Kise beya to be re-opened

[Kintamayama 45,487]

Kise beya, which was closed down in May 2010 after it was established that the Oyakata had connections to the underworld and was selling them prime tickets for the 2009 Nagoya basho, will be reopened April 1st, it was decided at the rijikai today. The rikishi of the heya were absorbed back then by Kitanoumi beya and now most of them will be returning to the re-instated heya.

"There was some discussion on the subject, but it's been two years now and it seems the Oyakata has been reflecting well on his deeds," explained Hakkaku Oyakata. So I understand the former Oyakata himself (ex-Higonoumi) will be the Oyakata.

"I was responsible for them for two years. I don't want the rikishi from both heyas to suffer (from the population explosion..) so with their future in mind, I think this is the best solution," said the Rijicho himself.

Aside - Kitanoumi, as rijicho now, is in a position to do something about that decision back then..

Edited March 18, 2012 by Kintamayama

[Asashosakari 19,606]

Never mind that Kise-oyakata isn't actually eligible to establish a heya as he has fewer than 60 makuuchi tournaments, I guess...

[Yubinhaad 11,741]

Never mind that Kise-oyakata isn't actually eligible to establish a heya as he has fewer than 60 makuuchi tournaments, I guess...

They're probably overlooking that on the grounds that he already ran the heya once before those criteria were introduced. In any case, whether he's a fit and proper person to be running a heya at all seems like the more critical question than his number of Makuuchi basho. (By the way, is Kise banned from being promoted up the oyakata ladder? Or am I mixing him up with the gambling/yaocho oyakata in terms of promotion suspensions? I can't remember if he also received such a punishment, or if the heya closure was his only sanction.)

I think such exemptions are fine in cases where it is the best for all concerned - in this case, as I think Kotoviki said when the original closure happened, Kitanoumi-beya was not really big enough to handle such a large number of rikishi. So it seems sensible for the Kise rikishi to branch back out to their own heya, and for the Kitanoumi rikishi who won't be so cramped any more.

The more recent example of overlooking the criteria, Kasugayama-beya, was also a sensible exemption. The original shisho gets to concentrate on his new riji job while the rikishi get to stay in their heya rather than see it close down.

Meanwhile, Kise gave a signed statement to the rijikai in which he promised never to cause any more problems for the Kyokai. Of course, as the heya will be re-opening on April Fool's Day, he could always say he had his fingers crossed behind his back if anything should go wrong in the future.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Yubinhaad

[Asashosakari 19,606]

(By the way, is Kise banned from being promoted up the oyakata ladder? Or am I mixing him up with the gambling/yaocho oyakata in terms of promotion suspensions? I can't remember if he also received such a punishment, or if the heya closure was his only sanction.)

Iin->Toshiyori two-rank demotion, our reports here on the forum didn't mention any promotion stoppage time in addition to that - although it's kind of implicit because it takes a few years to get promoted back through shunin to iin. He later got slapped with an explicit 3-year promotion stop (or something...) for Kiyoseumi's role in the yaocho kerfuffle though.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,606]

I'm guessing Sasanoyama and Sakumayama - who joined Kitanoumi-beya after the merger, but are pretty clearly Kise charges - will be allowed to leave with all the other ex-Kise guys...

[Yubinhaad 11,741]

(By the way, is Kise banned from being promoted up the oyakata ladder? Or am I mixing him up with the gambling/yaocho oyakata in terms of promotion suspensions? I can't remember if he also received such a punishment, or if the heya closure was his only sanction.)

Iin->Toshiyori two-rank demotion, our reports here on the forum didn't mention any promotion stoppage time in addition to that - although it's kind of implicit because it takes a few years to get promoted back through shunin to iin. He later got slapped with an explicit 3-year promotion stop (or something...) for Kiyoseumi's role in the yaocho kerfuffle though.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that, thank you.

