Asashosakari

Takanohana-beya scandal looming?

Recommended Posts

Yesterday's news about a hushed-up Kasugano-beya violence scandal made me think, "Hey, if everybody's digging up everybody else's skeletons right now, I wonder if we'll finally find out why Takatoshi's career ended so abruptly right as he was likely to become sekitori very soon?" (Intai thread here.) And sure enough, just a minimal amount of googling later, it turns out that tabloid Yukan Fuji / Zakzak had a lengthy report only four weeks ago:

As the thread from 2014 already suggested, Takatoshi was essentially thrown out of the stable, with Takanohana submitting the retirement notice unilaterally. Ex-Takatoshi has been suing the Kyokai demanding reinstatement into sumo and financial compensation since March 2015. Dismissed by the Tokyo district court eventually two years later, he has appealed the verdict and it's now in front of the high court, where Takanohana, his wife and Takanoiwa supposedly all appeared to testify in late December.

Apparently back on October 18, 2014, Takanohana suddenly started shouting at Takatoshi during morning practice, claiming that his attitude was unacceptable, and demanded that he pack up his belongings and leave the stable. According to the lawsuit, Takanohana has claimed that Takatoshi was mentally unstable and beyond help, and therefore unsuited to fulfill the expectations placed on a sumotori, justifying his removal. Takanohana submitted the retirement notice two days after throwing him out.

So far, so (relatively) unspectacular; just another case of shisho and deshi not getting along. However, allegations of violence also swirl through the lawsuit. Takatoshi has detailed a situation from April 2014 where Takanoiwa (maegashira at the time) felt improperly greeted and proceeded to slap Takatoshi three times for his supposed insubordination. (I can't quite make out what Takanoiwa's reply is to this - page 2 of the article, if anyone can help.) Takatoshi apparently felt compelled to think about retirement at this point, and a danpatsu was already scheduled, but he eventually reconsidered and wanted to further his sumo career. Just half a year later the dismissal took place.

In addition, since-retired Takanohana-beya rikishi Koseki has testified that Takanoiwa did not bother to participate in stable chores even in his early days as a low-ranking toriteki, and routinely amused himself by shooting an air gun at fellow stable members after he had started to progress through the rankings. Further, Koseki describes early-career Takanoiwa as a slacker who would ask "Is the shisho there?" in morning time, and not bother to get up and appear for practice if he wasn't.

Also part of the trial record is testimony by former rikishi Takashoma, who served as Takanoiwa's tsukebito until retiring in mid-2014. He submitted that Takanoiwa was not violent towards him personally, but did torment younger rikishi and refused to listen to senior ones. Takashoma further alleges that rikishi-turned-sewanin Ranbo once hit Takashinryu with a beer crate at the stable's Kyushu lodgings several years ago, causing him to have a crimson mask from head lacerations, and that he repeatedly hit Koseki with a kitchen cutting board on other occasions. He also claims to have heard Takanoiwa calling for somebody to fetch him some iron dumbbells during his 2014 altercation with Takatoshi.

(There's also some stuff about Takashoma and allowance payments for participating in jungyo tours that he didn't receive before his retirement, involving Takanohana and Takanoiwa, which I can't really make any sense of.)

Finally, Koseki has testified that, following the dismissal of Takatoshi, Takanohana spoke to the other stable members, claiming that Takatoshi was suing only as a money-grab, and demanded that anyone who knew something negative about Takatoshi should come forward and testify against him.

A representative for Takatoshi issued a "no comment" to Yukan Fuji about the story, the Association and Takanohana-beya did not respond.

Edited by Asashosakari
  • Like 3
  • Thanks 7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Asashosakari said:

what Takanoiwa's reply is to this - page 2

Takanoiwa: "Takatoshi came with his fists at me, shouting: 'I'm not one of your tsukebito'. It was no quarrel, the truth is that I alone suffered violence." (looks like he's so trained in using this song from the other scandal that he can't tell anything else)

Takatoshi then reflected on it as a mistake that he "raised his hands against a higher ranked one, a sekitori." and had decided to retire because of this, his fault. (of falling for the provocation and not enduring the violence)

Edited by Akinomaki
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Damn, Takanoiwa sounds like a piece of shit. Takanohana not much better.

Edit: Seriously though. I thought Takanohana was supposed to be against bullying lower rankers? These stories don’t make it sound like he’s any different.

