[sumo] Judges shifts (was More WakaTaka after the Kyokai Service)

[Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>]

> At 8:10 -0400 05.6.14, Barbara Ann wrote:
> You rarely saw this on TV since all the shinpan have a couple or three
> stints a day as judges with an occasional day off. But, I am speaking from
> watching sumo every single day of 4 of the 6 basho, and 10 days of another,
> from around 11AM or so.

If you got there an hour or two earlier, or read the Japanese program, you 
would discover that all the shimpan do either one or two shifts a day. The 
first shift is not seen again round the dohyo (but of course they have 
other duties like being in the video room in case a mono-ii is called). The 
other three shifts return after the juryo dohyo-iri for a second stint, 
dropping one member in rotation to make room for one of the shimpan-bucho. 
The four shimpan groups rotate their times each day, and each member of 
each group rotates his position. If a judge is off sick one of the first 
shift normally fills in for him.

In haste,

Doreen Simmons
<jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>
[EndPost by Doreen Simmons <jz8d-smmn@asahi-net.or.jp>]