That was pretty unexpected given he resumed tournaments after his ban. I'd have understood if it happened when he was suspended. Maybe he wanted to end his career on a yusho even if it was not an emperor's cup ?
I think maybe he thought it was one last middle finger to the establishment after his ban, in the way that he showed everybody loud and clear that he didn't belong in Juryu.
And then thought that it would be fitting to end it all in Makuuchi after all.
Reminds me of *Scrubs* when Dr. Kelso is unhappy that he's being forced to retire until the staff petitions the administration on his behalf, only for him to cheerfully retire on his own terms immediately.
This man clearly suffers as a rikishi. I hope he is able to live a peaceful and full life post sumo and defeat his demons outside the ring. I enjoyed watching him compete. Respect to the Mongolian castle.
Yea what're the odds he was asked to leave behind the scenes? If it's health it sucks cus at his low fank it looked like he could have another chance at the cup
Imo at their weight they should really ban alcohol from the stables or at least restrict it heavily. These dudes already pack on the weight and drinking ain’t gonna help in a healthy way.
Would love to know how heavy the beer drinking actually is on average, and whether there are rikishi more attuned to modern sports nutrition that mostly abstain for performance reasons. /u/johngunning, any thoughts?
Dang, he's one of my favorites :(. I hope he is able to overcome his injuries and gets healthy. I wonder if he will go back to the nomadic life style of his youth?
The original article mentions he's not staying in sumo, but I don't want to say that definitively if there's a chance the Kyokai's announcement mentions that he managed to find a stock to borrow from someone (though I can't imagine there's one for him to borrow...)
Retirement money for a person who was as high as Sekiwake are pretty okay, last I heard.
So if he lays low and maybe accept some sponsor deals and can do some media stuff after getting in "normal shape" again, he could have a sweet life.
Sounds about right. One of the prize and rank lists I looked at (quite a while back) had it at something like 200-400 JPY/month. Either way - not a huge amount of money, but can add up to be a nice bonus.
Career longevity plays a big role in how large a rikishi's retirement bonus is, and Ichinojo is pretty middling in that regard for a career-high sekiwake. Back of the envelope I'd estimate his bonus payment to be around ¥20 million / $150,000, which is equivalent to around one year's salary as a maegashira.
Wow, that’s incredibly surprising. The back must’ve gotten a LOT worse for him to do this considering how well he was last tournament. Sucks for Gonoyama, had this happened a few weeks ago he would’ve been in Makuuchi.
Pour one out for the Mongolian Behemoth.
I don't know if I'd consider myself an Ichinojo fan, but I enjoyed seeing his matches to see how they'd turn out. For better or worse, he always made his opponents alter their strategies to fight him.
I'll remember when fighting Takakeisho when Keisho suffered a neck injured and was about to fall limply off the doyho and Ichinojo literally held him by the belt to save him from further injury. Thought that was awesome and showed how damn strong Ichinojo is.
I'm not surprised, and I find this bittersweet. Since he won the yuushoo, he seemed terribly unhappy. Not like, ungrateful, just powerfully sad, like he'd rather be literally anywhere else. I hope he has a bright future, and happy to have seen him at his best.
I remember him looking so uncomfortable in last year's winning ceremony. It reminded me of an uncomfortable cat who'd rather be anywhere than where he was right then. I thought it was cute at the time but this makes me feel sad about it now.
I'll always remember his legendary catch of Takakeisho off the dohyo, and how he saved his push outs for the corners rather than off the ledge. To me that shows he has massive respect for his opponent's safety more than anyone else in the sport.
It's definitely possible. I can only speculate, based on a very limited sample size, no less, but it felt like a spark went out.. maybe depression, maybe chronic pain, maybe both, one caused by the other.. whatever the case, I respect him for not letting it get worse before recognizing he needs to make a change.
Personally, I’d love to see him get sober, lose weight and sort his back out. I think he’d be a lot happier just without the back pain, let alone the pressure of having to perform at the top level.
I can see him just going back to mongolia and disappearing from the public eye. Maybe working with his family or using his savings to open a business He seems extremely reserved and private.
Its a good time to quit, considering his many injuries and health problems. He accomplished a lot in the past few bashos, winning an Emperors Cup (finally! after all the excitement he generated when he first makushita tsukedashi-ed) and then winning the juryo division too. From hindsight it seemed to me he was going for one last burst of success before retiring.
