Old Fans A crowd of rice farmers in Mie-Ken gets rowdy while watching a Sumo exhibition visiting the countryside. Respite A wrestler takes a breather after keiko . The sagari is purely ornamental. It's made of cotton fibers dipped in starch to give them their hard appearance. It must also have been a good way to prevent infection in the old days, when wrestlers fell to the ground and broke their skin.
Some wrestlers make it a point to throw the salt high in the air, much to the delight of their fans.
Shiko Shiko, or stomping, is one of the basic training exercises specific to Sumo. Raising a leg high in the air, the wrestler brings it down with force to the ground. Another practice rooted in shinto and having to do with chasing bad spirits. But like all things Sumo, it has a more practical side, which is to bring down the center of gravity below the hips for netter stability. Shiko is also performed during the shikiri.