Re: A question of Sumo Protocol

[abe@kaleida.com (Masumi Abe)]

The rikishi in the match are not the one to decide who won or lost. That
decision belongs to the people who are not on the dohyo. That means even
gyoji is not the one to have the right to say the last word. He is only the
one to tell the final dicision.

5 shimpan sitting around the dohyo, and four hikae rikishi sitting around
the dohyo has the rights to say about the dicision. In actual practice,
particularly in recent years, it is rare to see a rikishi claiming the
judgement of gyoji, though.

Sumo people used to say that when a rikishi touches dohyo with your hand or
finger, he will immediately notice and could not concentrate the match.
Thus he will lose even if anyone else did not notice.

There was a match during Tochi/Waka Era, a gyoji stopped a match based on
his belief that one rikishi touched dohyo with his hand and raised gumbai
to his opponent. Kensayaku (Shimpan) claimed gyoji's judgement was wrong
and let the rikishi keep playing. The time gyoji stopped the match, the one
claimed to touch the dohyo was in charge of the match with his favorite
position. Shimpan could not re-create the exact position and the rikishi
claimed to touch the dohyo ended up losing the match.

Since shimpans' eye level is about the level of dohyo, and they are in the
best position of recognizing the flying sands/salt, the best way for both
rikishi and gyoji is to keep playing unless one of shimpan claims to see
the match has ended, except the very obvious endings.

-Masumi