Hakuho retires

[Seiyashi 4,071]

3 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

Answering myself: He does and has had for years.

You might want to move yourself forward in time a bit before you post, at least for today 

[Eikokurai 3,433]

I’ve only just realized his name is spelled wrong in the thread title: Hakuko.

[Tiger Tanaka 222]

4 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

I’ve only just realized his name is spelled wrong in the thread title: Hakuko.

Maybe it's not a typo! Hakuho will press on to 50 yusho, while his evil twin doppelganger Hakuko retires and fades into the mist. Alas, we will never get the Hakuho vs Hakuko matchup, like the days of Undertaker vs Undertaker in the old WWF.

[Kishinoyama 582]

1 hour ago, ryafuji said:

And Akebono would have entered in January 2001 if he hadn't been injured. He retired after that tournament. 

Thanks for saying this. You saved me the trouble. The circumstances were different but the results were the same, in the end. 

[Michishige 65]

4 hours ago, Eikokurai said:

You also left out the pretty long list of guys who have perfect 1-0 records against him, including Takanoiwa and Arawashi who took kinboshi in their only ever meetings! 

I must correct you, dear sir. If you include the 0-2 record of his alter-ego Chiyoshoma, I’m sure you’ll see that Arawashi was only 1-2 against Hakuho. 

[Kamitsuumi 384]

I'm trying to figure out what Hakuho's retirement payout would be.

It looks like:

• a one-time pension of 15M yen
• total basho bonus ~45M yen
• special contribution bonus (apparently ~100M yen for dai-yokozuna)
• kensho (any guesses to the total amount?)
• intai-zumo (probably deferred indefinitely)

[Yokozuna Hattorizakura 151]

I am personally not sad at all to see him go. I will just leave it at that.

[code_number3 694]

The media (including BBC) has reported Hakuho has intai, even SumoDB has purple-marked him. But no post on NSK’s twitter yet. Paperwork?

Edited September 27, 2021 by code_number3

[rhyen 1,808]

2 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Some goss was that Hakuho's Magaki acquisition was insurance not just for himself, but also for Terunofuji (at the request of Isegahama). If he had gotten his ichidai-toshiyori, Magaki was there for Terunofuji in case he had to retire early, because if he hadn't been promoted, he would only have had 3 years for jun-toshiyori as an ex-ozeki, which wouldn't have been enough time till Isegahama's handover to ex-Aminishiki. But now that Terunofuji is yokozuna and entitled to 5 years' jun-toshiyori, and since Isegahama is on the wrong side of 60, the stars align for Terunofuji to retire as Terunofuji-oyakata and take over Ajigawa when ex-Aminishiki takes over Isegahama. So that's completely moot; Terunofuji won't need Magaki after all.

Whether Magaki is available to be loaned out to ichimon rikishi who need one temporarily is a different matter altogether. Takarafuji and Kaisei are a little old for sekitori and might soon be in need of one, but ex-Koboyama's Takashima will become available almost together with Miyagino (+- a week), and either of the active rikishi mentioned can hang on for a year, surely.

More likely, Hakuho will become Magaki, then swap toshiyori with Miyagino whenever for ex-Chikubayama to become Magaki-oyakata as sanyo. His retirement now is actually pretty nice timing - the usual one year-ish to learn the ropes, then a swap in August next year when Miyagino hits 65.

The curveball now is if the board decides to grant the ichidai toshiyori after all, because they're not theoretically bound by the report. Then it's anyone's guess what happens to the Magaki stock.

Also, considering Hakuho has significant funds at his disposal, I wonder if he will relocate, or build a new stable.

The current Miyagino stable building was probably commissioned by Hakuho himself.

