What happened with Homarenishiki?

[rzombie1988 157]

Saw that he retired, what happened? Seemed like he went through a whole lot of trouble and time to just retire like that.

[Benevolance 2,482]

He got hit so hard by Konishiki in training that he changed his shikona to Homarefuji.

[Gaijingai 1,549]

He got bullied at the heya and quit.

[hamcornheinz 839]

5 hours ago, Gaijingai said:

He got bullied at the heya and quit.

no one knows, spreading rumors helps exactly nobody. 

[bettega 431]

 

8 hours ago, hamcornheinz said:

no one knows, spreading rumors helps exactly nobody. 

 

Not true. You're always posting the same, trying to bury the topic, but we know differently. Brodi's father:

 

On 10/18/2016 at 04:30, Landmine950 said:

This is closest to the truth.

 

Commenting this:

 

On 9/14/2016 at 20:32, gunner said:

A fine young man. I believe an injury was not being treated successfully to his perception  coupled with a constant Bullying that was allowed to get out of hand and was racially motivated. made it impossible to continue. 

And in the press we had this:

 

On 10/15/2016 at 10:17, Akinomaki said:

It appeared now, in 3 parts

http://www.dailyshincho.jp/article/2016/10051600/?all=1
The local koenkai head gets furious about the wedding etc. and steps down in the end
- the oyakata needs dialysis but eats tempura and sushi like before
- plastic dishes as presents for the wedding guests
- the oyakata rather than marry turned into the patron of a soprano singer

http://www.dailyshincho.jp/article/2016/10060700/?all=1
Homarenishiki leaves, the oyakata punishes 3 rikishi, thinking "We may get sued" "It may turn into an international problem". 2 of the 3 leave the heya in disgust, one other not involved is sick of it and also leaves: 4 rikishi gone, without danpatsu-shiki. The oyakata doesn't stop them, rather says "weaklings are of no use".
Another one leaves for home: only 3 remain in the heya, but 2 of the 5 gone are still heya members (Kaminoyama and Shinshunishiki), which means the oyakata still gets the allowance from the kyokai for them.
http://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi.aspx?shikona=&heya=58&shusshin=-1&b=201609&high=-1&hd=-1&entry=-1&intai=-1&sort=1

http://www.dailyshincho.jp/article/2016/10070700/?all=1  Recap, the oyakata denies it all and defends his wife - vs. the failure of the first engagement of Nishikido with a marriage swindler and now he gets exploited by his wife, who doesn't care about one koenkai head lost: "there are many others"

 

 

 

 

So yes, Brodi was bullied a lot and his oyakata wasn't there for the heya (because of wife/disease).

[Asashosakari 18,958]

It's a shame this forum doesn't offer any feature that lets one discover prior conversations about a given topic.

[bettega 431]

15 minutes ago, Asashosakari said:

It's a shame this forum doesn't offer any feature that lets one discover prior conversations about a given topic.

Like a Search? That would be nice.

[rzombie1988 157]

2 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

It's a shame this forum doesn't offer any feature that lets one discover prior conversations about a given topic.

Guess you'll just have to deal with it.

[hamcornheinz 839]

On 23/11/2016 at 18:05, bettega said:

 

You're not in the best of moods are you? I think anyone with an amount of experience in life knows that you shouldn't talk about stuff you don't know well, much less something which is explicitly being kept secret, especially if it's this personal, much less make rash speculation. Any wrong detail, wrong connotation, could end up slandering someone or hurting someone. Gossip helps exactly no one. 

[bettega 431]

On 11/26/2016 at 04:16, hamcornheinz said:

You're not in the best of moods are you? I think anyone with an amount of experience in life knows that you shouldn't talk about stuff you don't know well, much less something which is explicitly being kept secret, especially if it's this personal, much less make rash speculation. Any wrong detail, wrong connotation, could end up slandering someone or hurting someone. Gossip helps exactly no one. 

