Life After Sumo

[bessantj 4]

After hearing that Asahisho has retired and he'll go into coaching I wondered what other wrestlers do when they retire. Most I hear about tend to be from the top division so often go into coaching but what about the wrestlers who never made it past the lower divisions Yoshimura Keita for example. He is 30 and never got higher than Sandanme 72. Do they get any help from the supporters clubs or JSA? Are they left to their own devices?

[Seiyashi 2,261]

Some stable supporter clubs will use connections to find wrestlers a job. If some of them run, or know of, a business that needs basically grunt labour, that's where they go. Things like security guards, handymen, janitors. Those lower rankers who used to be good cooks or chankocho usually go into the restaurant business, whether working for others or setting up their own place; there's an ex-Miyagino man running a diner somewhere that has one of Hakuho's presented yusho portraits hanging over the counter. Other lower rankers who were ex collegiates can put their degree to use for companies that need higher qualifications.

A very select few stay on with the NSK as sewanin and wakaimonogashira, helping around with odd jobs and arranging maezumo and tsuna-uchi. Some others can stay associated with their heya outside the NSK's auspices; ex-Asofuji, ex-Aminishiki's brother and a cousin of Isegahama-oyakata, works as a scout for Isegahama stable. Ryuo, Hakuho's Mongolian senpai from Miyagino, ended up working as Hakuho's personal manager (you can see him in Miyagino's IG photo from today's tsuna-uchi, despite having retired ages ago). Then there's also Adachi, the lower ranker moving to Araiso-heya with ex-Kisenosato despite not being his uchideshi; there's a possibility he will wind up working as the heya manager once he retires as he's been in ozumo for nearly 20 years and may be preparing to call it quits.

But other than that, the real devil is in the long term details. Effectively they've used the best years of their life and not achieved very much, so they don't have a strong financial base to work off and it's a uphill struggle from there. That's before factoring in the long-term health costs from their life of sumo, both in terms of injuries as well as chronic ailments that they by virtue of their lifestyle and diet will be more predisposed to.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Yamanashi 2,390]

There is a thread "Former Rikishi Activities" (I think I've got it right!) in Off-Topic.  It was started by @Akinomaki and has been running from 2013 to end of 2020.

[bessantj 4]

Thank you to both of you.

 

Quite informative post Seiyashi and I'll have a look at that thread Yamanashi.