In the heart of the city that will host the Olympic Games in 2020, Agence France-Presse (AFP) is putting on an exhibition of 55 photographs on the theme of “Sport and Tradition.” This exhibition, from September 12 to 24, brings together in one place stunning images taken by AFP photographers around the world.

It goes beyond the sports news covered in real time every day by AFP and brings to life around 20 traditional ancestral sports or games that have sprung up from more recent customs: the competitions, pre-game preparations, behind-the-scenes action, the drama.        

The agile horsemen from the green valleys of Kyrgyzstan sit alongside jockeys from the elegant Piazza del Campo in the mediaeval Italian city of Siena. Turkish wrestlers, their bodies glistening with olive oil, grapple side-by-side with the “Kushti” fighters in India and Pakistan, covered from head to toe in dirt.

Water buffalo races in Indonesia inspired by work on the farm bring to mind the acrobatics performed by the cowboys on the New Continent, also a reminder of the work of cattle ranchers.

There is a brief description, in French, English and Japanese, of these disciplines, often not well known to the general public.

Created by the Tokyo bureau with the support of Nikon, a longtime AFP partner, the exhibition is displayed in the “Maison franco-japonaise”, a research centre founded in 1924 by the French writer and diplomat Paul Claudel and the great Japanese financier Eiichi Shibusawa.

The exhibition was inaugurated on September 15 by Emmanuel Hoog and the president of Nikon, Kazuo Ushida, and is expected to travel throughout Japan and in other countries.