Kumagatani-oyakata arrested

[Akinomaki 41,739]

Ex-Kanechika was arrested for beating several dozen times with a metal baseball bat the 30/31 year old tsukebito who drives him, at the hip/back etc., causing an injury which takes 2 weeks to heal. During the Nagoya-basho. He admits it. Apparently he used to beat him since last year.

From now on Kumagatani-oyakata will be known as "suspect Yamamura", at present he is oyakata in Miyagino-beya. He's the one who had for a while snatched Miyagino-beya away from the present Miyagino-oyakata (who raised Hakuho) and was ordered in 2010 by the NSK to give it back and become Kumagatani-oyakata, after his talk on the phone about yaocho became public.

http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/20150902/tro15090214150006-n1.html

Videos pour in

At the news page:http://www.news24.jp/articles/2015/09/02/07308546.html

from NNN

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TBS keeps changing the video (about 5 times today)

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from NHK

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from TBS - long version

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Say good-bye to a further rise in sumo popularity

Edited October 3, 2015 by Akinomaki

[Asashosakari 20,223]

Geez. Last straw?

[egparis18 622]

Don't worry. I don't think sumo will lose popularity, at least not among people who are fans, not just 'having a look to see what all the talk's about'. One headcase won't drive people who love sumo away.

If you take me as an example - I watched some documentaries on YouTube, saw some hazing, was appalled and very nearly never watched a single bout, but I watched one more documentary, saw Hakuho and, more importantly, Toyonoshima ('Awww! 150 kilos of sweetie!' - You know how women are.), and went to see some bouts. I've never stopped. I can't.

[Kuroyama 715]

Don't worry. I don't think sumo will lose popularity,

Last straw for Kanechika was I think Asa's point, not for sumo among the fans.

[egparis18 622]

Don't worry. I don't think sumo will lose popularity,

Last straw for Kanechika was I think Asa's point, not for sumo among the fans.

I was responding to what Akinomaki said at the end of his post. I had understood Asashosakari.

[Akinomaki 41,739]

This should have no influence whatsoever on sumo popularity outside Japan.

There is no real reason that it has to be IN Japan, especially since it is just the most deplorable oyakata about to get kicked out, but it is destined to remind the people of the beating that resulted in the death of a young rikishi.

The media - unnecessarily - will probable produce a crisis for sumo, like they always do, and it is just my notion that the recent RISE in sumo popularity will stop - for a few years.

Edit: I keep adding videos to the first post

Edited September 2, 2015 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 41,739]

Miyagino-oyakata apologizes "In regard to have caused such troubles I have no words, it is really inexcusable."

"I didn't think he was a person who does such things."

http://www.sankei.com/sports/news/150902/spo1509020029-n1.html

http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/sumo/2015/09/02/0008360369.shtml

Hakuho: "Baffled!" - Naruto: "Eh !" - Kitanoumi (shisho of Kanechika): "Deplorable" - a kyokai official "Can't he just quit by himself ..."

the arrest

with Miyagino-oyakata comments

http://www.news24.jp/articles/2015/09/02/07308575.html

gone

Edited October 3, 2015 by Akinomaki

[krindel 688]

Miyagino-oyakata apologizes "In regard to have caused such troubles I have no words, it is really inexcusable."

"I didn't think he was a person who does such things."

Given their past history, it probably means something along the lines of "I knew exactly what kind of person he was, noone has had more trouble with him than me over the last 20 years, but I fought really hard to get my stable back and part of the deal was getting saddled with him"...

[Fukurou 534]

Last straw for me. He needs to be tossed out on his ear immediately, without waiting for any police investigation, since it's been going on for so long and he admitted to it.

[WAKATAKE 2,759]

Yes I do hope this is the last straw on this guy. Hakuho's reaction doesn't surprise me, and I'm sure the Kyokai is considering what they'll do with Yamamura now.

[Kishinoyama 623]

I went back and searched and found this thread:

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=12465&hl=%20miyagino%20%20kabu

It explains a lot of things that I had forgotten about the Kumagatani / Miyagino situation.

EDIT: Ex-Kanechika has been an idiot for a long time....

Edited September 3, 2015 by Kishinoyama

[Naganoyama 6,024]

I went back and searched and found this thread:

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=12465&hl=%20miyagino%20%20kabu

It explains a lot of things that I had forgotten about the Kumagatani / Miyagino situation.

EDIT: Ex-Kanechika has been an idiot for a long time....

He has always been an idiot.

[egparis18 622]

I went back and searched and found this thread:

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=12465&hl=%20miyagino%20%20kabu

It explains a lot of things that I had forgotten about the Kumagatani / Miyagino situation.

EDIT: Ex-Kanechika has been an idiot for a long time....

He has always been an idiot.

I just read it. I'm shocked. Can of worms. It won't stop me loving sumo.

[Akinomaki 41,739]

The suspect did beat the tsukebito also with a hammer and started with of a variety of other harassments before. He says as penalties for repeated faulty behavior.

all gone

Edited October 3, 2015 by Akinomaki

[krindel 688]

If anything, the whole career of Kanechika post-retirement shows the inherent weakness of the kabu system and the unwillingness of the Kyokai to take action against people abusing it and the "perks" it offers.

A guy who has proven to be both an idiot and a bully, with a very mediocre career in sumo and hardly anyone's respect, conspires with the widow of a former oyakata and gets handed the number one prospect of sumo in a silver platter. And it turns out, noone in the Kyokai is able or willing to do anything about it to protect their sport and their investment. The least they could have done, in my mind, is allow (or even help) Chikubayama to take his rikishi and leave.

