Wait what? What happened?
I assume this is additional fallout of the Hokuseiho scandal
As you likely know, Hakuho was stripped of his stable last year and forced to be a lowly coach under Isegahama-oyakata. But Isegahama is retiring, and there is still no move by the Association to give Hakuho his heya back. He’s fed up over it, and has zero intention of continuing at Isegahama-beya, this time now under Terunofuji, who will assume the name and the stable, and whom Hakuho continues to be beneath him in career achievement.
Doesn’t everyone else think his career achievement is beneath Hakuho too? Including Terunofuji.
Doesn’t really matter what they all think. In Japan’s (and sumo’s) strict adherence to hierarchy, at Isegahama stable Terunofuji will be the reigning Oyakata and Hakuho a mere coach who works under him.
It’s not surprising that Hakuho finds the situation untenable, and I’m sure Terunofuji does as well, for that matter.
This is not hinkaku at all.
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In Japan, when a company identifies a worthless employee, they don’t fire them. Instead, they give them the desk next to a window with a nice view. And no work to do. Eventually the employee can no longer bear the shame & embarrassment, and quits on his own.
Looks like Hakuho’s had the window desk all along.
Sounds like a pretty good gig to me. I’d take that deal.
Serious question: I thought “window seats” were a thing of the past. Are they still a thing?
It’s still a thing. As is being assigned to a department of one with no work and no colleagues.
So it was just made official. Hakuho is out.
Sad day for sumo.
Wild that the greatest wrestler of all time messes up his own legacy like this.
It was destined to end like this from the beginning. The Kyokai simply doesn’t tolerate big personalities like Hakuho, or Takanohana before him.
Even upon becoming an Oyakata and remaining in sumo he was forced to sign a pledge to behave, something unheard of before. And though other Oyakata have had similar issues at their own stables, none were subjected to the same type of punishment that Hakuho was.
They were looking for any excuse to exile him, and unfortunately, Hakuho didn’t have enough sense to ensure that didn’t happen.
so is he a billionaire and an uber celeb for life or did he really hurt himself financially?
He’s not a billionaire by any means but he should be quite well off financially. And his fellow exiled Mongolian Yokozuna friends Harumafuji and Asashoryu are doing quite well for themselves, so no reason to think that he won’t as well.
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So what does he do now? Commercials?
Running a restaurant seems to be a popular choice for former rikishi.
The trope is at that restaurant is the best way to turn a big pile of money into a much smaller pile of money. I can’t imagine it is that different in Tokyo where the competition is fierce.
I guess he can’t just buy a car dealership like some pros do here.
Nope. Word on the street is that he’s planning on launching an international pro sumo league based jointly in Japan and in the US.
He’ll have a press conference announcing his intentions in the coming days once he returns to Japan from Mongolia, where he’s currently visiting.
Most rikishi who open restaurants specifically open chanko nabe joints specializing in the food enjoyed by rikishi at stables. And most often these are opened by the lower-ranked guys who were actually in charge of cooking all the meals and so have polished cooking skills.
Though there are exceptions. Recently retired rikishi Chiyotairyu opened a yakiniku (grilled beef) restaurant a couple years ago. Look him up, he looks a LOT different now.
And though it won’t be his main gig, Hakuho already actually does have either his own yakiniku place or one he’s heavily invested in.
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he should get the saudis to dump a ton of money into it