Edited by ALAKTORN
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, this sheds a whole new light on Takanohana beya... not a happy place to grow up in by any means. The dismissal of one rikishi and the tolerance of unruly behaviour at the same time, the violence and that disturbing hobby with the air gun... no wonder that a bad seed like Takanoiwa might think he can do whatever he likes. Terrible that he should be so clueless. Perhaps Takanohana allows it because he wants to change some traditions, but this is completely counterproductive.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a tabloid article. I don't believe a word of it. Takanohana is perfect.  The Kyokai will now do everything to discredit Takanohana after he pissed on them from a very high diving board. From 2014, and this comes out a month ago, coinciding with the scandal? Too convenient.  I don't buy this for a second. Takanoiwa is probably a dick, that I'm willing to concede. As if we didn't know that the sumo world has closets full of skeletons. Big deal. We'll be hearing new stories every day before the coming elections. Every heya has its story. i know one very specific story, very relevant to today, that I shall one day sell to Akinomaki's favorite tabloid. 

In summary, Takanohana is a God and weekly tabloids need to be sold..

Edited by Kintamayama
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This makes me think, Harumafuji may have retired because of a scumbag and a crazy scarf-wearing "god".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 minutes ago, Joaoiyama said:

This makes me think, Harumafuji may have retired because of a scumbag and a crazy scarf-wearing "god".

Takanohana was the one hitting Takanoiwa with the remote? Did not know that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the one hand this story is so convoluted and crazy that it sounds like it could be true.

On the other hand it sounds like it isn't true for the same reasons.

In the end, tabloid so,  many grains of salt.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
32 minutes ago, Kintamayama said:

Takanohana is a God

who needs a devil's advocate

  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Actually this tabloid article is trying to show both Takatoshi and Takanoiwa in a bad light - not Takanohana.

The suit is in court, they can't manipulate that part of the story.

In the end ex-Koseki calls out to all young heya members to tell him all bad things they know of Takatoshi, who only is out for money.

Takanoiwa's reputation will be ruined when Taka throws him away, like he did with Takatoshi and recently Kobo.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
57 minutes ago, Kintamayama said:

Takanohana was the one hitting Takanoiwa with the remote? Did not know that.

Maybe Harumafuji thought it would be a good idea to approach Takanoiwa the same way he does his junior. Then again, almost every "junior" gets mistreated, i'm just speculating a possible extra cause for the attack.

Edited by Joaoiyama

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Akinomaki said:

who needs a devil's advocate

We all do. He is a God. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Akinomaki said:

 

Takanoiwa's reputation will be ruined when Taka throws him away, like he did with Takatoshi and recently Kobo.

Takanoiwa has no reputation to ruin, sir.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Actually this tabloid article is trying to show both Takatoshi and Takanoiwa in a bad light - not Takanohana. (...)

In the end ex-Koseki calls out to all young heya members to tell him all bad things they know of Takatoshi, who only is out for money.

Isn't Koseki quoting Takanohana, not making that statement himself?

And I really don't see how that article tries to reflect badly on Takatoshi rather than on Takanohana. Large parts of it don't even concern themselves with Takatoshi, but with the allegedly terrible conditions in the heya. That's all about Takanohana, even if he doesn't get blamed directly. If Yukan Fuji just wanted to show up Takatoshi as a guy who threw his own career away through stupidity, they wouldn't have included all the stuff about Ranbo and the other victims of violence.

(Actually, I kind of find the Ranbo details the most disconcerting. Usually bad apples like that quietly get discarded by the Kyokai - this one got handed a job for life.)


Anyway, whatever one may think about the veracity of any details, Yukan Fuji's report struck me as interesting at least for the fact that there's a reinstatement trial that's been going on for three years and seemingly nobody in the press bothered to report about it before. (I actually was going to post just about that, but then the report turned out much loooonger than I expected.)

Edited by Asashosakari

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Kintamayama said:

Takanohana was the one hitting Takanoiwa with the remote? Did not know that.

With all the versions and pics coming to light from whatever sources, for all we know he could be hitting Harumafuji and it just got mixed up

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
43 minutes ago, Asashosakari said:

Isn't Koseki quoting Takanohana, not making that statement himself?

Correct.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Takanoiwa's reputation will be ruined when Taka throws him away, like he did with Takatoshi and recently Kobo.

And his fiancee, and his mother, and his brother...yeah, a real class act

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Asashosakari said:

Isn't Koseki quoting Takanohana, not making that statement himself?

And I really don't see how that article tries to reflect badly on Takatoshi rather than on Takanohana. Large parts of it don't even concern themselves with Takatoshi, but with the allegedly terrible conditions in the heya. That's all about Takanohana, even if he doesn't get blamed directly. If Yukan Fuji just wanted to show up Takatoshi as a guy who threw his own career away through stupidity, they wouldn't have included all the stuff about Ranbo and the other victims of violence.

