Japanese Sumo Association

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The Japanese Sumō Association ( Japanese 日本 相撲 協会 , Nihon Sumō Kyōkai ) is the defining organization of professional sumō in Japan .

history

The Kanjin Sumo of the Edo period can be regarded as a forerunner : the fights were held at that time to raise funds for the repair or new construction of bridges, temples, shrines and other public buildings. Tokugawa Ieyasu had banned "wild" sumo on the streets and stipulated that it could only take place for charitable purposes. Of course, the rikishi , i.e. the wrestlers, were also paid from the proceeds. So here were the first organized competitions with paid wrestlers. Written ranking lists ( banzuke ) were introduced, on which the Kanjin-Osumō appeared as an organization from 1761 : "Sumō" became "Osumō", the "great" or professional sumo.

A sumo fight around 1860.

The Meiji Restoration abolished the feudal system of the Shogun period in the 19th century . As a result, the daimyo , who had previously guaranteed the financing of the fighting, fell away. The association also went through a change in which the now familiar system of salaries and directors was introduced. In 1884, the Meiji Emperor watched a fight, which helped make sumo a national event.

In the early 20th century, the sport was hosted by two competing federations based in the two historical centers of sumo, Tokyo and Osaka .

In the 1920s, the Tokyo Association offered the Osaka association to merge. In 1927 the associations of Tokyo (88 Toshiyori or "Elders") and Ōsaka (17 Toshiyori ) merged to form the Dai-Nihon Sumō Kyōkai after the new ranking of the wrestlers had been established through a series of fights - and in which there were sometimes dramatic changes in rank came: An Ōzeki of the Ōsaka association even found himself in the Makushita division. The yokozuna were retained, probably so that all sides could save face.

The first chairman of the directors was Lieutenant General Hirose Masanori, who led the association from 1928 until his death in 1938. In 1944 a successor was elected, with Fujishima Hidemitsu becoming a former wrestler for the first time. After the war, the association was further modernized. Today the Nihon Sumō Kyōkai is subordinate to the Japanese Ministry of Education .

organization

Membership can be acquired by purchasing or inheriting shares, of which there are 105. The value of these shares is extremely high and can only be bought by ex-sumo wrestlers who have either reached a San'yaku rank in their career or who have fought a significant number of fights in the top two divisions; H. longtime sekitori . Each share is assigned a specific name, which the purchaser uses in the sumo world with the epithet oyakata . The owner of the Dewanoumi share is known, for example, under the name Dewanoumi-oyakata .

An exception is made for the particularly successful former yokozuna , who are offered membership regardless of the purchase of shares. This regulation was first practiced in 1971 when Taihō Kōki joined the association. Kitanoumi Toshimitsu and Takanohana Kōji also became members in this way. Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, on the other hand, declined and preferred the usual route to membership by buying a regular share. At the end of their careers, all four wrestlers could look back on more than twenty tournament victories.

The members of the association receive a salary. They are expected to assist in the various tasks of the organization. This can range from selling tickets to chairing an entire department. The Shimpan (judges) are also members of the association. These must have the rank of committee member or be former yokozuna or Ōzeki .

Members of the association are also the only ones allowed to train new sumo fighters. The training takes place in "stables" ( heya ), which also bear the name of the respective share. The stable of the owner of the Dewanoumi share is called Dewanoumi-beya . About half of all members train Sumōtori themselves, the rest belong as assistants to foreign stables. The highest members of the association often delegate the management of their stables to other members so that they can concentrate on the tasks in the association. In this case, they also swap their names so that the stable can keep a possibly particularly prestigious name.

The members of the association are divided into different ranks. Ordinary members are oyakata , while former Ōzeki and yokozuna are given a seat on the committee when they join, the members of which are otherwise provided by particularly experienced members of the organization. At the top is a group of elected riji or directors who make up the board. The face of sumo in the Japanese public is the chairman of the directors, the rijicho . In a sense, he is the president of the association. Kitanoumi Toshimitsu currently holds this post.

All members must retire at the age of 65. You can pass on your shares, but the new owner must meet the association's acquisition regulations.

criticism

For decades there have been repeated allegations against the association. Most recently, it was Itai Keisuke, a former rikishi who was divorced in a dispute, who accused the association of using his knowledge to resolve the majority of all fights through unauthorized agreements ( yaocho ), in which money occasionally flows. In fact, the authors of the book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything were able to show that wrestlers who needed a kachi-koshi win in their last tournament match , statistically unexpectedly, won when their opponent had already reached kachi-koshi . From this they concluded that there must be a hidden system of agreements in Japanese professional sumo. The subject has become even more explosive since the deaths of two former wrestlers, Kan Konosuke and Hashimoto Seiichiro, who both suddenly fell victim to sudden illnesses on April 14, 1996 after their announcement of revelations.

To this day, the association refuses to give top female politicians to hand over trophies to the tournament winners, as women in Shintō are considered unclean because of their menstruation .

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