[Benihana 1,901]

Wow, even "Der Spiegel" has a story.

https://www.spiegel.de/sport/nach-1187-siegen-erfolgreichster-sumoringer-der-geschichte-will-angeblich-zuruecktreten-a-3b5aae37-87c9-4eaa-903e-2accc87f8469

[Eikokurai 3,433]

2 minutes ago, Benihana said:

Wow, even "Der Spiegel" has a story.

https://www.spiegel.de/sport/nach-1187-siegen-erfolgreichster-sumoringer-der-geschichte-will-angeblich-zuruecktreten-a-3b5aae37-87c9-4eaa-903e-2accc87f8469

They probably thought it was Hasselhoff retiring.

[junsan 170]

Kublai Khan of the dohyo. A historical force of nature and the greatest Yokozuna who ever lived. Abayo!

[Highway 46]

Is this true?? That is massive if so.

But....please don't tell me we were deprived from seeing Hakuho one last time in the ring because of Covid, or more specifically Covid restrictions? Surely that is not how the most legendary career of all time will go out? If he is injured again I understand, but if not surely he deserves to go out with a bang in November?

Edited September 27, 2021 by Highway

[Seiyashi 4,071]

5 minutes ago, Highway said:

Is this true?? That is massive if so.

But....please don't tell me we were deprived from seeing Hakuho one last time in the ring because of Covid, or more specifically Covid restrictions? Surely that is not how the most legendary career of all time will go out? If he is injured again I understand, but if not surely he deserves to go out with a bang in November?

Probably the knee. He took part in the combo practice, and probably felt his knee wasn't up to it.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Hakuhonofan 334]

To continue with my previous short comment, I just want to add:

For as long as I've known Hakuho, he's devoted his life to sumo in and out of dohyo ever since he joined.

Out of the dohyo, he's a family man through and through--so devoted to his wife and children. To his friends, he's a fun person to be with, a gentleman, a sport-loving person , generous, kind (especially to kids and elderlies), and is always very down to earth to fans.

In the dohyo, he's a proud Mongolian-born warrior who knows winning is his ultimate goal. He trained harder and  longer hours than anybody else, and always seeked self improvement and enlightenment from other martial arts masters when he came across his walls. 

For the first half of his yokozuna career, he was criticized as being boring--while he was trying to live up and embodied the very "hinkaku" the Japanese always held high in yokozuna for. 

He went on and was the very pillar of sumo while sumo was riddled with scandals. He broke record after record, and still people said he was boring for being too dominant. 

When Kisenosato broke his winning streak, the Japanese reactions  were the ones that demoralized him the most, because he realized, no matter how good he could ever be, he still would never be accepted as Japanese-born champion. 

After he broke Taiho's record, the Japanese still thought he could never measure up to Taiho or Chiyonofuji. 

I found that winning yusho was what was left to his motivation after this. And Olympic... Well,  we all know how it turned out. 

Still, his love for sumo is the one turning him into a Japanese citizen to be able to give back and to coach many more youngsters for sumo's future.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Hakuhonofan

[MrGrumpyGills 119]

Yes! Finally. I'm happy to see this announcement :)

[rzombie1988 157]

I think it's the right call. He hasn't completed a full year of tournaments since 2015-2016. It's really not fair to the other wrestlers who in some cases have had to do 200 more matches where they could get injured while he got the day off. I think him staying around also made it harder for the next generation to get the spotlight put on them.

Yes, he can take a break and compete for a title, but how many other wrestlers could do the same with months to recover?

He will go down as one of the best yokozuna ever, but he was also one of the luckiest. He was very lucky to have weak competition as there was no one up to par from Asa's retirement to Harumafuji's promotion, which helped him rack up a lot of victories. He then got really lucky again in 2017 as Harumafuji got kicked out, Kisenosato never recovered from his injury, Terunofuji got demoted due to his injuries and Kakuryu was just not a consistent threat.

Don't agree with the whole Japanese citizenship thing, but I won't be going into that any further here.

