tokyo Museum, Ryogoku is one of many places in Tokyo that I have been looking to feature for some time now. Due to putting a higher priority on destinations outside of the capital, unfortunately I haven’t gotten around to sourcing the content for many of these sites just yet. In fact, my bucket list is literally filling up at a faster rate than I can empty it. Luckily for you though, I have recently found my travel plans FUBAR due to back-to-back typhoons so I had to resort to Ryogoku as a backup plan. With only a couple of hours before all hell broke loose, I managed to scrape together enough time to source the follow guide…
OK, so without further adieu, let’s get on with the show. As anyone who has visited can attest, the biggest feature that sets Ryogoku apart from other areas is its ties to sumo. Throughout much of Japanese history, sumo tournaments were held outdoors at shrines and temples. Starting in the late Meiji period (1868–1912) though, these matches were moved indoors and the first permanent sumo arena was built in the Ryogoku area. The current Kokugikan is the fourth incarnation of its kind to take up residence here and dates back to 1985. The facility can seat over 10,000 visitors and hosts three of the six major annual tournaments. If you can snag yourself a couple of tickets, I cannot more highly recommend that you go watch a few bouts.
In addition to its ties to sumo, Ryogoku was also historically important to Edo, the former name of modern day Tokyo. During the Edo period (1603–1868), Ryogoku was an area comparable to the likes of Ueno and Asakusa. Thanks to the development of the Ryogoku bridge, this region became a critical hub that connected the city of Edo with neighboring Shimosa Province. In fact, the Japanese characters for Ryogoku literally read “two provinces.” In addition to this prime real estate, those familiar with the legendary Chushingura story will be happy to know that Ryogoku has ties to the 47 Ronin too (but that’s a bit out of the scope for this article).
