Kitanoumi resigns, the brothers are out

[Kobayashi 0]

Man, Rohou is pretty mad in this phone interview to NNN.

Somewhat loose translation from Russian:

They wanted to get rid of the current president and they got what they wanted. The next president, Musashigawa and his supporters, they're the ones behind this. I am going to demand until the very end that the association apologize to me. And even if they do apologize (well not if, they'll have to), if they say: "Well, our bad, you can come back now" I am not going to. Because this is a dirty association. I don't mean everybody. The current president, Kitanoumi is an honest man. And so is my trainer.

And he specified that in current association there are three-four people who are CLEAN!

Fun continious indeed!

[Manekineko 200]

Another morning-show tidbit: apparently while Magaki and Otake were demoted two rungs, Kitanoumi was only demoted one, from rijicho to riji. Admittedly, I was also surprised to hear he was only demoted to riji... Hopefully Kitanoumi will not be additionaly hounded by the press because of this.

[Jonosuke 28]

Admittedly, I was also surprised to hear he was only demoted to riji... Hopefully Kitanoumi will not be additionaly hounded by the press because of this.

Actually he offered to resign from his director's position as well when he was more or less forced out of the chairmanship. For this other directors asked to remain. I think one of the reasons is with him gone, there will be two fewer directors and more likely the other directors wanted to show their appreciation of his service.

I was not exactly a fan of him as the chairman, but we cannot deny his contributions to Ozumo as he has been with since he was 13 years old. He rather looked good after he resigned the post.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Part of the problem with the NSK seems to be that they elect only former superstars to executive positions. While they may have been top rikishi, they often lack any sort of managerial ability. In the sports world, there are umpteen different examples of athletes who were mediocre in their playing day showing outstanding coaching and leadership abilities when they move to the office and/or the coaching slots.

[Jonosuke 28]

Regarding my previous post on on Kitanoumi retaining the Riji post, even though most directors favored Kitanoumi to stay on, as Maneki san suspected correctly it was not unanimous. Even more rank and file oyakata were angry about letting him keep the director's pay and rank.

"There were some opposing view points but the majority agreed with us to have him stay on," Kokonoe oyakata (former Yokozuna Chiyonofuji) admitted.

However as Otoko san alluded the Ichimon groups tend to pick mostly former ozeki and yokozuna as their representative for Directors position so the chairman who is elected among the directors often is a former yokozuna or ozeki. As Kinta pointed out in Musashigawa thread, only the directors can cast a vote (Yakuin like Takanohana who himself is a former yokozuna have no voting privileges). This is one primary reason that former Deputy Minister of Education strongly suggested to the Kyokai that they should introduce an outside Riji with full voting privileges which so far the Kyokai has demurred.

[Jonosuke 28]

It's reported now that there were more than one oyakata at the first testing room who heard Roho say they smoked marijuana and received marijuana from a black singer during the LA Jungyo but they kept the conversation to themselves as Roho asked them not to tell his shisho.

When this story was told at their general meeting yesterday, there were shouting and cries asking them why they kept it secret for so long. Roho's shisho Otake oyataka rushed towards the mike visibly upset but held on by Takanoha oyakata and went back to his seat quietly. He kept his head down throughout the rest of meeting as all oyakata were feeling sorry for him.

They all knew Otake oyakata believed in his deshi unconditionally and the betrayal must come to him as a great shock. "He must be the greatest victim in this whole sorry affair," one young oyakata commented.

[shimodahito 336]

good day all,

to the great emoticon masters: how about creating a new pot-smokin' rikishi emoticon...?

priviet. (I am not worthy...)

and off topic...

(and i still haven't figured out how to use these in other applications such as e-mail, yahoo-messenger, and skype... can only get it to copy as a still photo, rather than a moving animation)

-shimodahito

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

A few to choose from out there...

Edited September 9, 2008 by Otokonoyama

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Better days.

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

Wonder when the bros. go from the NSK website...Wakanoho went on banzuke day.

[Kuroyama 715]

It's reported now that there were more than one oyakata at the first testing room who heard Roho say they smoked marijuana and received marijuana from a black singer during the LA Jungyo but they kept the conversation to themselves as Roho asked them not to tell his shisho.

I wonder if this has anything to do with why the Russians were late as a group for the first day's bus ride to the arena.

[Kintamayama 47,175]

"I'm gonna sue them tomorrow!", said an enraged Rohou. Yesterday his Oyakata, who stood by him all this time, simply said to him "I can't save you anymore" and that was it. "He belongs to the Kyokai and has other deshi to take care of, so he's kind of in a spot..", said the lawyer. "The testers did not take into consideration the slow metabolism rikishi have as rikishi.. This is probably second hand smoke he inhaled in LA at a club!", added the lawyer.

[Kintamayama 47,175]

It's reported now that there were more than one oyakata at the first testing room who heard Roho say they smoked marijuana and received marijuana from a black singer during the LA Jungyo but they kept the conversation to themselves as Roho asked them not to tell his shisho.

