Re: Banzuke release and secrecy questions.

[Jan de Veen <chijanofuji@planet.nl>]

Hmmm. we seem to have a discrepancy here then!

According to Grand Sumo Fully Illustrated the Gyoji does not start to draw up the 
official banzuke (4 times larger than the printed versions) until 20 days before 
its release, which leaves the "maki" (= the final draft banzuke on a scroll, which is 
finished during that banzuke ranking conference three days after senshuraku) in a safe
for a considerable amount of time indeed, as well as giving the gyoji potentially far 
more time to draw the official banzuke if he had started right after the "maki" was 
finished! :-)

Could somebody "in the know" please settle this? :-)

Alexander Herrmann wrote:
> > Now, for me this raises a number of questions:
> > 1. Why is this "maki" put in a safe for such a long period of time
> > before the actual banzuke is made? Why not make the banzuke straight
> > away? What, for that matter, is the (probably historic or symbolical)
> > reason for the release of the banzuke 13 days before the start of a
> > basho?
> 
> Here's what I found in "Sumo - Kampf der Giganten" (Fight of the
> Giants) by German Eurosport commentator A. v. d. Groeben:
> 
> Three days after senshuraku the committee meets and decides the final
> banzuke (they seem to make some pre-versions also in the last days of
> the basho).
> Then the gyoji (apperently only one) writes the banzuke four times
> increased, as in ancient times still by brush. This takes about two
> weeks. The printing of this "raw banzuke" takes another two weeks and
> is made by a company in Tokyo. They work for more than 30 years for
> the Kyokai now, so the workers have probably always kept to the pledge
> of secrecy.
> 
> With the banzuke being finally printed, there are only two weeks left
> until the basho starts, so the 13 days aren't that symbolic as you
> might think :-)
> 
> ~Tamanaogijima

-- 

Greetings from a Sumo fan from the Netherlands,

Jan "Chijanofuji" de Veen

The Sumo Colosseum - http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/6136/