Retirements after Aki 2024

[Akinomaki 40,701]

The lower rank retired from Nikkan

Aoi

o

Daiseiryu

o

Hokutoiwa

o

Hokutonami

o

Koshinoryu

o

Satotanaka

o

Michihaya

o

Kotoyusho

o

[Asashosakari 19,590]

41 minutes ago, Koorifuu said:

I had a quiet hunch on Kotoyusho and on how the thumping he received at high makushita was probably the killing blow on his career since it became apparent he'd never get to juryo again.

Glad that he's got the wakaimonogashira role, though.

I wonder if he's essentially the replacement for Hananokuni, or if the timing is coincidental. Going by the acknowledged capacity of 8 there are still two spots open, but they've been open for two years, so maybe they've decided they don't need the full complement anymore.

A nice story, in any case, considering the fairly non-standard way that Kotoyusho ended up in professional sumo; the Fandom wiki has a good summary. He's definitely not one of the typical sumo lifers who tend to become wakaimonogashira or sewanin, so he must have presumably left a very good impression in his relatively short active career.

[Yokozuna Hattorizakura 153]

Kotoyusho had a weird career. somehow snuck into juryo after a quiet string of 4-3s, dropped after a short stay, and did nothing relevant after. I thought they were phasing out the wakaimonogashira roles, so good for him getting it.

[Akinomaki 40,701]

The danpatsushiki of Daiseiryu at the senshuraku party of Kise-beya, from the heya YT channel, as promised in the previous video

 

[Akinomaki 40,701]

On 20/09/2024 at 08:49, Akinomaki said:

Kimura Shonosuke of course, and "strongest ever" wakaimonogashira Hananokuni turns 65 on Oct. 15th and retires after this basho - after about 30 years as urakata. No plans for the future "I want to earn enough to go to the sento (public bath)" - when he's not at the basho he relaxes there after a 2h walk. On day 6 he had his last appearance on NHK as 2nd low div. commentator.

his one kinboshi win, against Hokutoumi Aki 1989

 his other famous bout is that at the 1000th win of Chiyonofuji 

o

NikkanSP Premium had the Hanokuni story today, he turned 65 yesterday and officially retired, with the Tokoname jungyo as his last day as wakaimonogashira - no mention if he actually was there. As m1e highest ranked ever as a wakaimonogashira, at present 38 of the 103 oyakata have a lower highest rank than his.

2/3rd of the article behind the paywall, but all pics are accessible for free

o

last day at a basho - at the award ceremony for Onosato

ooo o o

o o

at the award ceremony Natsu 1995, in his 3rd basho as wakaimonogashira at the 3rd basho of Takanohana as yokozuna

oo

 

active career - Haru 1975 ichiban shusse

o

Aki 88: 10th win on day 12, vs. Konishiki in their first meet - his 1 sansho, kantosho

oo

Kyushu 88 - loss to Chiyonofuji, another benchmark in the career of the yokozuna: surpassing Taiho's record of consecutive wins, most post-war

o

Hatsu 1989, tachimochi for Onokuni

o

Aki 89 - day 1 win against Konishiki,

o o

day 2 the 1 kinboshi, from Hokutoumi

oo

o

[dingo 1,281]

When I first started following sumo and a bit later learned about the kyokai system, I initially thought all oyakata must be illustrious rikishi like yokozuna or ozeki. It just seemed appropriate that only the most experienced and strong rikishi would be chosen to guide new wrestlers. Soon after I realised that there's too many heya and not enough top ranks, so former sekiwake and komusubi come into play. Still I was thoroughly surprised to find out there are some oyakata who have only reached the bottom of maegashira. Only being relative in this case compared to my initial idea of oyakata being ozeki or higher. Compared to that it's intriguing to have a wakaimonogashira who's had a better career than some oyakata. 

[Vulch 3]

On 16/10/2024 at 10:47, dingo said:

I initially thought all oyakata must be illustrious rikishi like yokozuna or ozeki. It just seemed appropriate that only the most experienced and strong rikishi would be chosen to guide new wrestlers.