The story circulating now is the Kitanoumi did not intend to resign, as he intended to "fight" for his deshi. But when the Oyakata in the know that heard the brothers tell them that they smoked weed in LA told Kitanoumi, he was shocked and decided on the spot to resign, feeling betrayed, as he had truly believed his deshi was innocent.

[Manekineko 200]

"The testers did not take into consideration the slow metabolism rikishi have as rikishi.. This is probably second hand smoke he inhaled in LA at a club!", added the lawyer.

(Blinking...)

[Mariomaru 0]

"I'm gonna sue them tomorrow!", said an enraged Rohou. Yesterday his Oyakata, who stood by him all this time, simply said to him "I can't save you anymore" and that was it. "He belongs to the Kyokai and has other deshi to take care of, so he's kind of in a spot..", said the lawyer. "The testers did not take into consideration the slow metabolism rikishi have as rikishi.. This is probably second hand smoke he inhaled in LA at a club!", added the lawyer.

This is so easy to prove/disprove. Collect hair samples from brothers, send it to three different verified labs on 3 different continents and wait for results. Even ex Hakurozan still have enough hair for this.

[hidenohana 0]

It's reported now that there were more than one oyakata at the first testing room who heard Roho say they smoked marijuana and received marijuana from a black singer during the LA Jungyo but they kept the conversation to themselves as Roho asked them not to tell his shisho.

I just find this unbelievable... (Blinking...)

Personally,for me, this whole saga has left a very bad taste in the mouth.

[kame 0]

So what's the moral of this whole scandal? ha.

[Jonosuke 28]

So what's the moral of this whole scandal? ha.

Never take a wallet of rikishi to a police station...

Just imagine if this woman did not pick up the wallet and not reported to the police.

Three Russians are still around as well as we have Kitanoumi as the Rijicho. We are all better off not knowing anything.

Come to think of it our own Rijicho needs to change his avatar now.

[Asashosakari 20,220]

"The testers did not take into consideration the slow metabolism rikishi have as rikishi.. This is probably second hand smoke he inhaled in LA at a club!", added the lawyer.

Finally an explanation for the brothers' lethargic sumo over the last couple of years!

[Otokonoyama 2,735]

"I'm gonna sue them tomorrow!", said an enraged Rohou. Yesterday his Oyakata, who stood by him all this time, simply said to him "I can't save you anymore" and that was it. "He belongs to the Kyokai and has other deshi to take care of, so he's kind of in a spot..", said the lawyer. "The testers did not take into consideration the slow metabolism rikishi have as rikishi.. This is probably second hand smoke he inhaled in LA at a club!", added the lawyer.

This is so easy to prove/disprove. Collect hair samples from brothers, send it to three different verified labs on 3 different continents and wait for results. Even ex Hakurozan still have enough hair for this.

They can use hair from any place on the body... (Blinking...)

[Asashosakari 20,220]

Another morning-show tidbit: apparently while Magaki and Otake were demoted two rungs, Kitanoumi was only demoted one, from rijicho to riji. Admittedly, I was also surprised to hear he was only demoted to riji... Hopefully Kitanoumi will not be additionaly hounded by the press because of this.

Although one could argue that the demotion from rijicho to riji is the biggest possible, just because it's so much more high-profile than all the others. Ironically, Kitanoumi will pretty much escape without any financial loss - IIRC the rijicho position includes a few small financial perks, but for the most part it pays exactly the same as a regular riji position. Primus inter pares, and all that.

Anyway, Magaki couldn't really be demoted just one step (to yakuin taigu) since that's still an executive position, and he was clearly in no capacity to be part of upper management (and probably didn't want to, anyway). And Otake will likely be back at Iin within about five years anyway, so it's not really comparable to demotions higher up in the Kyokai foodchain.

Edited September 9, 2008 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 20,220]

Wonder when the bros. go from the NSK website...Wakanoho went on banzuke day.

If you mean the date they'll be marked as retired, I would guess after Day 1 as there's a lot of database maintenance that always goes on at that time. On the other hand, Nikkan Sports has decided to be proactive...I was just grabbing the updated kensho data, and 'lo and behold, they've already purged Roho from their makuuchi banzuke. (Luckily for me, the current Google cache version still had him listed...)

Edited September 9, 2008 by Asashosakari

[Kintamayama 47,175]

Technical stuff - The Brothers will remain on the pamphlet made for the fans at the KKan, but a page will be inserted explaining their dismissal. This last happened in Hatsu 1988 when Futahaguro haigyoed. The Official Banzuke will not be changed. The new sumo calendar will be updated and the Three Smoketeers will be erased by changing the layout

[Jonosuke 28]

I am sure that booklet has been printed long ago with all rikishi name and photo in there as well as Chairman Kitanoumi's welcoming letter on the first page (or do they white out Kitanoumi and paste Musashigawa's pic over? I doubt it).

Unless it's Shochu and Sake made with infected rice, they won't recall them. That booklets must have been all piled up in the Kokugikan basement storage for at least a week or so.

[ilovesumo 12]

I don't know if this was mentioned, but Rohou had 5 times more than the allowed 'cannabis component' while Hakurozan had 10 times the amount which OOnishi said shows they must have smoked 2-3 days before the tests.

D'oh

Who could be that imprudent....