At the end of November, top-division sumo wrestlers come to a small town in the mountains.

Nomura, in Seiyo City, Ehime. The tournament began in 1852, after a great fire, as a prayer for recovery and for no more fires — and it has been held every year since, more than a hundred and seventy of them.

One thing sets it apart. Professional wrestlers from the Japan Sumo Association and amateur competitors fight on the same ring. Nowhere else in the country does this happen. Inside the Otoi Kaikan, a hall modelled on Tokyo's Kokugikan, a ring is built and a roof hung above it, and the raised seating fills.

There is a children's ring-entering ceremony, in which infants are carried onto the dohyo in the arms of the visiting wrestlers. There is a chanko festival. And there is the old custom of oyado — households in the town putting up the wrestlers for the night, as they always have.

Two days that began as a way of quieting fire now do the opposite: they keep the town warm.