RE: Oyakata prerequisite

[Juhani Sirkiä <jsirkia@utu.fi>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sumo@statgen.ncsu.edu [mailto:owner-sumo@statgen.ncsu.edu]
> On Behalf Of Joe Kuroda
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999 11:13 PM
> To: sumo list
> Subject: Re: Oyakata prerequisite

Joe Kuroda wrote:

> To become a heya-own oyakata, you need to have
> established a certain distinction during your active
> days - this means more or less you have at least
> achieved a Makuuchi rank.  So you may get
> Wakamonogashira who was a Makushita or Juryo rikishi
> but never an oyakata.

I seem to recall (I could be wrong) that the requirement successwise is one
full honbasho in Makuuchi division, 25 honbashos in Juryo division or 20
consecutive honbashos in Juryo division to qualify to become an oyakata. In
this context it's extremely important for an oyakata-to-be rikishi to at
least once break through the Juryo ceiling.

The current Odake Oyakata in Taiho-beya is the former juryo Dairyu. He seems
to be the only one of current oyakatas who never made it to the makuuchi so
it's admittedly very rare nowadays but not impossible, I guess.

Odake Oyakata isn't the heya-owning oyakata (shisho) as this prime oyakata
of a heya always (?) has the same name as his heya.

See Bandey's great data files at
http://www.math-inst.hu/~sali/bandey/ADATA.HTM for the toshiyori list (and
many more meticulous details!).

> There are only certain number (I think it's around
> 103) of oyakataship called toshiyori shares.  You need
> it to become an oyakata, obviously you don't get it if
> your highest career finish was a Sandanme.

The kabu number is 105, 88 from Tokyo-Zumo and 17 from Osaka-Zumo. Then
there are the two ichidai-toshiyoris (one-generation toshiyori kabu) of
Kitanoumi and Taiho which will vanish when they reach the age of 65 years or
die before that (?). As a son-in-law of Taiho Takatoriki is probably poised
to take over Taiho-beya sooner or later.

> Second you also need to have quite a bit of money to
> start and maintain a heya so it helps to have a good
> number of backers and suppoerters - and they tend to
> come only if you had a distingushed record.

Indeed :-). No wonder former juryos have a hard time reaching the oyakata
status.


Aaron Willis wrote:

> Now, do these oyakatas have anything to do with the
> coaching and training or do they have assistants to do that?
>
> <SNIP>
>
> If this is true of oyakatas, who is responsible for the coaching
> and training?

I guess this varies a lot among heyas. Many heyas have but a single oyakata,
the shisho. Therefore he's very likely to participate actively in the
training.

In some large heyas there are several oyakatas assisting shisho. I believe
the record holder in this respect is Dewanoumi-beya where there are nine (!)
oyakatas of which one is the shisho (moto-sekiwake Washuyama) and one is a
jun-toshiyori (moto-maegashira Oginohana). I guess in such a case there must
be some kind of specialisation among the oyakatas. Undoubtedly those list
members who have a real connection to large heyas can elaborate me on this.

Jussi aka Kitaseiya The Flu Patient

-------------
Juhani Sirkiä, jsirkia@utu.fi
http://users.utu.fi/jsirkia/ozumo/
Ozumo, Sport of Gods