Japanese Cultural Festival offers sumo wrestling plus food, music and art

The Japanese Cultural Festival kicks off Friday at 12:30 p.m. and runs through the weekend at the Seattle Center Armory.

You can expect tons of Japanese goodies, food, art, music and more jam-packed under one roof!

One local sumo wrestling club is getting ready for their big debut.

“For us, it’s really important because we feel like we’re being trusted by the Japanese community of Seattle to showcase something that’s the national sport of Japan. It’s very integral to their culture, so for us, we’re very honored and we want to make sure we get it right,” said Rain City Sumo coach Nick West.

The goal of the festival is to strengthen and understand the friendship between the people of Japan and the Pacific Northwest.

“Sumo is an incredibly old martial art, one of the oldest on earth, so it’s important for us to be able to continue that tradition. Not only is it a fun martial art sport, but it’s actually the bearer of traditional Japanese culture — there’s a lot of samurai traditions rooted in it, said West.

The students making up Rain City Sumo come from different walks of life. Nick says you don’t have to fit the mold of a large male to do sumo; they have female members, too! This weekend, you’ll be able to see matches live.

“We’re going to do part of our training and exercises we do to build strength for sumo, and also a demonstration of the moves and isolation, but the really fun part is we’re going to show full-contact sumo bouts for people to see,” said West.

Whether you’re going for the sumo bouts, a fresh bowl of ramen, tea ceremony demonstrations, or Okinawan drumming, you’ll be sure to fully immerse yourself in Japanese culture without having to catch a flight!