Box seats for sumo wrestling?

I purchased my sumo wrestling tickets from buysumotickets.com for sept 2012 tournament in Tokyo. I requested for the best available seats for the final day of the tournament and the best seat they were able to get for me was arena seat A in row 5. I order the tickets a few month in advance so my name was closer to the top of the giving me a better chance of getting box seats I was disappointed with the seat I got so my question is was anybody able to get box seats from buysumotickets.com? For the final day of the Tokyo tournament in sept 2012.

Your message isn't quite clear to me, did you request/pay for a box or "the best available seats"?

Anyway, I'm sure getting a box on the last day of the tournament in Tokyo would be very difficult due to popularity. Sorry to hear you missed out.

Enjoy the Sumo!

As to Kokugikan, I presume that views from seats are good regardless of floors, so personally I find no reason to recommend you stick to a box seat on the 1st floor.

Examples of views from seats in Ryogoku Kokugikan
(which is used for January, May and September Grand Sumo competitions)
: From box seats [Masu seats] on the 1st floor
- http://t.pia.jp/feature/sports/sumo/kokugikan-1f.html
: From arena seats [Isu seats] on the 2nd floor
- http://t.pia.jp/feature/sports/sumo/kokugikan-2f.html
On these webpages, the east is to the left and sho-men is around the bottom. From a sho-men seat, you see the face of the referee [gyouji] at the beginning of a sumo match.

In Kokugikan during a Grand Sumo competition, there are FM broadcastings in Japanese and in English with a live report of evening matches. A rental radio is available at 100 yen as a fee and 2000 yen as a deposit; the latter is refunded when you return the radio. Also a headphone is sold at 100 yen.

I requested for the best available seats for the final day of the tournament and the best seat they were able to get for me was arena seat A in row 5.

A nearest box seat is not the best seat for everyone. I suppose there may well be visitors who prefer arena seats on the 2nd floor, for example to grasp better the flow of each sumo match.
Which seat is nice depends on the purpose of watching Grand Sumo matches at the site.

By the way, are you aware that a winner can be decided before the final day?
In each of Grand Sumo regular competitions (six a year), losers do not have to leave the competition. As to Maku(no)uchi division (#), the wrestler who won most of 15 matches becomes a winner of the competition. So, for example, if there is only one wrestler who won 14 matches while other wrestlers won up to 12 matches, he becomes a winner on the 14th day.

Probably one of the most attracting scenarios is that a playoff of Maku(no)uchi division (#) is held on the final day when there are multiple wrestlers (including at least one yokozuna) who won the same number of regular matches during the competition.

(#) This division is called "Makunouchi" to be exact, but often referred to as "Makuuchi."

So if a winner is decided before the 15th day of the tournament wil there still be a final match on the 15th day?

So if a winner is decided before the 15th day of the tournament wil there still be a final match on the 15th day?

There will be all the usual matches even if someone has an unbeatable lead. There is still a lot at stake especially amongst the other sumo wrestlers. Having said that, the tournaments this year have been very close so it is quite likely you will have another close one in September.

In July Hakuho and Harumafuji entered the final day with 14-0 records, Harumafuji won their match on the final day.

In May Kyokutenho, Tochiozan, and Kisenosato entered the final day with 11-3 records. Kyokutenho ended up winning the play-off vs Tochiozan.

In March Kakuryu entered the final day with 13-1 but lost his bout, Hakuho entered with 12-2 but won his bout. Hakuho won the play-off.

So if a winner is decided before the 15th day of the tournament wil there still be a final match on the 15th day?

Of course there will be still matches until the final day.
I suppose there may be sumo lovers who watch matches at the site even after a winner is decided early, but some fans of particular wrestlers might cancel later days.

A regular Grand Sumo competition is held as entertainment; Sumo Association and wrestlers should respond to expectations of sumo fans. So, they never call off later matches even if a winner is decided early.

A Grand Sumo wrestler's score in regular matches affects the evaluation of his performance in the competition. Especially if a Maku(no)uchi wrestler won 7 of 14 matches by the 14th day, it must be important to him whether he ends in 8 - 7 or in 7 - 8.

Recently Hakuho has been the only yokozuna, and he will still be so at least until the coming September competition. I suppose that if Hakuho is in good condition and there is another wrestler who can rival him through the competition, then evening matches can be attractive even if a winner is decided early.