You're right.

And the article has the focus on Takanoiwa as a bad character, as the title says. But to me it appeared that the few information given about Takatoshi are meant to have him appear as a similar violent and on top of that uncontrollable character, who can't control himself either - without giving any details of what he did.

Takanohana-beya appears as quite a mess - and that means the oyakata is to blame, but I didn't sense him getting blamed indirectly as much as Takatoshi is discredited indirectly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you for the research on this. I always thought Takatoshi's sudden retirement was strange, but I always thought I saw something about family issues being the reason. Well in the intai thread, indeed posts said it sounds like he was fired. Something must have happened as the article said. I know it's a tabloid, but with the stories of abuse over the years I have no trouble believing this. Maybe this is connected to Takanohana's bizarre behavior and Takanoiwa's hiding last month. This wouldn't surprise me one bit if any of this was true. Assuming this is true, Takanoiwa sounds like he has something on Takanohana. That beer crate and cutting board part sounds horrifying but wouldn't surprise me given the Kanechika story. I was just about to write last night on the Kasugano thread about Takanohana's ideals now it sounds like he had worse going on over there. Slapping someone up for an insufficient greeting because he's inferior, while shooting people with air guns? Then the inferior retires because he didn't accept the beating? What is wrong with this institution!? 

Edited by Yukiarashi

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The first rule of Takanohana beya is that you do not talk about Takanohana beya. The second rule of Takanohana beya is that you do not talk about Takanohana beya.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 1/25/2018 at 07:41, Asashosakari said:

tabloid Yukan Fuji / Zakzak had a lengthy report only four weeks ago:

As the thread from 2014 already suggested, Takatoshi was essentially thrown out of the stable, with Takanohana submitting the retirement notice unilaterally. Ex-Takatoshi has been suing the Kyokai demanding reinstatement into sumo and financial compensation since March 2015. Dismissed by the Tokyo district court eventually two years later, he has appealed the verdict and it's now in front of the high court, where Takanohana, his wife and Takanoiwa supposedly all appeared to testify in late December.

Now a competitor of Yukan Fuji has published an article about it http://www.nikkan-gendai.com/articles/view/sports/222642/2

- but it's Nikkan Gendai, which unlike Yukan Fuji isn't even a member of the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association - so basically a tabloid of the worst kind, and while Yukan Fuji belongs to the Sankei shimbun group, Nikkan Gendai is published by Nikkan sports promotion - which has nothing to do with Nikkan Sports, who are an affiliate of Asahi shimbun.

Nikkan Gendai claims to publish from the testimonies of a tsukebito of Takanohana from the series of records of the trial(s). He claimed to get beaten by Taka when he didn't have the clothes cleaned and ready as Taka had to fill in as head judge in Kyushu 2013 - double slaps and 10 or more punches to the face, and the blood sprayed onto Taka's t-shirt. Another he hit with his fist while wearing a ring, causing a deep cut above the eye.

Takanoiwa let a Mongolian friend from the same village stay at the lodgings of the heya during a regional basho - strictly forbidden of course, but Taka one day encountered that friend.

They claim to have the following from the written statement of what Takanohana said in July 2016, after the tsukebito admitted that these things happened regularly: "That guy earned enough by now, the time is coming, shall I hand him the dismissal?"

Nikkan gendai wonders then if there is truth in these testimonies and tells about how they tried to phone the heya about it - after the message "To stop spam phone calls, this call will be recorded" nobody answered and they left the question on the answering machine, to which they got no answer so far.

 

On the other hand - the whole country still appears to be behind Taka - nearly all were in support of Taka of the more than 1000 reactions on Yahoo to the news about the 2h special with Taka today from this site http://news.walkerplus.com/article/136474/

Edited by Akinomaki
  • Thanks 4
  • Sad 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 1/25/2018 at 07:41, Asashosakari said:

Ex-Takatoshi has been suing the Kyokai demanding reinstatement into sumo and financial compensation since March 2015. Dismissed by the Tokyo district court eventually two years later, he has appealed the verdict and it's now in front of the high court, where Takanohana, his wife and Takanoiwa supposedly all appeared to testify in late December.

Takatoshi and the NSK today agreed on a court mediated settlement. PR no.2 Shibatayama: "I know nothing about the details." http://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/201802230000847.html

Takatoshi in 2009

201802230000847-w200_0.jpgo

Edited by Akinomaki
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now