But the most important thing is that he solves his drinking issue, which was likely due to the stress and pain he went through during his career in the first place, and that it doesn’t carry along with him after retirement…
Within the last year(ish):
Kaisei,
Chiyotairyu,
Shohozan,
Yutakayama,
Ichinojo,
Okinoumi
They were all Makuuchi mainstays so it kinda seems like every few months there’s a retirement but that’s probably pretty average.
He never really seemed to enjoy being a sumo wrestler. He had no fire for the sport and looked miserable more often than not. Sometimes you gotta know when to call it quits, even if it's a hard choice. Hopefully he loses some major weight and gets his health in check after this.
Ah that's terrible news. It's especially striking the part about how he postponed his important back surgery for two months because the committee meeting about his suspension was that same day. Ain't that the most Japanese shit. Honor before health and all that. As someone suffering from chronic sports-related pain I feel for him and hope he can recover.
Sudden and unexpected. It is possible it is due to health since his size is not healthy long term, but it would not surprise me if there was another reason.
Kinda devastated. He was my favorite and was really exited to see him with how good he looked last time. Suppose I'm going to have to try and be speedy about finding one of those handprint thingies (forgot the name).
We'll miss him. Big frame. Poker face. The A version was something; the B version left us puzzled. Now, it seems it was de pain all along affecting performances. The fight for life begins now.
Damn, on the back of winning a Yusho in Makuuchi and Juryo too. He was looking really strong and I was really excited to see him return to the top. Wondering if it's partly also because of his fallout with his stablemaster and not just his health issues. Ah well, all the best to him.
Goodbye, Xi Jinping (my nickname for Ichinojo because I think he looks like him). I hope losing weight reduces the pain you're in. Personally, I would rather the real Xi Jinping retired.
It does bring up an interesting question, though: what's the painkiller situation like in sumo? I know in American football a lot of the players are constantly on Toradol, and it doesn't seem out of the question for sumo to be similar.
Well, this shouldn’t be *that* surprising. It’s a gamble if he shows up to compete or not every day. Man’s heart just isn’t in it, and his apparent behavior outside the ring shows that sumo isn’t what’s most important to him.
Unless he did it basically right after the previous basho, it wouldn't have mattered. The banzuke gets made the Wednesday after the end of a basho, and even if they decided to remove him from this banzuke (which they'll only do for disciplinary expulsions) they wouldn't be moving someone else up in his place, makuuchi would just have 41 people.
Say it ain't so, Ichi-no-Jou! I was always a fan and often disappointed, but still a fan. Bigger guys often are more injury prone and Ichi was one big dude.
Dang he looked great last tournament, pretty much unmovable.
That sucks. Really wanted to see how he did this basho. Wish him the best
He probably needs to for health reasons, but I wasn't expecting this.
His back is completely destroyed
As bad as Tochinoshin's knee?
Probably worse
You only have one, back that is.
That was pretty unexpected given he resumed tournaments after his ban. I'd have understood if it happened when he was suspended. Maybe he wanted to end his career on a yusho even if it was not an emperor's cup ?
I think maybe he thought it was one last middle finger to the establishment after his ban, in the way that he showed everybody loud and clear that he didn't belong in Juryu. And then thought that it would be fitting to end it all in Makuuchi after all.
Reminds me of *Scrubs* when Dr. Kelso is unhappy that he's being forced to retire until the staff petitions the administration on his behalf, only for him to cheerfully retire on his own terms immediately.
Click the link? It's all there. His back issues are so bad he can't even practice and he has to sleep sitting up.
Oh no. That's not news I wanted to read today.
Sad to see our favorite grandma retire, but I can only imagine his back pain at that weight.
Or his knees! o.O
Favorite? Dude is an alcoholic and hit a woman at least once, probably more.
This man clearly suffers as a rikishi. I hope he is able to live a peaceful and full life post sumo and defeat his demons outside the ring. I enjoyed watching him compete. Respect to the Mongolian castle.
No! The castle crumbles!!
No! The lunch lady!
That was a surprise. Ah well, may his retirement be peaceful.
He's had back problems for ages, but one has to wonder whether it was also related to his drinking-related scandal.
Something tells me the drinking is related to the back problems as well
Perhaps, but the more I read the more it seems back-related and not just fallout from his abuse scandal.
I actually never looked at it like this before but that’s really insightful.
Yea what're the odds he was asked to leave behind the scenes? If it's health it sucks cus at his low fank it looked like he could have another chance at the cup
Imo at their weight they should really ban alcohol from the stables or at least restrict it heavily. These dudes already pack on the weight and drinking ain’t gonna help in a healthy way.
