Fukuoka Sumo Tournament 2026: Sold Out? How to Still Get In

The Fukuoka sumo tournament, the Kyushu Basho, is the last of the year’s six grand tournaments and the only one held outside Honshu. In 2026 it runs from Sunday 8 to Sunday 22 November at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center in Hakata, and the official general sale is over: the Japan Sumo Association’s ticket site shows “sold out, thank you” and says plainly that no tickets will be sold at the door. That is where most guides stop. This one is about what still works: the official fixed-price resale, the tour companies that hold their own seat allocations, the stables that let the public watch morning practice, and the parts of the tournament you can see for free.

Everything here was checked on 3 November 2026 against the official ticket site (Ticket Oosumo) and the sources linked in each section. The Fukuoka guide covers the rest of the city, and the tours hub lists everything bookable.

2026 at a glance


Dates	Sunday 8 November to Sunday 22 November 2026, 15 days
Venue	Fukuoka Kokusai Center, 2-2 Chikko-honmachi, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka 812-0021
General sale	Opened in September 2026; sold out on the first day, the second year running
Same-day tickets	None (“当日券の販売はございません”)
Doors open	8:45 on days 1 to 12, 10:30 on days 13 and 14, 10:00 on the final day
Cheapest seat	¥2,000 (Chair C, weekday); ¥2,500 at weekends

Face-value prices, from the official seat page: tamari ringside ¥20,000 per person (16 and over only). Box seats for four, weekend or holiday / weekday: S ¥56,000 / ¥52,000, A ¥52,000 / ¥44,000, B ¥40,000 / ¥38,000, C ¥34,000 / ¥32,000. Boxes for two: S ¥28,000 / ¥26,000, A ¥26,000 / ¥22,000, B ¥20,000 / ¥19,000. Chairs: S ¥6,000 / ¥5,500, A ¥5,000 / ¥4,500, B ¥3,000 / ¥2,500, C ¥2,500 / ¥2,000. Wheelchair seats ¥10,000 for two. Every seat is reserved; there are no unreserved tickets (seat and price page; tournament page). The venue address comes from the prefecture’s listing.

The sell-out is not a rumour. On 8 October 2026 the gomen-fuda, the wooden board that announces the tournament, went up outside the Kokusai Center, and the Kumamoto daily reported that advance tickets had sold out on the first day of sales for the second consecutive year (Kumanichi, 8 October 2026).

Sold out: the four ways in

Official resale at face value. Ticket holders who can’t go list their tickets on the official site. First come, first served, and seats appear right up to the last days.
A tour with the ticket included. Tour operators hold their own allocations and sell a seat plus an English-speaking guide. This is the most reliable route for a visitor who is already booked to be in Fukuoka.
Morning practice. A few stables lodging in Fukuoka open their morning training to the public during the tournament. Free, early and strict on etiquette.
The free moments. The wrestlers arriving at the hall, the drum parade the day before, the gomen-fuda board, and the whole thing live on free streaming.

Official resale: how it works

The Japan Sumo Association runs a fixed-price resale through Ticket Oosumo (resale guide). The rules that matter:

Tickets sell at face value. Sellers pay a fee of 10% of face value; buyers pay the face value plus the handling and system fees the seller originally paid.
Resale trading opens on the first Monday after the general sale (the next business day if that Monday is a holiday), so for 2026 it has been running since late September.
A QR (digital) ticket can be listed until 23:59 three days before the day of the bout. A ticket paid by card and not yet collected at a convenience store can be listed until 23:59 the day before.
Buying is first come, first served, with no waiting list, so the only method is to check the resale listings often, especially in the three days before the date you want, when the listing deadline pushes last-minute sellers to act.

Avoid unofficial resale sites: the official site is the only channel at face value, and tickets are issued as QR codes tied to the buyer.

Tours with tickets included, compared

Every partner below sells a seat inside the Kokusai Center that the operator reserved before the public sale. Prices move with the seat grade and the day, so treat the figures as a guide and check the listing for your date.

GetYourGuide groups every Fukuoka sumo product on one page: sumo experiences in Fukuoka on GetYourGuide. Filter by your date and look for “tickets included” in the listing title before you book.

Viator has the clearest single product: November Sumo Tournament tour in Fukuoka (tickets included), about three and a half hours, a chair seat allocated by staff on the day (not selectable), a guide explaining history and rules, meeting at the Kokusai Center at 14:15 with a 14:30 start, maximum 15 people. The price changes with the date, so check the listing. Viator also lists a Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament viewing tour with an English guide and a Sumo Tournament Experience in Fukuoka, about four hours with a choice of reserved seat classes and an audio headset.

