Surprise!
Team Tachiai has been well motivated by Herouth’s fantastic jungyo coverage, so Andy, Josh and Bruce took to Skype to discuss the jungyo, Mitakeumi’s yusho, “Sumo Lite” at Nagoya, the health of the kadoban rikishi, and a quick run through our “ones to watch” list.
Take a listen to the audio, we will have the video podcast up later this weekend.
Don’t get your expectations high on any YDC “laying down the law”. First, they can’t do that. They are an advisory body. Their mandate applies to Yokozuna, and their tools are limited to individual recommendations. They can warn someone or console him or recommend that he retire etc., but they can’t lay down any general behavioral guidelines – especially when nobody is asking for their opinion.
Second, they have been very indecisive as of late, and I get the impression that there are two factions there – the one led by chairman Kitamura – the association for the preservation of Kisenosato, and the ones who want to see real Yokozuna doing real bouts in honbasho. This internal friction seems to cause very lukewarm announcements coming out of every deliberation meeting.
And the soken is not even a deliberation meeting. And they actually don’t have any say about anybody who is not a Yokozuna or a Yokozuna candidate. So it will be a nice show, and they will say lots of praises or give a lot of admonitions – but now laws will be laid by that bunch of geezers.
Oh completely understood. But I suspect that the YDC is frequently a voice for the intent of the NSK. I would guess that it would be the NSK who would be looking to cull the ranks, and they would use the YDC to handle most of the public discussion that broaches the subject.
Enjoy these, thanks guys.