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Kintamayama

Election time again..

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January 30th. 10 spots for riji, 3 spots for deputy riji. Tokitsukaze Ichimon held a meeting today and will be backing current riji Kagamiyama and will seek a spot for Izutsu as well. If there will be more than 13 candidates, an election will be held on February 1st.

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Takasago Ichimon is going with current rijis Kokonoe and Hakkaku for riji and have not decided who to back for deputy.

Nishonoseki Ichimon is going with Oguruma and current deputy Matsugane, who will be replacing the retiring Tateyama riji. For deputy, they are going with Shibatayama.

Edited by Kintamayama

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Incidentally, the new directors will only take office when the shift to the new corporate status is completed; until then the current group will provisionally remain in office. Hanakago-oyakata (ex-Daijuyama) has been appointed to run the candidacy and (if needed) election procedures.

I continue to be amazed that they've managed to push through having 10 "inside" directors under the new system as well, considering the talk at one time was that any setup with more than 50% oyakata was unlikely to be acceptable under the regulations.

January 30th. 10 spots for riji, 3 spots for deputy riji. Tokitsukaze Ichimon held a meeting today and will be backing current riji Kagamiyama and will seek a spot for Izutsu as well.

Izutsu as a deputy director, to be specific.

Takasago Ichimon is going with current rijis Kokonoe and Hakkaku for riji and have not decided who to back for deputy.

Just like two years ago I'll be completely perplexed if Takasago-ichimon manages to grab 2+1 spots as the smallest ichimon. Given that the Tokitsukaze group hasn't rolled over this time and has actually selected a candidate of their own, I suspect there will be no Takasago candidate. Edited by Asashosakari

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Groundhog day: Isegahama-ichimon will be supporting their incumbent Isegahama-oyakata, but Tomozuna also wants to run again. Given how spectacularly that failed the last time (where ex-Kasugayama was the primary candidate and the ichimon also didn't want to nominate a second one), the last word may not have been spoken here yet. In any case, if Tomozuna does run we'll be having an election as that should get them to 11 candidates.

No deputy candidate for the Isegahama group, so it's probably going to be one each from Tokitsukaze/Nishonoseki/Dewanoumi without a vote.

Edited by Asashosakari

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The vote (if there will be more than 11 candidates, and it looks like there will be), has been moved up a day to January 31st.

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The great-grandchild of the last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu will likely become new 3rd external riji, Tokugawa Yasuhisa (65), chief priest of Yasukuni shrine. The other 2 continue, former public prosecutor Norio Munakata and former NHK top Katsuji Ebizawa. The 3 are in addition to the 10 internal riji and the new Hyogi-in-kai will have to appoint all 13 – they are no longer just elected.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/sumo/news/20140125-OYT1T00214.htm

Edited by Akinomaki

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Dewanoumi Ichimon will send Kitanoumi, Chiganoura, and Dekiyama who will replace the retiring Dewanoumi Oyakata. Tamanoi for deputy.

Recap- Dewanoumi- 3 guys, Nishonoseki 2 guys, Takasago 2 guys, Tokitsukaze-1 guy. Probable: Isegahama 2 guys, Takanohana-1 guy, Total 11 candidates. Places-10. Hence, election on the 31st.

Edited by Kintamayama

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How do things look for Shikoroyama-oyakata (ex- Sekiwake Terao) to end up in one of the higher or more responsible kyokai positions (although not likely in a riji election) within the next 5-10 years or so?

I don't think he has any particular position at the moment (although I assume everyone's assigned to one committee or another), as he's about the middle of the oyakata list on the NSK website (English version).

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Wow, he is not liked much-even Tomozuna beat him..

should see how unpopular he is at souken and other gatherings........

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Wow, he is not liked much-even Tomozuna beat him..

no wonder he didn't come through, wolves are only succesful when hunting in packs ;-)

(only exception: in the dohyo)

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So, 97 votes, which from what I've read means the 3 new councillors (Otake, Minatogawa, Yamahibiki) were still allowed to vote, but the two Japanese ozeki and the two tate-gyoji no longer had voting rights.

Presumed breakdown by ichimon:

Dewanoumi 32
- Dekiyama 10
- Kitanoumi 10
- Chiganoura 10
- (remaining) 2

Nishonoseki 18
- Matsugane 10
- Oguruma 8

Tokitsukaze 16 (/w Tatsutagawa [Kobo] from Takanohana group)
- Kagamiyama 10
- (remaining) 6

Takasago 13 (/w Kimigahama [Hochiyama] from Dewanoumi-ichimon)
- Hakkaku 9
- Kokonoe 4 + 1

Isegahama 12
- Isegahama 9
- Tomozuna 3 + 4

Takanohana 6
- Takanohana 6 + 3


Nishonoseki appear to have distributed their 18 votes entirely on their two candidates, the other five groups had left-over votes or received those left-overs from others. The strong rumour at the time of the last election (and ever since) was that 3 Tokitsukaze oyakata voted for Takanohana three years ago (with Tokitsukaze [Tokitsuumi], Shikoroyama [Terao] and Minato [Minatofuji] being mentioned), so it's probably a good bet that the 3 extra Taka votes came from that direction again.