I remember a comment made during a programme from the days when Channel 4 showed highlights that said yokozuna and ozeki quite often made terrible coaches because they had relied on natural talent to get to the top ranks and found it really difficult to break down their methods in to something they could pass on. The lower ranks did better when training others because they'd had to keep trying different things to get to where they peaked.

[Gurowake 4,096]

On 16/10/2024 at 05:47, dingo said:

Compared to that it's intriguing to have a wakaimonogashira who's had a better career than some oyakata. 

It's all about whether you can get a kabu.  It's not that he didn't have enough tournaments as a sekitori, but he didn't have the connections or the right timing to get the stock.  There are some oyakata who had much better luck with this.  And it's not like there aren't guys of his caliber or better recently that haven't gotten kabu (Chiyotairyu, Shohozan) and while some of that might be the sanyo that exist now that are hogging some of them, there's always going to be people at some level that aren't quite as lucky as those that might have had worse careers. 

[RabidJohn 1,849]

There's also the canny Sadogatake route (which can be independent of rank achieved): marry the boss's daughter, then hang on until he reaches retirement and inherit both kabu and heya.

But the sanyo thing has probably made that less straightforward.

[Katooshu 3,313]

He hasn't aged much

[dingo 1,281]

On 17/10/2024 at 19:35, RabidJohn said:

There's also the canny Sadogatake route (which can be independent of rank achieved): marry the boss's daughter, then hang on until he reaches retirement and inherit both kabu and heya.

But the sanyo thing has probably made that less straightforward.

You'd still need to fulfil some kind of rank requirement right? Can't imagine a jonidan rikishi could become an oyakata simply through inheritance. Or are they just relying on common sense, like a low ranker wouldn't be able to marry into a kabu anyway. 

[RabidJohn 1,849]

14 hours ago, dingo said:

You'd still need to fulfil some kind of rank requirement right? Can't imagine a jonidan rikishi could become an oyakata simply through inheritance. Or are they just relying on common sense, like a low ranker wouldn't be able to marry into a kabu anyway. 

Oh, I'm sure the NSK would have found a way to prevent, say, Hattorizakura from inheriting Shikihide that way, but it's how a juryo wrestler took over Miyagino from moto-Chikubayama between 2004 and 2010.

[Koorifuu 1,016]

If I recall correctly, there's also a 'minimum sekitori basho' threshold for inheritance, but it's more lenient than the usual one.

Chikubayama was sekitori for 25 basho in total, so he wasn't horribly off the usual standards anyhow.

Edited October 19, 2024 by Koorifuu

[Kamitsuumi 401]

The whole point of the "marrying into a kabu" system is that, for the oyakata, he cannot choose who to be his son, but at least he can choose his son-in-law (based on sumo ability)

And the point of these minimum bashos is that the oyakata weren't very good with choosing son-in-laws

Edited October 19, 2024 by Kamitsuumi

[Yamanashi 3,887]

11 hours ago, Kamitsuumi said:

The whole point of the "marrying into a kabu" system is that, for the oyakata, he cannot choose who to be his son, but at least he can choose his son-in-law (based on sumo ability)

And the point of these minimum bashos is that the oyakata weren't very good with choosing son-in-laws

Well, even in the somewhat bloodless world of arranged Sumo marriages, it takes two to Tango: there's asking, and then there's accepting.

[Akinomaki 40,701]

On 25/09/2024 at 03:52, Asashosakari said:

Satotanaka (Nishiiwa)

On 25/09/2024 at 11:26, Akinomaki said:

o

Satotanaka has opted to retire after members of his family in May spammed the heya twitter with "slanderous" comments implying power harassment at the heya -  on the 14th they have shut down their twitter.

21 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

A lawyer investigated and the perpetrators have been found out: mother and grandmother of a rikishi, and also the father posted some.

