We’re not talking about strong, Japanese wrestlers!

The Sumo is one of our most classic and beloved Jumbo kendamas, made with playability in mind, first and foremost. Not as massive as the Kaiju, Sumos are the perfect Everyday Carry Jumbo that slaps tricks just as well as a BOOST or our newest Amped Shape.

The Sumo is the best “Trainer Kendama” you can possibly play to improve your kendama skills. Even Boogie T and Reed Stark, our Sweets Mob Team Members, swear by the Sumo and always goes straight to playing one anytime they really need that huge level-up. It’s great for learning all of the tricks as a beginner, but also for the experienced player who wants something special for learning certain types of tricks.

We made some major changes to the Biggie after that. We cut off the spike and moved the cups lower, leaving us with the Sweets Sumo! In the video below, you can hear more from the creators, themselves, about the origins of the Sumo and how we made the very first ones. While this video is a little old and the Sumos pictured aren’t available anymore (Nov. 2017), the story of how they came up with the Sumo Shape is an integral part of Sweets Kendamas’ history.

The Sumo’s shape is wider and larger than your average kendama, which provides much more surface area to land tricks. With the shortening of the spike by about an inch off of the top, we’ve lowered the balance on the ken dramatically, making tricks like Lunar or Lighthouse so much easier to learn.

Boogie T, for example, used his Sumo to land his first Border Balance, arguably one of the most difficult tricks to learn. The trick requires a lot of small, consistent adjustments in order to keep the ken balanced on the tip of the spike. Due to the widened frame and the extra weight in the XL Sumo Shape, you can feel every movement more easily and react more quickly. Additionally, the weight of a Sumo often forces you to play a little more slowly and smoothly. This provides your eyes with more time to see what’s happening while your muscles are learning the right motions more quickly.

Continuing the bird inspiration in the Sumo series; this one takes it’s style and name from a small colorful bird native to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. The bright combination of colors and they way they almost zig-zag along the feathers stuck out to us as perfect inspiration for a Sumo design.

This Sumo is a stunner and we’ve got a full unboxing to give you all the details.

All of our Sumos are always produced in limited batches. Once they are gone, we usually never make that design again, so if there’s a design in stock that you really connect with, we recommend snagging it before it’s too late!

CHECK OUT ALL OF OUR SUMOS HERE!