Jan. 7 (UPI) — A formal ceremony heralded the start of the Japan’s sumo wrestling season at the Meiji Jingu shrine on Tuesday, two months after a U.S. man was arrested for desecrating it. Japanese grand sumo champion Yokozuna Terunofuji and two other sumo wrestlers formally opened the 2025 sumo wrestling season during an annual sumo ritual held at the Meiji Jingu shrine in Tokyo.
The sumo grand champion performed the traditional ring purification ceremony, which has been performed at various locations annually since at least the late 1800s but now is conducted at the Meiji Jingu shrine.
Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine and located in a forested area in the heart of Tokyo.
The shrine was established in 1920 to commemorate Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, who are considered the founders of modern Japan.
The shrine is significant in Japanese culture and annually hosts thousands of Japanese visitors on New Year’s Eve, followed by the annual ceremony to start Japan’s sumo wrestling season.
More than 3,000 visitors prayed for good luck in the coming new year at the Meiji Jingu shrine on New Year’s Eve.
Meiji Jingu officials said the shrine usually is packed with worshipers during the first three days of the year and advise tourists to consider when to visit the shrine during its peak congestion times.
A 65-year-old U.S. citizen named Steven Lee Hayes on Nov. 14 was accused of defacing the shrine’s entry gate.
Japanese authorities accused Hayes of using his fingernails to scratch his initials in the wooden torii gate and possibly at another location after traveling with his family on a sightseeing trip to Japan.