Background

The High School Sumo Kanazawa Tournament is a traditional sumo event that has a history of more than 100 years. High school sumo is a low-profile sport and it is less popular than other high school sports such as soccer and baseball. Population of sumo players has continued to decrease in the recent years, and even if students join, many feel reluctant to practice for long hours. Sumo is a sport that uses only the body, hence, physical training is extremely important. We believe that reassessing the value of putting forth effort is important for raising the popularity of high school sumo.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

The core idea is to “visualize the culmination of effort”. Through the visual and copy, we wanted to express the unseeable effort made by the sumo wrestlers for a single sumo match; that lasts only for about 7 seconds in average. The posters questioned the public- should club sports just be for having fun? And it made sumo wrestlers feel proud of the effort they have made in preparing for the tournament.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

A sumo wrestler on the day of a match is a representation of the accumulation of effort. There is achievement that can only be made with hard work and effort. We adopted the “tsuppari” pose; the most basic training movement in sumo, to visualize the sumo wrestler’s accumulation of effort. (“Tsuppari” is a strong pushing movement to shove an opponent out of the ring). In the visual, a sumo wrestler is being performed “tsuppari” on the back, by himself from the past. We used the color red to express energy, and the color gold to symbolize victory. In total, we created 4 types of visuals. One that shows the accumulation of effort and soaring to new heights, one that shows the amount of effort, one that expresses the command of oneself, and one that dynamically shows the trained body.

List the results (20% of vote)

The newspaper ad published on the day of the tournament reached an estimate of 341,579 households. The posters displayed at the tournament venue produced a sensation amongst the audience, media, and most of all the 288 sumo wrestlers in the competition. This lead to increasing motivation of the wrestlers, and it also made people re-realize the importance of giving effort at all times.