Maybe I was in a bad mood, for what I apologize.

I'm not without some life experience and the main point I disagree is about the secrecy and privacy - we're talking about public rikishi, fighting in public for the public. I don't know exactly the way of the money in sumo, but I doubt it's all private, with no public input. I think, for respect to Homare and the sumo fans, that we (the fans, the public) have a right to know what has beeing doing to the sportsmen we cheer for. I know that openess, clarity and trueness can take you a long way.

[Bumpkin 438]

I agree.  In a perfect world, everything you wrote would be true.  However, ozumo ain't perfect.  Although, our love for it is.  Suffice it to say, we now know all we will ever know about Brodi's reasons for leaving ozumo.  He has, apparently, moved on with his life.  So should we.

[Kintamayama 44,635]

8 hours ago, bettega said:

Maybe I was in a bad mood, for what I apologize.

I'm not without some life experience and the main point I disagree is about the secrecy and privacy - we're talking about public rikishi, fighting in public for the public. I

Sumo is BUILT on "secrecy " and "privacy". You never know who is injured and what goes on. All you get is rumors in tabloids that get sued and always lose and the occasional ex-rikishi who sues his former Oyakata for extreme physical/mental cruelty, the trial drags on for years and in the end there almost always is some kind of agreement.  Only then do we get to peek into the "darker" side, although we are never sure if any of that stuff is true.

[bettega 431]

And that is the side of sumo I dislike  Some basho ago I found myself "too involved" and I did see some of this dark side... I had to take some time and now I try to stay above such things. Just watch and cheer - leave the politics to others, but all the Homare thing still mess with me, some way.

[robnplunder 975]

Gosh, all these (multiple threads, posts, guesses, conspiracy theories, ...) for someone who didn't and won't get too far in sumo?   The guy was big but slow and clumsy, and didn't look aggressive enough to survive in the sumo world.   I didn't see him lasting too long.  One way or the other, I thought his career will not last too long.   The only interesting thing about him was that he was from Canada.   Given that there are a lot of foreigners already in sumo, that fact wasn't even interesting to me.  ( From his beya point of view, since they get to have just one foreigner, they would love to see another foreign rikishi with better potential.   That's my negative contribution to this thread, another unproven conjecture to fuel the fire. )

[Benevolance 2,482]

I think it's mostly because he made contact with the sumo association through contacts on this site that a lot of forum took an active interest, and that he entered sumo after winning an open weight category in North America. He had seemingly good potential (though, presumably so does everyone joining sumo), and a series of unfortunate events plagued his career from the beginning. Add into the mix the only other Canadian to join sumo ran off with his translator to take up puroresu, and this is the very stuff of internet drama but with added pseudo-personal familiarity, since Brodi's father was a (brief) member on the forum.

[Benevolance 2,482]

Which is to say, if you weren't a member of the forum during the months leading up, during, and immediately following Brody's arrival and departure from sumo, then there isn't much to interest you here. 

[robnplunder 975]

2 hours ago, Benevolance said:

I think it's mostly because he made contact with the sumo association through contacts on this site that a lot of forum took an active interest, and that he entered sumo after winning an open weight category in North America. He had seemingly good potential (though, presumably so does everyone joining sumo), and a series of unfortunate events plagued his career from the beginning. Add into the mix the only other Canadian to join sumo ran off with his translator to take up puroresu, and this is the very stuff of internet drama but with added pseudo-personal familiarity, since Brodi's father was a (brief) member on the forum.

None of this is interesting.   It's all soap operatic and his sumo wrestling was not impressive.

[rzombie1988 157]

31 minutes ago, robnplunder said:

None of this is interesting.   It's all soap operatic and his sumo wrestling was not impressive.

There's very few tall guys who don't make it to Juryo. Gaga and Aoiyama aren't good at all and survive in Makuuchi. No reason to think he couldn't do the same.

You can't teach height.