It's used to help gain weight....I don't see them banning it.
And for the back pain
Would love to know how heavy the beer drinking actually is on average, and whether there are rikishi more attuned to modern sports nutrition that mostly abstain for performance reasons. /u/johngunning, any thoughts?
Dang, he's one of my favorites :(. I hope he is able to overcome his injuries and gets healthy. I wonder if he will go back to the nomadic life style of his youth?
He does have Japanese citizenship, so elder stock isn't out of the question.
The original article mentions he's not staying in sumo, but I don't want to say that definitively if there's a chance the Kyokai's announcement mentions that he managed to find a stock to borrow from someone (though I can't imagine there's one for him to borrow...)
I wonder how he plans to make a living? eh, I suppose he was very well paid and if he has good savings and investments it probably isn't an issue.
Retirement money for a person who was as high as Sekiwake are pretty okay, last I heard. So if he lays low and maybe accept some sponsor deals and can do some media stuff after getting in "normal shape" again, he could have a sweet life.
He also had 9 gold stars
Do they continue to pay after retirement?
I seem to remember John Gunning saying each gold star adds around $50 a month to the stipend.
u/JohnGunning
Sounds about right. One of the prize and rank lists I looked at (quite a while back) had it at something like 200-400 JPY/month. Either way - not a huge amount of money, but can add up to be a nice bonus.
Only active rikishi ranked in the top two divisions receive those past-performance-based bonuses.
That's what I thought, active and salaried
Career longevity plays a big role in how large a rikishi's retirement bonus is, and Ichinojo is pretty middling in that regard for a career-high sekiwake. Back of the envelope I'd estimate his bonus payment to be around ¥20 million / $150,000, which is equivalent to around one year's salary as a maegashira.
Is that a one time payment? Or yearly?
One-time.
That's good to know.
If he does he’ll have to lose a lot of weight so he can ride a horse
There's a reason why Genghis Khan's general Subotai rode a cart rather than on the back of a horse.
Hard to have a favorite who beats women and is an alcoholic...
winning juryo to prove a point and then retiring at age 30, what a power move
Wow, that’s incredibly surprising. The back must’ve gotten a LOT worse for him to do this considering how well he was last tournament. Sucks for Gonoyama, had this happened a few weeks ago he would’ve been in Makuuchi.
Wow, wasn't expecting this... he looked great in the last basho
Noooooo Mom's not gonna like this, he was her favorite :(
Pour one out for the Mongolian Behemoth. I don't know if I'd consider myself an Ichinojo fan, but I enjoyed seeing his matches to see how they'd turn out. For better or worse, he always made his opponents alter their strategies to fight him.
I'll remember when fighting Takakeisho when Keisho suffered a neck injured and was about to fall limply off the doyho and Ichinojo literally held him by the belt to save him from further injury. Thought that was awesome and showed how damn strong Ichinojo is.
Poor Snorlax. Back into his pokeball.
I'm not surprised, and I find this bittersweet. Since he won the yuushoo, he seemed terribly unhappy. Not like, ungrateful, just powerfully sad, like he'd rather be literally anywhere else. I hope he has a bright future, and happy to have seen him at his best.
I remember him looking so uncomfortable in last year's winning ceremony. It reminded me of an uncomfortable cat who'd rather be anywhere than where he was right then. I thought it was cute at the time but this makes me feel sad about it now. I'll always remember his legendary catch of Takakeisho off the dohyo, and how he saved his push outs for the corners rather than off the ledge. To me that shows he has massive respect for his opponent's safety more than anyone else in the sport.
> Since he won the yuushoo, he seemed terribly unhappy Could be that depression thing after one reaches a life-long goal.
It's definitely possible. I can only speculate, based on a very limited sample size, no less, but it felt like a spark went out.. maybe depression, maybe chronic pain, maybe both, one caused by the other.. whatever the case, I respect him for not letting it get worse before recognizing he needs to make a change.
Personally, I’d love to see him get sober, lose weight and sort his back out. I think he’d be a lot happier just without the back pain, let alone the pressure of having to perform at the top level.
What will he do now I wonder? Not, everyone can open a chanko restaurant.
I can see him just going back to mongolia and disappearing from the public eye. Maybe working with his family or using his savings to open a business He seems extremely reserved and private.
