In the ring with the sumo wrestlers eating 10,000 calories of Scottish salmon a day

We are performing a move called shiko, which they tell me, they perform 300 times a day. They use it to build lower body strength, hip mobility, and balance by shifting their weight, lifting one leg high into the air, pausing, and forcefully stomping it back down to the ground.

We practice.

“Now, you are ready,” says Christian Eduardo Parraga Ramirez, The Sumo Show Hirakuza’s translator.

The performers are retired professionals from Osaka-based performance company Hirakuza - bringing sumo to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time.

They have dressed me in a comedy sumo suit, which while giving me the visual effect of bulk, is unlikely to help me and my 5ft2 frame in my “challenge” against the wrestlers.

I am told to “push” Tsuguto Touma - the largest of the three. He is wearing nothing but a startlingly small, blue sumo mawashi - the loincloth worn by sumo athletes.

I push. I am actually sure that my brute force makes him take a step back, but no-one watching is convinced.

“Try again,” the other wrestlers urge. I do. This time, I am even more useless, pushing my puny little arms against his giant chest.

“If you keep practising, maybe you’ll be able to push me” says Tsugoto.

Performed in a dohyo, or sumo ring, The Sumo Show Hirakuza combines authentic demonstrations of Sumo with theatrical staging, dramatic visuals and immersive sound, giving audiences an opportunity to experience the athleticism, discipline and traditions of sumo up close.

They tell me sumo wrestlers usually begin training when they are around 15 years old and train hard for years before becoming part of the professional league.

“Entering the sumo world is not that difficult, but becoming a top ranked sumo wrestler is very, very difficult,” explains Okamoto.

The show is the first time the team has visited the UK - and the first time sumo has been performed at the Fringe.

“We explain the rules of sumo to the public, then we do some sumo wrestling in our show,” says Matsumoto.

The sumo wrestlers - all retired professionals from the Japanese Sumo league - eat one meal a day of 10,000 calories.

“They have no breakfast, then they train for three hours in the morning, then they have a big, big meal” Parraga Ramirez explains. “Then they have a special soup called chanko nabe, which is a chicken soup with lots of vegetables. It is a very balanced meal, it is not junk food. It is about 10,000 calories, which is the equivalent to 50 Mars bars.

“Then they take a nap and after that they train some more hours.”

In Edinburgh, however, the team have switched to a new kind of soup.

“Salmon,” says Okamoto. “We are eating a lot of salmon.”

Without their usual help, the sumo wrestlers are cooking their own food in Scotland.

“We are going to the supermarket and cooking for ourselves,” says Matsumoto.

The Sumo Show is at Underbelly until 31 August.