Edited December 6, 2016 by rzombie1988

[robnplunder 975]

14 minutes ago, rzombie1988 said:

There's very few tall guys who don't make it to Juryo. Gaga and Aoiyama aren't good at all and survive in Makuuchi. No reason to think he couldn't do the same.

You can't teach height.

You can't teach speed either.   Homrensiki had none.

[Katooshu 3,176]

Becoming a sekitori requires a lot more than being tall, and neither Aoiyama nor Gagamaru MK'd twice in mid-sandamne. Obviously size is important, but it's just one of many factors, and I get the sense that some expected Hom to shoot up the ranking simply because of his big body.

Also, for all the talk of Brodi's size, he didnt seem very strong on the dohyo to me; sandamne guys were regularly breaking through his thrusts and tossing him around, and Chiyonoumi pushed him back like it was nothing.

I was very interested in his career because he's local to me, and reading an article about him is what got me into sumo. I have to admit that Ive also been curious about what happened, but the curiosity of strangers on the internet doesnt come first in a sensitive matter like this.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Katooshu

[hamcornheinz 839]

1 hour ago, rzombie1988 said:

There's very few tall guys who don't make it to Juryo. Gaga and Aoiyama aren't good at all and survive in Makuuchi. No reason to think he couldn't do the same.

You can't teach height.

 

Very, very, very ignorant and arrogant statement. 

[Ryoshishokunin 275]

6 hours ago, Katooshu said:

Also, for all the talk of Brodi's size, he didnt seem very strong on the dohyo to me; sandamne guys were regularly breaking through his thrusts and tossing him around, and Chiyonoumi pushed him back like it was nothing.

You are aware he had multiple surgeries and so on while that was going on, right? There were several basho he didn't train for *at all* due to health problems that required the knife. 

[Asashosakari 18,958]

Gagamaru isn't even that tall...

A selection of tall rikishi (190+ cm) who haven't made it anywhere near juryo, or in case of early retirement didn't show anything to indicate that they could (debuts after 2000):

Daishodake
Teraomaru
Orora
Kotokaneko
Nakatsunishiki
Daishowaka
Echizenyama
Yamane
Tochiminato
Otakayama
Yoyonohana
Kitasatsuma
Komatsukasa
Kasugashin
Hokutoo
Kosei
Kaminoyama
Oazuma
Dewanojo
Dewaizumi
 

[Katooshu 3,176]

10 hours ago, Ryoshishokunin said:

You are aware he had multiple surgeries and so on while that was going on, right? There were several basho he didn't train for *at all* due to health problems that required the knife. 

I was commenting on his actual performance, not some hypothetical performance in which he didn't have those problems. Injury is a huge part of sumo, and one's resistance to major problems like that,  as well as their ability to perform when not 100 percent, are significant aspects of their prospects in the sport.

Maybe he could've gotten much better, and I imagine that he would've made at least some improvement over time, but in reflection I don't really see what he brought aside from size, and I think that quality was a bit overplayed.

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Katooshu

[robnplunder 975]

I saw all the Homarenshiki's bouts on video.  He just didn't have the speed, athleticism, and aggression to go anywhere.  Likely both Homarenshiki and the beya realized it and came to sensible, mutual decision.   If he had unmistakable potential, I'd think that more efforts would have been made to keep him going by everyone interested.  
 

He may have been forced out but such is life in sport where they allow only limited foreign player.   That limited "spot" is important to beya's success, prestige, etc..   The foreigner has to be exceptional to make it worthwhile for the beya to apply its resource.   Otherwise, the pressure will be on the foreigner to vacate the spot.   This is true for other sport, not just sumo.   E.g, in J-League soccer where there is a limit of 3 (I think) foreign players, if they don't perform immediately, they won't last too long in the team.  The team will not wait to replace them with other foreign players.   Homarenshiki was given an ample time to show his potential, given his status as an "import" player.   For him to stay, I thought he had to rifle through the lower division and into juryo in short time.