Speculation had been rife of late. Kotoeko has called it a career and will stay with the organization as Oguruma-oyakata. The Sadogatake-beya wrestler had made an impact on the top division despite being considerably smaller than many of his peers.
He debuted in Juryo for the first time in 2014 but sustained his sekitori status from 2016 until March of this year. He reached his career high rank of Maegashira 4 in 2021. Nagging injuries became apparent late in 2023. After the Osaka tournament he fell back into Makushita.
We look forward to seeing Kotoeko as a coach going forward!
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Sad day for me, but glad to see he’s staying in the sumo world!
I loved my man in lilac. He had a long run and gave it his all. Best wishes to him as Oyakata and I hope he recovers from any injuries he sustained.
Hope to see Oguruma beya get active again. Will the rikishi who were sent to other stables be able to return to Oguruma? Is there a protocol for that situation?
I don’t think you can leave an active stable, short of retirement. If your stable closes, you would go to another. But I think the Oguruma guys will have to stay with Takekaze or Yoshikaze. Now, if Yoshikaze swaps kabu and then opens his own place the guys that went with him to Nishonoseki would be with him at the new Oguruma.
That’s an interesting thought. In any event, the newly formed stable will have an Oyakata who will instill the same fire in his charges that he showed each and every match he was in. Wishing Oguruma-oyakata much success in the future.
Oyakata name lineage doesn’t equate to heya name lineage like that. Any new Oguruma-beya would be a completely distinct entity from the old one, so as Andy said the only way any previous Oguruma rikishi would become part of a new one is if their reason for going there was based on their connection to the Oguruma-oyakata who were to run it (Takekaze or Yoshikaze). Definitely not if it’s Kotoeko.
(But aside from that: Kotoeko doesn’t have heya creation rights anyway. In addition I’m not even sure if he’s owning the share, or just borrowing.)
I guess it was inevitable, but I’m very sorry to see him go. His bouts were so entertaining as he always gave 110%.
He and Ikioi. I’m eager to see if they open their own heya.
I am sad he had to retire. Injuries are a frustrating fact in this sport
I feel it’s really any sport. My favorite running back was Stephen Davis. One monster year in the pros. Think about how many pitchers get Tommy John surgery.
This is true, but the ranking system in sumo makes it especially punishing.
Get Tommy John surgery when you’re playing for in the MLB and when you recover from it you’re still probably going to be on the same team. On the other hand, if you’re an ozeki and you’ve got to take a year plus of recovery time, you’re gonna be down in sandanme when you come back, if not lower. Will you ever make it back to your prior level? Who knows?
It is very true. But which is more fair to the other guys. That pitcher is not pitching for a year but is taking a roster spot. Seems other guys could get the chance if they were sent down to the minors.
To be fair, baseball players on long-term injury leave don’t actually block a roster spot, their existence just costs extra money.
Comparing team sports to individual sports doesn’t make much sense on this topic anyway, though. Sports teams usually have a vested interest in athlete injury recovery, because they’re on the hook for the player contract and they want to get as much value back as they can, competing against other teams. In individual sports every single athlete generally has the same “employer” (the world governing body or equivalent), so the vested interest angle doesn’t exist for that entity, at least not as far as any individual athlete is concerned.
Anyway, Kotoeko is 32 and that’s really not that young of a retirement age for somebody who constantly had to punch above his weight due to his physical limitations. It just feels worse because his effectiveness as a rikishi disappeared basically overnight.
Wait, what? Baseball has an injured list, and players on the IL don’t count toward the 25-man roster, while ones on longer (60-day) IL don’t count toward the 40-man extended roster either. Similar systems in other major team sports. Nobody is taking up roster spots while sitting out for a year.
I stand corrected.