The Japanese girl, Senna Kajiwara, with a steely expression, plunged headlong into her opponent.
Before Wei Yuan kicked her opponent out of the ring, the two pre-adolescent girls struggled for more than a dozen seconds.
In this sumo wrestling match, men without a loincloth are vying for the title of championship. Instead, girls aged 8 to 12 are going head-to-head, changing the future of Japan's male-dominated ethnic movement step by step.
Wei Yuan said that some people are surprised or even shocked when they find out that I can do sumo wrestling. They tend to think that sumo is only suitable for boys and men. I think if we had more girls and women participating in sumo, then we would be able to compete fairly and make a living from sumo. I hope this happens.
"Some people don't understand why I play sumo, but I don't care what they think. If you want to do sumo, you should do it."
Wei Yuan, a soft-spoken, bespectacled 12-year-old, began practicing sumo with judo four years ago. As the defending champion of the inaugural National Women's Championships in 2019, she is determined to keep her title and do her best in the sport.
But for women, that's easier said than done. Professional sumo still excludes women from competitions and ceremonies, and in recent years, several scandals have tarnished the sport's reputation.
In 2018, a female doctor trying to help the fallen mayor was ordered to leave the sumo wrestling circle in Kyoto Prefecture, causing an uproar. Many see the incident as a reflection of Japan's patriarchal preferences, ranking 120th out of 156 countries in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Gender Gap Index.
Despite the challenges, experts say Japan's changing attitudes are paving the way for girls and women participating in sumo wrestling.
Professional sumo is an ancient practice that dates back more than 1500 years. A traditional custom designed for men, the prayer for the abundance of grain is practiced at a Shrine in Japan, and the strict rituals of the sport have remained largely unchanged for centuries.
The actual fight usually lasts only a few seconds, and most of the time, two wrestlers face each other on a raised clay platform. Women cannot enter this ring because they are considered impure in Shinto beliefs because they menstruate.
Eiko Kaneda, a professor at the Japan Sports Science University in Tokyo, Japan, said that despite the obstacles, women's sumo has been around since its early days.
For example, in the second oldest Japanese history book, titled "Chronicles of Japan," Kaneda wrote in a study published in an international journal that the eighth-century account described how Emperor Yuraku called on female officials to perform sumo wrestling.
The famous literary work "Ukiyo-Kurashi" published during the Edo period (1603-1867) even hinted at sumo wrestling competitions between women and blind people.
According to Kaneda, although women's sumo was briefly banned in 1873, it regained its vitality a few years later, even going global in the 1930s, when an event designed to show off the prowess of female sumo wrestlers was held in Hawaii in the 1930s.
Traditional women's sumo is not just a form of entertainment, but also emphasizes the belief in the supergirl qualities of wrestlers. Records show that female sumo wrestlers are recruited to participate in a variety of activities, from praying for rain in Akita Prefecture (because their alleged uncleanness will cause the wrath of the gods) to celebrating auspicious events in Kyushu, such as weddings.
Chie Ikkai, a professor at Gunma Women's University, said that between the 1940s and 1950s, sumo was even considered an underground eroticism, in which women's bodies were objectified as they performed in bars wrapped only in loincloths.
In the 21st century, boys and girls ages 8 to 12 are wrestling their heads together in a dimly lit local gym on the outskirts of Tokyo.
Wrestling coach Miki Ouike prides himself on having so many girls in his class, but he says there is a general lack of sumo clubs across Japan, meaning many girls who want to participate in judo and wrestling training don't have more opportunities.
His star student is 12-year-old Nikori Hara. She won her regional sumo wrestling tournament and is ready to compete in the second National Women's Competition.
The event first opened to girls in 2019, more than 30 years after the event was first held for boys of the same age.
Ouike said there has been no widespread spread about the existence of women's sumo wrestling competitions, and unfortunately more girls are unaware of their chances to try sumo.
For girls who want to try the sport, they usually start by joining a unisex sumo club in school or community. Hiyori Kon, a member of the Japanese national team, said that if they want to keep up with sumo wrestling, they will join one of the few universities in Japan that welcome women to sumo clubs.
As a child, Kon trained at a local club in Aichi Prefecture, northern Japan, and then joined the Sumo Club of Kyoto Ritsumeikan University. Today, she works for a Japanese company in Aichi Prefecture and competes internationally as an amateur female sumo wrestler. She hopes more women will be able to keep up with sumo, but sometimes male coaches don't always understand how to deal with aspiring female sumo wrestlers.
Kon attended this year's Wanpaku Elementary School Girls' Championship as a celebrant, commenting on the wrestlers' techniques as a group of excited parents and curious onlookers cheered on the contestants.
Over the past two decades, sumo's ratings have declined because it competes no more than Japan's other two major spectator sports: baseball and soccer. But this prompted the Japan Sumo Association to be creative.
Last October, it announced a partnership with Pokemon Inc., which has mascots like Pikachu parade around Wanpaku to attract new young audiences. During the National Wanpaku competition, all girls wore mawashi or waist wraps, spandex shorts and leggings, and championship-issued T-shirts, color-coded by age group. Competitions like this demonstrate the extent to which the Japanese sumo world is developing.
In fact, sumo is a lucrative profession, but for now, salaries are only paid to the top two professional sumo wrestlers in its six divisions. Sumo wrestlers with the title of Yokozuna champion are the top of the division, with a base salary of about $25,000 a month, in addition to bonuses.
Former amateur sumo wrestler John Gunning said that while the sumo world did not offend women to compete at the amateur level, women had not yet been given a financial opportunity.
Kon's dream is not to see women get into sumo wrestling. Instead, she hopes they can choose to make a living through sumo, just like men do. Kon said women's sumo was seen as a secondary sport, and the Japanese national women's team was unable to set up training camps due to a lack of funds, and the main question was how we built alliances and made amateur sumo a profession.
With the launch and operation of the Women's Junior and Senior World Championships, increasing the number of girls and women in sumo wrestling is essential to become an Olympic sport. In 2018, the IOC recognized sumo as a sport, but it is not yet an Olympic event. Still, amateur wrestlers like Kon hope the next generation of female wrestlers will have a bigger stage to compete on.