Isegahama ichimon's 12 votes include 3 from Tomozuna-beya, so presumably Isegahama-oyakata received all the 9 others and Tomozuna received his 3 "home base" votes. Besides the extra Taka votes there were 5 more left-overs (2 from Dewanoumi, 3 from Tokitsukaze), of which Tomozuna appears to have received 4 and Kokonoe just 1.

(Or everything could be much more complicated, of course...)

Edited by Asashosakari
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Early news: Tomozuna elected, Kokonoe defeated.

Wow, that's actually a very unexpected result (for me at least).

Kokonoe always seemed like a very powerful presence in the Kyokai, and strongly favored by Kitanoumi. Should that be taken as a sign that a rijicho change is coming too?

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Kokonoe always seemed like a very powerful presence in the Kyokai, and strongly favored by Kitanoumi. Should that be taken as a sign that a rijicho change is coming too?

I could be wrong, but my impression has always been that he's not too well-liked among the other oyakata. He was placed as yakuin taigu, the highest position to which oyakata can be directly appointed, as early as five years after his retirement from active competition, but he didn't move up from that for over a decade afterwards - his ichimon never nominated him as a riji or as kanji (the previous version of today's deputy riji rank). By contrast, Hakkaku was already a kanji between 2000 and 2004 before he (somebody here on the forum mentioned it at the time) decided to concentrate on running his stable again.

Through the latter part of this period the Takasago-ichimon riji was Takasago (ex-Asashio), himself not a particularly well-regarded oyakata by most accounts. Kokonoe only became director in 2008 when Takasago was disgraced following Asashoryu's various issues and the ichimon really had nobody else to turn to. That lasted until 2011 when he was demoted due to the yaocho scandal. He returned to riji in 2012 - but the electoral alliance between the Tokitsukaze and Takasago groups allowed Takasago to nominate two candidates now, and the ichimon decided to support freshman choice Hakkaku as their "main" candidate! As a result Kokonoe was nearly defeated two years ago, too. Not the most stellar vote of confidence by his own group. And again this year Hakkaku was the ichimon's preferred choice, and this time Kokonoe didn't survive.

I must admit I was a bit surprised that Kitanoumi installed Kokonoe as the Kyokai's #2 two years ago, but maybe that was merely because he knows that Kokonoe didn't have the popular support to become rijicho instead of him anytime soon, so he was a safe choice. (Unlike, say, Takanohana.)

All in all, I'm sure Kokonoe is a perfectly competent executive for the Kyokai (he does have nearly 20 years of experience now), but it doesn't look to me like the rest of the oyakata ever really wanted him to be one of the faces of the organization.

Edited by Asashosakari
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Taka is expected to enter the executive ranks, Hochi has him as top of the general planning department, responsible for a variety of projects, including fan service. He did plenty of that as the responsible oyakata for the Osaka basho. Kyokai number 2 replacing Kokonoe for them is likely to be Hakkaku.
Nikkan and Sponichi have Taka even as possible number 2, the post his father had when he died.

Kyokai number 3 is the head of the jungyo department.

Riji (except externals) get 1.448 million Yen a month, a year end bonus of 800 000 Yen etc.

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/sumo/news/20140131-OHT1T00216.htm
20140131-463838-1-L.jpg
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/p-sp-tp3-20140201-1251680.html
sp140201takanohna-ns-big.jpg

G20140201007495900_view.jpg
Tomozuna
G20140201007495910_view.jpg
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/02/01/kiji/K20140201007495430.html
06677637.jpg
http://www.daily.co.jp/sumo/2014/02/01/0006677636.shtml
Kokonoe
06677635.jpg
http://www.daily.co.jp/sumo/2014/02/01/0006677634.shtml
G20140131TTT0700292G3000000.jpg
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/20140201/sum14020105030000-n1.html
sum14020105030000-p1.jpg
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/sumo/news/20140131-OHT1T00215.htm
20140131-463776-1-L.jpg
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2014/02/01/kiji/K20140201007495370.html
G20140201007495930_view.jpg
http://www.nikkansports.com/sports/sumo/news/p-sp-tp3-20140201-1251675.html
sp140201kokonoe-ns-big.jpg

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Taka is expected to enter the executive ranks, Hochi has him as top of the general planning department, responsible for a variety of projects, including fan service. He did plenty of that as the responsible oyakata for the Osaka basho. Kyokai number 2 replacing Kokonoe for them is likely to be Hakkaku.

Sports Hochi affirms that this still appears to be what's coming: Hakkaku as Kitanoumi's right-hand man in the Operations department and Takanohana taking over General Enterprises. Kokonoe was previously filling both posts simultaneously (having taken over GenEnt when the former Kasugayama resigned). Rookie riji Dekiyama (ex-Dewanohana) may be rounding out the executive ranks as the new PR director, which is Hakkaku's current assignment.

(Freudian slip: I almost called him "Hakkuho" just now...)

Edit:

The great-grandchild of the last shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu will likely become new 3rd external riji, Tokugawa Yasuhisa (65), chief priest of Yasukuni shrine. The other 2 continue, former public prosecutor Norio Munakata and former NHK top Katsuji Ebizawa.

This has been confirmed now. If I'm not mistaken the two external inspectors Okabe and Kamiyama were re-elected as well. Edited by Asashosakari
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