REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Six Japanese sumo athletes came to Jakarta and introduced themselves as ambassadors for Japanese culture on 24-25 August, 2013. Ito who studied at Indonesian Institute of Arts, has designed batik pattern for their yukata, Japanese kimono for summer. 

For Yokozuna (the highest degree in the world of sumo), motif of batik is designed according to individual character combined with pattern and colors of yukata. And those six sumo athletes wore six yukata-batik which were designed and made especially for them.

"I spend about six months to design batik (for sumo athletes)," Ito said recently.

The highest tittle of sumo athletes is hold by Harumafuji. For him, Ito scrawled motif of a horse. Haruma means horse and Fuji means Mount Fuji. Ito tried to combined design of yukata with design of batik.

For Japanese people, sumo is more than a sparring game. They believe sumo has values of conviction, process, as well as there are characters human power. It makaes Japanese people appreciate a team and its process. 

For Ito, among sumo, yukata, yokonuza, batik, Japan and Indonesia are not related one another. But in this globalization era, absorption of cultural values of nations brings all in one.

UNESCO declared batik as Indonesian cultural heritage on October 2, 2009. Batik increasingly becomes popular in the world. Many fashion designers wear batik, such as Dries Van Noten and Versace.

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