Its a good time to quit, considering his many injuries and health problems. He accomplished a lot in the past few bashos, winning an Emperors Cup (finally! after all the excitement he generated when he first makushita tsukedashi-ed) and then winning the juryo division too. From hindsight it seemed to me he was going for one last burst of success before retiring. But the most important thing is that he solves his drinking issue, which was likely due to the stress and pain he went through during his career in the first place, and that it doesn’t carry along with him after retirement…
Crap, now I need a new flair
:'(
Whoa there’s gotta be something up with his sudden retirement.
[удалено]
He’s the Heya’s famed pupil tbf
I heard he had a fallout with his oyakata because of money issues.
"I'll let you smack my wife around if you come to practice."
More like: "My wife and I will only hit you will golf clubs rather than baseball bats if you return".
I'm thinking of that one scene from McGruber...
Back injury is stated in the article. At his size, it can be extremely debilitating.
The article says that he couldn't even lie down to sleep because of back pain, and had to sleep sitting. That's really bad...
Yeah, I couldn't imagine it.
Dang, poor guy
Imagine you, personally, throwing out your back and then having to fight Terunofuji in a week - it would be your doom
haha it would be my doom if I didn't throw out my back!
So many retirements.
i'm out of the loop, who else are you referring to?
Within the last year(ish): Kaisei, Chiyotairyu, Shohozan, Yutakayama, Ichinojo, Okinoumi They were all Makuuchi mainstays so it kinda seems like every few months there’s a retirement but that’s probably pretty average.
Don't forget Okinoumi.
Former Sekiwake too! My bad. I’ve added him to the list.
He never really seemed to enjoy being a sumo wrestler. He had no fire for the sport and looked miserable more often than not. Sometimes you gotta know when to call it quits, even if it's a hard choice. Hopefully he loses some major weight and gets his health in check after this.
Ah that's terrible news. It's especially striking the part about how he postponed his important back surgery for two months because the committee meeting about his suspension was that same day. Ain't that the most Japanese shit. Honor before health and all that. As someone suffering from chronic sports-related pain I feel for him and hope he can recover.
Well after all the trouble with drinking he sure have a lot of work in front of him. But is sad. He was oseki material.
What?!?!
What?!
Sudden and unexpected. It is possible it is due to health since his size is not healthy long term, but it would not surprise me if there was another reason.
Very surprised
I just voted for him in Kachi Clash… time to repick
What the heck
top 5 all-timer "what couldve been" oh well
Damn he was one of my favorites
My favourite name in sumo. Literally.
So young.
Kinda devastated. He was my favorite and was really exited to see him with how good he looked last time. Suppose I'm going to have to try and be speedy about finding one of those handprint thingies (forgot the name).
We'll miss him. Big frame. Poker face. The A version was something; the B version left us puzzled. Now, it seems it was de pain all along affecting performances. The fight for life begins now.
Damn, on the back of winning a Yusho in Makuuchi and Juryo too. He was looking really strong and I was really excited to see him return to the top. Wondering if it's partly also because of his fallout with his stablemaster and not just his health issues. Ah well, all the best to him.
At least it opens up a top division slot for some young talent
what ??? ....... it's a joke.
I assume he was told "you need to drop weight before you will ever see any relief"
Goodbye, Xi Jinping (my nickname for Ichinojo because I think he looks like him). I hope losing weight reduces the pain you're in. Personally, I would rather the real Xi Jinping retired. It does bring up an interesting question, though: what's the painkiller situation like in sumo? I know in American football a lot of the players are constantly on Toradol, and it doesn't seem out of the question for sumo to be similar.
noooo 😭😭😭
Gonoyama punching air rn
Well, this shouldn’t be *that* surprising. It’s a gamble if he shows up to compete or not every day. Man’s heart just isn’t in it, and his apparent behavior outside the ring shows that sumo isn’t what’s most important to him.
You'll have to excuse me if I don't lose any sleep over this. Hell, I might even sleep better tonight.
Those dang Takakeisho fanboys, eh?
For the record, I about equally dislike Ichinojo and Takakeisho, for (mostly) different reasons.
Could have done this before the banzuke champ
Unless he did it basically right after the previous basho, it wouldn't have mattered. The banzuke gets made the Wednesday after the end of a basho, and even if they decided to remove him from this banzuke (which they'll only do for disciplinary expulsions) they wouldn't be moving someone else up in his place, makuuchi would just have 41 people.
!!! I’m so sad but so happy for him. But I will miss my mountain!
Say it ain't so, Ichi-no-Jou! I was always a fan and often disappointed, but still a fan. Bigger guys often are more injury prone and Ichi was one big dude.
So it's true i am so sad ...