The NSK board convened for a special meeting today to discuss and decide the punishment of tate-gyoji Shikimori Inosuke for his sexual assault of a junior gyoji.
As you may recall, the victim does not intend to press charges, so the tate-gyoji is not going to face any punishment other than the disciplinary measures of the NSK.
The punishment they have come up with is a three-basho-suspension. This includes:
- Suspension from three basho.
- Suspension from all jungyo occurring between those basho.
- House confinement.
- Salary docked for the suspension period.
In addition, Inosuke’s stablemaster, Miyagino oyakata, was reprimanded for the event, which happened during the jungyo, by the acting head of the jungyo department, Kasugano oyakata.
Inosuke himself was present at the board meeting, and expressed his apologies. He also took responsibility and handed in his resignation. However, the board decided not to accept it at the moment, and is set to accept it after the Natsu basho (that is, as soon as the suspension ends).
When asked if this means that Inosuke the 40th will never mount a dohyo again, Hakkaku the board chairman replied “So it seems”.
In the absence of a tate-gyoji (as there has not been a Kimura Shonosuke for the past two years), his duties will be taken by the most senior sanyaku gyoji, Shikimori Kandayu. And indeed he presided over today’s dohyo matsuri (in the picture above, with his back to us). The dohyo matsuri is a religious ceremony asking the gods to watch over the rikishi and keep them safe. Kandayu commented: “For the safety of the rikishi, I put my heart and soul in it”.
Kandayu is also set to be pointing the gunbai in the musubi-no-ichiban (last bout of the day) for the Hatsu basho.
May the basho proceed in safety and without any further disturbances.
Hopefully this does not mean the end of the Inosuke shikona.
No, that’s highly unlikely. The gyoji names, like toshiyori names, are not shikona. They are called “myoseki”. While shikona may be reused (e.g. Terao, who is a rikishi in the former Terao’s heya), they are usually given individually to the rikishi that bear them. Myoseki, however, are kept as is and the person that carries them is less important than the name.
So, in the same way that the Tokitsukaze toshiyori myoseki has continued to exist, despite the Tokitaizan scandal and the 15th Tokitsukaze’s incarceration, there will be a 41th Inosuke.
Does this mean that Shikimori Kandayu is likely to be promoted up to tate-gyoji for Haru, or are there additional considerations for reaching tate-gyoji besides just being the most senior gyoji in the Association?
Frankly, I don’t know, as there are no real precedents. But I would speculate that there will be no promotions until Inosuke’s resignation is accepted, as he is still Inosuke until he leaves the NSK. I think they will want to see the quality of Kandayu’s decisions for a while before they decide on giving him either of the available short swords.
I’ve lost track with who the involved gyoji were exactly, but a few years ago there was also the problem that at least two of the then-active four sanyaku gyoji had recurring health issues and (depending on who you believe) had declined/were considered unfit to serve as tate-gyoji because of that. In fact, aside from his propensity for misjudgements that was widely considered one additional reason why they didn’t promote Inosuke to Shonosuke…they didn’t really have a new Inosuke in the wings.
Not sure what the current status is, and of course they’ll probably have their hand forced in four months’ time because it’s unlikely that they’ll leave both tate positions open. In general it’s very rare that gyoji get to jump ahead in the promotion queue, but they’ve relaxed the seniority principles in other areas lately, e.g. very fresh oyakata now sometimes serve as shimpan, so it might not be Kandayu who gets the nod.
The fact that they have the shimpan who will call monoii, I doubt we will have more controversial results than usual. Seems the gyoji’s real impact is with calling matta. Was Inosuke the one in charge during Hakuho’s MattaGate?
Yes, it was Inosuke. Well, the call there was correct and Hakuho was in the wrong. It was also Inosuke in the call for Harumafuji’s no-matta in Aki.
NHK actually had a special “Professionals” episode about sumo, starring Inosuke, in which he talked about the Harumafuji no-matta. I was looking forward to having that episode translated and broadcast on NHK World like other “Professionals” episodes. But now I guess that will never happen.
Anyway, gyoji are judged by their calls. Inosuke was suspended in the past because he made wrong calls that were reversed in monoii. So although the shimpan can reverse them, those calls count against the gyoji.
I agree. In both cases, the no matta was the right call. And he seemed pretty well composed during Hakuho’s, in particular, like, “Dude, get up here.”
Yeah, that makes sense. I hadn’t thought of that fact that there’s still a Shikimori Inosuke until after Natsu.