Klook sells the same “experience” product: Sumo Tournament Experience in Fukuoka (a choice of reserved seat classes, an English-speaking guide, an audio headset and a sumo pamphlet).

How to choose: if you want to understand what you’re watching, take a guided tour that stays with you through the top-division bouts (Viator’s 14:30 tour or the “experience” product on Viator and Klook). If you only need a seat, a ticket-only listing lets you arrive at 8:45 for the lower divisions. Weekend and final-day seats go first everywhere; a Tuesday to Thursday in the middle week is the easiest date to find.

Morning practice: where and how to watch

During the Kyushu Basho the stables move into temples, shrines and halls around Fukuoka and train there every morning. Whether you can watch is decided stable by stable, and the answer ranges from “anyone, come quietly” to “supporters’ club members only”.

For 2026, the one stable in Fukuoka City with openly published public viewing is Shikoroyama-beya, lodging at the rugby training centre Japan Base, Kashiihama-futo 1-2-8 in Higashi-ku, with practice open from 27 October to 21 November, roughly 7:00 to 10:30. Kise-beya also opens its practice, but at Ryukotoku-ji temple in Kiyama, Saga Prefecture, and only until 7 November, the day before the tournament (closed 6 November), 8:00 to 10:00. Nishonoseki, Tatsunami, Otowayama and Isegahama list viewing as members only with prior reservation, and most other stables had not posted a decision when we checked. The full 2026 list of lodgings with practice-viewing status is kept by Nationalstadium Tours (Japanese), and the Kise dates come from the Kiyama town news site. Other city lodgings on that list, for orientation only: Takasago-beya at Seido-ji temple in Chuo-ku, Isenoumi-beya at Fukuju Hall in Higashi-ku, Otowayama-beya and Hakkaku-beya in Minami-ku. Don’t turn up at a members-only stable.

The etiquette is the same everywhere, and Kokonoe-beya spells it out on its own page (its viewing is limited to supporters’ club members, so take it as the standard, not an invitation): no talking or noise during practice, no flash and no camera shutter sounds, phones on silent and no calls, hats and sunglasses off, modest clothes, stay seated while you photograph, and follow the staff. Practice runs early (the Kiyama town news says Kise’s starts preparing around 7:30 and finishes around 9:00), and it is a real training session, so nobody announces who will be on the ring.

If you would rather have someone handle access and explain what you’re seeing, GetYourGuide sells a guided morning-practice visit paired with a walk through Hakata Old Town during the tournament season; the tours hub lists what is bookable.

Free sumo moments around the venue

The gomen-fuda. The permission board has stood at the Kokusai Center since 8 October.
Wrestlers arriving. Fans gather to see the wrestlers walk into the hall before their bouts. Three elders, all former wrestlers, explained on the Sumo Association’s YouTube channel how they’d like fans to behave, as reported in January 2026: before the bouts, “we’d rather you held back” on autographs and photos, because the wrestler is concentrating; after the bouts, especially after a win, they are happy to respond (Shukan Josei Prime, 11 January 2026). Watch quietly on the way in, ask on the way out.
The drum parade. The day before opening, Saturday 7 November 2026, the ring-blessing ceremony (dohyo-matsuri) is followed by the furedaiko, when the yobidashi callers walk around the area beating a drum to announce the tournament (former wrestler Shinzaburo’s guide).
Watch it live, free. ABEMA streams every bout of every tournament day, from the first jonokuchi match in the morning to the final bout, at no charge (ABEMA Times, March 2026). NHK General TV carries the top-division bouts, which you can also watch on NHK Plus, and NHK BS covers the earlier divisions. Outside Japan, NHK World-Japan shows half-hour English programmes of all the top-division bouts about a day later (Combat Press). Get a data plan sorted with the Fukuoka eSIM guide if you want to stream from a yatai stool.

A day at the Kokusai Center

A tournament day follows the same rhythm at every honbasho, and only the opening hour changes in Fukuoka (Ticket Oosumo; Shinzaburo’s timetable):

Time (days 1 to 12)	What happens
8:45	Doors open; the lowest divisions start soon after
around 14:15 (14:05 on day 1)	Juryo ring-entering ceremony, then juryo bouts
around 15:40	Makuuchi ring-entering ceremony and the yokozuna’s ring entry
around 16:10	Top-division bouts
around 17:50 to 18:00	The final bout, then the bow-twirling ceremony

On days 13 and 14 doors open at 10:30, and on the final day at 10:00. The morning hours belong to the lower divisions, the young wrestlers nobody has heard of yet.