Incidentally, I ran across this picture of a newspaper article about him just recently. He now seems to be working as a barman. (Redundant picture removed, see this post.)

I'm guessing Sasanoyama and Sakumayama - who joined Kitanoumi-beya after the merger, but are pretty clearly Kise charges - will be allowed to leave with all the other ex-Kise guys...

Wouldn't Kitanoumi (or rather, whoever is really running the heya in the Rijicho's absence) want to hang on to those two rising stars? Especially as they have a chance to complete a nice back-to-back Makushita yusho set this basho. :-)

Edited March 29, 2012 by Yubinhaad

[Asashosakari 19,606]

Incidentally, I ran across this picture of a newspaper article about him just recently. He now seems to be working as a barman:

There was another article somewhere last month, too - he was handing out flyers to promote his bar at his ex-ichimon mate Futeno's danpatsu in front of the Kokugikan. He looks a lot better in your pic than he did in the one I saw at the time...

Wouldn't Kitanoumi (or rather, whoever is really running the heya in the Rijicho's absence) want to hang on to those two rising stars? Especially as they have a chance to complete a nice back-to-back Makushita yusho set this basho. :-)

Sure, but Sakuma said he joined Kitanoumi-beya to be with his Nichidai mates (who are all Kise guys), and Sasanoyama's older brother is from the Kise group, too.

Given that Kitanoumi is letting the other ~25 go so easily, I can't imagine he'll haggle over those two.

Actually - if the "no simultaneous director + shisho" thing comes to pass, what are the odds that the rest of Kitanoumi-beya will join Kise again within the next couple of years? ;-) To be conspirazoid for a moment - getting Kise back into a shisho role now might be safer than trying to hand over Kitanoumi-beya to him directly later, when it will be quite possible that a new shisho needs to be approved by some independent body. Simply merging Kitanoumi-beya into an existing Kise-beya will likely be much easier.

Edit: Also, maybe Kitanoumi-beya just needs to make room to absorb Mihogaseki-beya soon...

Edited March 18, 2012 by Asashosakari

[Yubinhaad 11,741]

Wouldn't Kitanoumi (or rather, whoever is really running the heya in the Rijicho's absence) want to hang on to those two rising stars? Especially as they have a chance to complete a nice back-to-back Makushita yusho set this basho. :-)

Sure, but Sakuma said he joined Kitanoumi-beya to be with his Nichidai mates (who are all Kise guys), and Sasanoyama's older brother is from the Kise group, too.

Given that Kitanoumi is letting the other ~25 go so easily, I can't imagine he'll haggle over those two.

Good point.

Edit: Also, maybe Kitanoumi-beya just needs to make room to absorb Mihogaseki-beya soon...

That could be easily accomplished in January 2013 when Kitazakura takes half the heya with him to Shikihide-beya, right? (Laughing...)

[Kotosado 0]

This is probabely the earliest april fools day joke i ever came across...

[Asashosakari 19,606]

I'm guessing Sasanoyama and Sakumayama - who joined Kitanoumi-beya after the merger, but are pretty clearly Kise charges - will be allowed to leave with all the other ex-Kise guys...

Confirmed now - all ex-Kise rikishi and gyoji plus Sakumayama and Sasanoyama will be moving to the reconstituted Kise-beya.

[Yubinhaad 11,741]

Confirmed now - all ex-Kise rikishi and gyoji plus Sakumayama and Sasanoyama will be moving to the reconstituted Kise-beya.

Right. Straightforward for my survivors post at least, I can just remove the whole list of Kise > Kitanoumi rikishi.

Might be interesting to read the Banzuke Topics for Natsu if Sakumayama secures his promotion to Juryo.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Yubinhaad

[Yubinhaad 11,741]

Heh, just found the Kiyoseumi article on Asahi Shimbun; it has the same picture as the one I posted earlier and it's most probably the same text as well, but now translated.

Edited March 29, 2012 by Yubinhaad