Muhomatsu

Just wondering how/why Sato (now Rakanji) didnt follow Nakamura Oyakata when he branched out. It seems that it was Nakamura's Nittaidai connections that brought some of those alumns to Nishonoseki, too. He seems to have missed on a lot of talent, and even someone who is from the same town/school sumo club. I bet there is a lot of stories hidden under the table about the Nakamura-Nishonoseki joint times and split.

Yet this "san'yo" extension was only granted for oyakata. The urakata (gyoji, yobidashi, and tokoyama) must all still leave at 65. Still time for something, as the age limit did not pose a threat to another term for Hakkaku. He still has a few years to get it extended to 70 so that he can get elected again in a few years.

Sosorkhuu is apparently joining Tokiwayama/Minatogawa stable. He can be seen holding the salt, apparently, in the background of this pre-Kyusho basho training photo of Fujinokawa. At least per the @boss_jonokuchi account on X/Twitter as of 10/30/25. One 11/29/25, Boss also posted wondering what Sosorokhuu's shikona could be.

Shiratama Oyakata (reached age 65 on December 6) is listed as Sanyo now at this site - not on the duties assignment site yet. We now have 11 Sanyo occupying shares. I also saw an article that Kasugano is the main force trying to push the mandatory retirement age to 70, but he seems to have lost that debate the way the elections are shaping up. He is standing down in stead of Fujishima and others from Dewanoumi to be riji. https://www.sumo.or.jp/IrohaKyokaiMember/oyakata/

... and we have a shikona for Oggi (Otgonbat) from Tamanoi-beya. TENSHŌYAMA: 天昇山 https://x.com/sumo_tamanoi/status/1980888444894343278

Rid wit us by Ak-69. Or as the twitch folks sing, “The chicken bring it on”. Is that the one you are referring to? naruto boys sing renseka.

The old timey one? The Renseika?

Would you say the same thing if Takaseido were replaced with a drunk woman? This is sexual violence and I hope you do not consider sexual violence to be "normal behaviour".

In this case, it is pretty damned clear that there is an assault and a coerced victim. We have a situation where the higher rankers are committing "power harassment" on a junior colleague. The relative power differential is very high - and the ability to "just say no" is very reduced - likely to zero. Couple this with drinking being involved - which impairs judgement of the victim ("she was drunk" will not get anyone off of a rape charge!). In fact, I would think that there is enough evidence just in those photos and storyline to pursue criminal charges (at least civilly in the US) for sexual violence. The math above clearly points to abuse - abuse that has been covered up for two years (which is another scandal on its own). We will likely see the powers that be - the same ones who have been claiming "health and safety" are paramount for the past few years - sweep this under the rug as fast as possible. The victim is likely gone, paid off with some small sum to stay quiet. The perpetrators should be finished. The boss may get a relatively small slap on the wrist (IMO) and the scandal clock reset for a few more weeks. Unfortunately, we shall all see each other again soon - under a different forum topic - with a new scandal.

The same sort of "extend and pretend" for stables with violence scandals. They all try the "cover it up and pretend nothing happened" method - until the evidence comes out. We know there was an investigation into Ōnosato and drinking with not-yet-of age disciples - let's see if during this investigation they lied about other drinking events at the stable. Takaseidō would have been 20 by Kyushu 2022 - so above the legal limit in Japan at the time of the incident. The Kyokai has come down hard on those that lied about incidents - harder than those that merely covered them up. Nishonoseki could be in big, big trouble if they denied other incidents during the Ōnosato discussions with the Kyokai. Now we can add sexually violent hazing to the underage drinking at the heya. Will there be voices saying that Nishonoseki Oyakata needs additional training on how to be a good stable master? Will his stable be taken away for an indeterminant time? He is on the shinpan duties - will he be demoted in the hierarchy and lose those responsibilities? Where was Nakamura Oyakata during this - It is his current man - Tomokaze - that was the senior person present during these events. Will he get punished too? Tomokaze? Kirinryū? Gone? There is almost a natural experiment here - two recently retired Yokozuna who have their own "new" stables and now have violence within. Will punishments be similar? Or will we see some clear favoritism emerge? While there was theft and violence at Miyagino, it was not sexual violence. Let's see... will the judges/juries be fair. The cover up at Miyagino did not last as long. This is over 2-years of a cover-up at Nishonoseki...

I am not a fan of the gaslighting here, and only trying to compare it to the Hokuseihō case does not excuse the fact that Tobizaru may not just be an a$$hole. if true, the underlying problem is that the perpetrators do not see their stablemates as fellow human beings. When that happens, it’s only a matter of time before much worse things happen. If Tobizaru does not recognize some basic human attributes and dignity in his fellow stablemates, it’s only a matter of time before things can get much worse for them. It’s not a case of apples and oranges. It’s a case of being able to tell right from wrong and to treat fellow humans decently.

Here is another article: https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/202501160000520.html

Here is what I see as the real problem: The NSK and various official media have good recaps of the top division (the wrestlers people PAY to see). We can find these clips for free on NHK or on official digests. Access to the top division is not the problem. The problem is access to the lower divisions - you know, the non-salaried wrestlers that fight in front of a mostly empty stadium. There are a lot of fans that want to support these wrestlers and watch them develop into talent - or to just admire how they keep up with this difficult life style for years without much hope of ever making sekitori. This is what is lost whenever sites like Natto are struck down. These matches are not available elsewhere - and when the NSK did set up a paywalled stream - the price for this additional coverage was too crazy - we could still see the top guys for free on NHK - so the only added content for the price was lower rankers. It made no sense. I do not have hours to watch sumo either - job, family, puppy, etc. The digests of Makushita and Juryo supplemented the existing top division digest and made it watchable on days I had the time. Added to that are stats (Natto) and excellent commentary (Kinta), and you end up with something that provides value to viewers. I imagine that Natto and Kinta (and others) make good bank - and if you take their hourly earnings times the volunteer hours(days/weeks) they put into their production - you can see how much it really costs to make these labors of love. While expensive to Natto or Kinta individually, its pretty cheap compared to overall budget of the NSK - and I guarantee that a subscription cost less than that of Twitch would put any official effort in the black quickly and eliminate the need for non-official streams. I know that Natto and Kinta love what they are doing - but if there were a sufficiently good official product that rivaled theirs, I bet they would consider intai and to devote those hours to job, family, puppy, etc. I understand official media wanting to keep ownership of their production (but they should also acknowledge ownership of the value add provided by Natto, Kinta, and others... That just seems a waste to throw away each strikedown). There is intellectual property these streamers produce that is not properly safeguarded. The NSK is cleraly leaving money on the table by not working to monetize their full slate of matches. This has been going on for years, and I have written them letters (no response). To me, it is quite clear the organization is not motivated by profit - meaning they have other reasons behind their efforts to keep sumo out of the eyes of foreigners. Maybe a new Rijicho will think differently. It will be many years before someone with a more open attitude takes control. In the meantime, we will see the numbers of rikishi continue to fall and the future of the organization will look difficult.

Saying the silent part out loud! I think you can easily see a decline in power/speed/energy in quite a few wrestlers since their COVID infections. And these are guys who "build their body" to be at a peak performance. Imagine what is happening to the "average Joe" with multiple infections each year. This will be a long-term crisis with implications on potential economic growth (less labor productivity and more illness/outages) and on country fiscal positions (more health care costs). Large price to pay coming up.

Thanks. Sort of stuck stateside.... To all those reading who want to make a buck, there is a customer if you stock up on those magnets!