With the banzuke release, many media outlets have posted familiar shots of promoted sekitori standing outside their stables duly pointing out their shikona. Endo’s sanyaku debut features prominently. Somewhat less prominent is the work rikishi perform inside their stable walls, fulfilling obligations to their fans. Social media is great because we get more insight into this side of the stable life.
Stories from Meisei, Kiribayama, and Toyonoshima‘s Instagram feeds have given us glimpses, over the past 24 hours, of the “administrative” workload they and their stablemates share. The fat stack of banzuke below (Toyonoshima) are painstakingly folded by hand, sorted, and mailed to the stable’s supporters. Somehow, I doubt they are allowed to invest in a folding machine.
Hey, send a batch of those to England. I’ll fold and post 100 of them as long as I can keep an official banzuke for my wall.