Edited September 27, 2021 by rzombie1988

[Akinomaki 39,768]

The YDC was told by Hakkaku that Hakuho has filed his resignation. Chief Yano acknowledged his records but at once repeated the critical comments, that they wanted him to reflect on his deeds and show remorse. And on top, Yano wants him to show proper remorse/reflection of his conduct before he should start raising deshi as an oyakata. https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2021092700970&g=spo

Yano has the report in mind, which doubts that foreign born oyakata can properly convey the Japanese values of ozumo.

His mind is blank in respect to the many successful deshi Hakuho has already raised.

[Akinomaki 39,768]

Hakuho is mainly popular in the jungyo regions, if course especially in the cities where he is tourist ambassador: voices from Takigawa, Hokkaido, where he cultivated Hakuho rice and Osaki, Miyagi, where he was frontrunner in the support of the 2011 disaster stricken Northern areas.

Videos: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/sapporo-news/20210927/7000038658.html

https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/245076

Another video from Nichinan, Miyazaki, where he was involved in creating the imo (potato) jouchuu liquor variety "Yokozuna" http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/miyazaki/20210927/5060010723.html

Also in Kirishima, Kagoshima, he is tourist ambassador, the people want him to continue to come there - no video http://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/kagoshima/20210927/5050016370.html

Edited June 6, 2022 by Akinomaki

[Seiyashi 4,071]

Some good ground commentary from Chris: 

Didn't catch any glimpse of Hakuho, camera couldn't warm up in time to catch Miyagino when he dashed in, but he does say that Hakuho apparently decided to retire months ago, and his friends and family knew Nagoya would be his last (matches up fine with the Olympics). This next part we know, but after the zensho, the NSK asked him to continue, and he thought the COVID kyujo would be a good time to strengthen his knee. Unfortunately, it seemed the knee was "not responding to treatment", so that's when he decided to call it a day.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Sue 481]

1 hour ago, Akinomaki said:

The YDC was told by Hakkaku that Hakuho has filed his resignation.

Welp, that's about as official as official gets.

[Kintamayama 44,350]

25 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

Some good ground from Chris: 

Didn't catch any glimpse of Hakuho, camera couldn't warm up in time to catch Miyagino when he dashed in, but he does say that Hakuho apparently decided to retire months ago, and his friends and family knew Nagoya would be his last (matches up fine with the Olympics). This next part we know, but after the zensho, the NSK asked him to continue, and he thought the COVID kyujo would be a good time to strengthen his knee. Unfortunately, it seemed the knee was "not responding to treatment", so that's when he decided to call it a day.

More or less verbatim of my translation of the Nikkan report from hours ago. 

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by Kintamayama

[Seiyashi 4,071]

5 minutes ago, Kintamayama said:

More or less verbatim of my translation of the Nikkan report from hours ago. 

 

Yeah, in case any one wanted to know what was said but didn't want to hear the accent  Everyone's probably just citing the same few reports in the absence of any formal announcement from Miyagino or Hakuho himself. 

[Kintamayama 44,350]

Just now, Seiyashi said:

Yeah, in case any one wanted to know what was said but didn't want to hear the accent  Everyone's probably just citing the same few reports in the absence of any formal announcement from Miyagino or Hakuho himself. 

Except he makes it sound as if it's his scoop. 

[Kaminariyuki 497]

15 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Others have focused on Hakuho's career, eulogising it more eloquently than I could, but the exciting thing for me is that Hakuho starts his training and recruiting career in earnest. It's frankly amazing how he managed to keep winning yusho while also actively recruiting mostly decent sekitori. If Kiribayama's improvement this basho due to Kakuryu's coaching is any indication, then I can't wait to see how Hakuho's retirement - and more time that he can devote coaching as an oyakata - translates to improvements in Miyagino's present and future rikishi.

I predict that he becomes an even more successful oyakata (in terms of his heya's accomplishments on the dohyo) than he has been a rikishi/yokozuna.

We shall see, but regardless, he was something to watch. I'm glad to have had the opportunity.