Then, the same guy makes what was probably at the time the biggest PR mess in the history of the sport, and they decide to finally take action and send him to the sidelines, but they STILL keep him around, only to have him come haunt they minds of the NSK PR people once again 5 years later...

If they don't finally sent him to the ramen shop he should have been manning from when he retired, they fully deserve the next mess they get.

Edit: Also found this quote in the "other" thread:

Former juryo Kanechika [...] signed a statement, which stipulated pointedly that any future misdeed by him would lead to summary discharge.

Seems to suggest he has already signed his own dismissal 5 years ago...

Edited September 3, 2015 by krindel

[Asashosakari 20,223]

Then, the same guy makes what was probably at the time the biggest PR mess in the history of the sport, and they decide to finally take action and send him to the sidelines, but they STILL keep him around, only to have him come haunt they minds of the NSK PR people once again 5 years later...

In hindsight, the funny thing is that the "real" yaocho scandal broke only weeks after the Kyokai finished up dealing with the Kanechika mess (which took over three years after all), yet nobody in the press cared to bring it up again...guess the fact that Hakuho had won some 15 yusho in the meantime made a bit of a mockery of the idea that his yokozuna promotion needed to be bought.

[Kintamayama 47,178]

He always seemed to me to be in drag. Like Ronaldo.

[Kishinoyama 623]

I went back and searched and found this thread:

http://www.sumoforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=12465&hl=%20miyagino%20%20kabu

It explains a lot of things that I had forgotten about the Kumagatani / Miyagino situation.

EDIT: Ex-Kanechika has been an idiot for a long time....

He has always been an idiot.

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt since I did not know his history before his entry in sumo at 15 years of age.... ;-)

[Gurowake 4,148]

So I just looked up Kanechika's sumo career. How did he even qualify to become an oyakata with just 24 juryo basho as a sekitori? I remember talk of the requirements being relaxed to allow someone with only 28 basho, but that was fairly recently (I can't recall who or when though). Was it really easier only ten or so years ago?

[Asashosakari 20,223]

So I just looked up Kanechika's sumo career. How did he even qualify to become an oyakata with just 24 juryo basho as a sekitori? I remember talk of the requirements being relaxed to allow someone with only 28 basho, but that was fairly recently (I can't recall who or when though). Was it really easier only ten or so years ago?

He was eligible for the laxer standard of 12 makuuchi / 20 sekitori basho because he was considered to be "inheriting" the kabu, even though his father-in-law was already dead for 15 years by the time he married the daughter.

[Akinomaki 41,739]

The pervert The suspect used all kind of things to beat the tsukebito, chanko tools as well: with a wooden pestle pole (they are usually light) at the knee and elbow joints. With the bat he was aiming mainly for the lower half so that the injuries wouldn't be obvious. With the hammer he was aiming also at the ankles. The beating apparently was his daily practice and he had the bat routinely ready in the car.

----

This remains big in the news, national not sumo - it will create a mood against sumo especially with those in the population who are not sumo fans and say "Again, they haven't changed a bit": that are still many. If the NSK doesn't act swiftly now to create a distance between him and sumo, a damage to sumo will be inevitable.

----

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VuHoLDVoYc

Edited October 3, 2015 by Akinomaki

[orandashoho 720]

Even with the strong belief in a heya system in which strong discipline and humiliating tasks are normal, there must be an awareness that extreme methods should be banned, and that goes also for promoting people into positions of power who are likely to be cruel and abusive. Or too stupid to understand that "with great power comes great responsibility".

If the system keeps protecting abusers, everyone in the system will be tarnished with the same brush.

[Akinomaki 41,739]

The victim is called "tsukebito" and that makes one think he is a rikishi, but these drivers (does the ban to drive only include sekitori?) of the suspect are personal tsukebito, in the general Japanese meaning, which he hires - ordinary people. There were many in the past, many didn't last a year - he is suspected of many more crimes, also other than beating.

http://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/sports/sumou/442900/

Edited September 4, 2015 by Akinomaki

[krindel 688]

The pervert The suspect used all kind of things to beat the tsukebito, chanko tools as well: with a wooden pestle pole (they are usually light) at the knee and elbow joints. With the bat he was aiming mainly for the lower half so that the injuries wouldn't be obvious. With the hammer he was aiming also at the ankles. The beating apparently was his daily practice and he had the bat routinely ready in the car.

I am sorry, but this sort of abuse has absolutely nothing to do with even the harshest heya training methods (especially since the victim was an employee and not a rikishi). Its sadistic abuse, plain and simple, and Mr Yamamura belongs in jail. It has nothing to do with sumo whatsoever (apart from their obvious guilt for employing the guy in the first place and letting him get away with something like that for who knows how long).

I know I am getting dangerously close to ranting with my reaction to this whole business, but to be honest, I don't really give a fig about how this might affect the PR of sumo at the moment, I am just very angry that people who emphasize "dignity" have kept this sorry excuse for a human being around for that long.

[shumitto 418]

I know I am getting dangerously close to ranting with my reaction to this whole business, but to be honest, I don't really give a fig about how this might affect the PR of sumo at the moment, I am just very angry that people who emphasize "dignity" have kept this sorry excuse for a human being around for that long.

Big organizations/corporations or, I would dare say, human affairs in general are apparently ruled by the three monkeys. When the Tokitaizan incident took place, I was at first rather taken aback no one had seen anything, but then I remembered my college days when something happened and the same took place. It is better not think about how many skeletons there are in the Kyokai's closet.