10 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

the oyakata comment https://nishiiwashinobu.hatenablog.com/archive/2024/10/23

implies that he handed in the papers for a relative of Mikinosato, whose family member(s) wrote the first slander, the perpetrator(s) then signed an oath to stop doing this. The oyakata thought that was it, but member(s) of the same family posted more "slander" (apparently implication of power harassment at Nishiiwa-beya): Satotanaka retired after Aki, the younger brother of Mikinosato (ex-Wakatanaka).

18 hours ago, Kintamayama said:

I read it as Mikinosato apologising for his grandmother, mother and father, and has decided to severe all ties wit them. He also says he will do his best in Kyushu, so not retiring. Rough translation of his post on Nishiiwa's website:

This is Mikinosato. There is something I would like to tell everyone, so with my stablemaster's permission I will write it down. On X, two accounts, "It's Sunny Today" and "Melonpan," have been posting slanderous stuff against Nishiiwa stable for three months. In fact, I looked into it with a lawyer at the end of August and found out that "It's Sunny Today" is my maternal grandmother, and "Melonpan" is my mother. I have apologized to everyone in the stable, but I have not been able to apologize to all of you who support me, so I would like to take this opportunity to apologize as well. I am sorry for any discomfort caused. I feel a sense of responsibility every day, but the kind words I've received from the supporters' association and fellow wrestlers have been very encouraging. Thanks to them, I'm still able to keep working hard. I feel so happy when I finish my practice and training. I still can't write down everything I'm thinking, but from now on I'll focus on the Kyushu tournament. I'll continue to do my best at Nishiiwa stable. In July, I wanted to know the truth so I called my mother, who I thought was the most suspicious, but she denied it. No matter how many times I asked, she denied it, and I despaired at seeing my mother lie. After that, my mother and grandmother continued to slander on social media. I thought that the issue had been resolved and I had no intention of going public, but the other day I found out that my father was posting lies and speculation on social media as well, venting his frustrations about the guidance of the oyakata and the okamisan  with fabricated stories, saying things like "I will never forgive those who destroyed my family" .I was shocked and unable to forgive him, so I decided to talk. After witnessing my parents' disgraceful behavior for three months, I decided I never wanted to see my family again , so I went to the ward office and cut all ties with them. 

Nikkan article:

https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/202410240000927.html

Mother and grandmother apparently were the first ones, who apologized and signed an oath to stop this - starting May, about 100 posts came from one account, starting July 400 from another account. Posts like "I'll never forgive those who destroyed my family" or "I'm waiting to have you turn back into my son and return", which Mikinosato and the shisho classify as imagination and lies.

The oyakata had handed in the intai papers for Satotanaka, who was kyujo since Nagoya.

With this they wanted to sweep the whole thing under the carpet, but lately the father started to post as well. http://www.j-cast.com/2024/10/25496353.html?p=all

- the papers so far haven't mentioned Satotanaka, I guess the tabloids will dig into this now

Edited October 25, 2024 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,701]

On 22/09/2024 at 15:57, Akinomaki said:

Asahisho (Furiwake) has left the NSK as of today https://www.sumo.or.jp/IrohaKyokaiInformation/detail?id=664

Asahisho gets his story with 2nd (3rd) career reported by NikkanSP premium. He runs a karaoke bar for a month, 宝泉 Housen in Ginza https://www.instagram.com/kota03210721/reel/DAqLDSOvzcq/

and plans to expand his business in January

career pics

o o o o o o o o o o

now

oo o o o

[Yubinhaad 11,741]

On 25/09/2024 at 03:04, Katooshu said:

Shame Michihaya could never get healthy. He wasn't going to be a star, but 5 KK in the 6 basho he completed out of high school was a fairly good start, and it looked to me like he could eventually become one of those makushita level competitors who tests more promising upcomers. 

Michihaya's danpatsu-shiki eventually took place at Onomatsu-beya's senshuraku party after the 2025 Hatsu basho.
 

Spoiler

A member of the city council from Narashino, where the heya is located, makes a cut.

Mr Sudo, who is an advisor to the sumo club at Kanagawa Technical High School, makes a cut.

Michihaya makes his farewell speech afterwards.