Seats: tamari are the cushions at ringside, 16 and over only, with no eating or drinking at the seat, close enough that a thrown wrestler can land beside you. Box seats (masu) are low square pens on cushions, shoes off, where Japanese fans eat and drink through the afternoon. Chair seats are in the upper tiers, cheaper and easier on the knees; S and A are closest. Food and drink are on sale inside the hall. Chair C at ¥2,000 is the best value in Japanese sport.

Getting there and where to stay

The Kokusai Center sits on the Hakata port side of town, and the bus is the easy way in (Ozumo.jp’s access guide; bus stops from the prefecture’s event page):

From Hakata Station: Nishitetsu bus 88 (for Chuo Wharf) or 99 (for Hakata Wharf) from stop F in front of the station, about 15 minutes, to Kokusai Center Sunpalace-mae, a one-minute walk from the hall.
From Tenjin: routes 80, 90 or 25 from stop 2A outside Solaria Stage, about 15 minutes; the stop depends on the route (Kokusai Center Sunpalace-mae is one minute from the hall, Hakata Futo-iriguchi about three).
On foot from the subway: Gofukumachi Station on the Hakozaki Line and Nakasu-Kawabata Station are the nearest. There is no spectator parking for the tournament.

Dinner is the easy part. Chanko-nabe, the wrestlers’ hot pot, is the tournament dish, and Sumo Chaya Otsuka in Takasago has been serving it since 1972, 18:00 to 22:00, best booked ahead (listing). Or walk from the hall to the Nakasu yatai along the river. November is also when the Fukuoka Christmas market opens at Hakata Station (from 7 November), and the night view spots are at their clearest in the dry autumn air.

Stay near Gofukumachi or Nakasu-Kawabata to walk to the hall, or at Hakata Station for the bus and the Shinkansen: compare Nakasu-Kawabata hotels on Booking.com or Hakata Station hotels. Hotel prices in tournament week are the highest of the autumn, so book early. Kitakyushu is 16 minutes away by Shinkansen and cheaper to sleep in (Fukuoka to Kitakyushu).

Fukuoka’s November tournament, since 1957

The Kyushu Basho was established as an official grand tournament in 1957 (Fukuoka Prefecture tourism). The Fukuoka Kokusai Center opened in October 1981 and hosted the tournament that same autumn, when Chiyonofuji, in his second tournament as yokozuna, took his third title (Number); it has been the venue ever since. Being the year’s last tournament gives it a particular tension: titles, promotions and demotions for the following January are often decided on its final weekend, and the yokozuna’s ring entry here is the last of the year.

FAQ

Are Fukuoka sumo tournament tickets really sold out for 2026? Yes. The official site shows the general sale as sold out and states there are no same-day tickets. What remains is the official resale at face value and the tour operators’ own allocations.

How much is a ticket? Face value from ¥2,000 (Chair C on a weekday) to ¥20,000 (ringside), and box seats for four from ¥32,000. Tour packages add a guide and are priced by the operator, by date and seat.

Can I just watch morning practice instead? At the stables that allow it, yes, and for free. For 2026 Shikoroyama-beya in Higashi-ku publishes open viewing through 21 November; several big stables are members-only. Check the current list before you go, and follow the etiquette above.

What time should I arrive? Doors open at 8:45 (10:30 on days 13 and 14, 10:00 on the last day). The top division wrestles from about 16:10 to 18:00, so arriving by 15:30 catches the makuuchi ring-entering ceremony (juryo’s is around 14:15).

Is there a rule on food? Food and drink are sold inside and can be eaten at your seat, except in the ringside tamari seats, where eating and drinking are not allowed.

When is the 2027 Fukuoka sumo tournament? The Sumo Association publishes the next year’s schedule in the autumn; the Kyushu Basho always runs 15 days in the middle of November at the Kokusai Center, with general sales in September. This page is updated when 2027 dates are announced.

The ticket office is closed, but the hall isn’t. Check the resale daily, book a tour seat for a midweek date, and set an alarm for a 7:00 practice.

Book the November Sumo Tournament tour (tickets included) on Viator →

Booking through this link supports Kyushu Travels at no extra cost to you.

More Fukuoka tours and tickets are on the tours hub, and the Fukuoka guide has the rest of the city for the days before and after the bouts.