[sumo] Yaocho - Taiho and Kashiwado?

[Barbara Ann Klein]

In yet another regurgitation of the yaocho story, Yomiuri refers to a 1963
claim that yokozunas Kashiwado and Taiho fixed about (see below). What is
the background on this one?
 
BRTK 
 
 
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20070209TDY20004.htm

Sumo chiefs agree to sue publisher


The Yomiuri Shimbun

Directors of the Japan Sumo Association on Thursday agreed to file a civil
suit against a publisher and writer over allegations of match-fixing at the
two most recent grand sumo tournaments. 

The board agreed to sue Kodansha Ltd. and freelance writer Yorimasa Takeda
for damages after three stories by Takeda in the Shukan Gendai weekly
magazine accused yokozuna Asashoryu of fixing 23 of the 30 bouts he fought
at the Kyushu Tournament in November and last month's New Year Tournament. 

The suit also demands a full apology to be published prominently in the
magazine. 

Sumo association officials refused to comment following Thursday's meeting,
but association lawyer Keiji Isaji told reporters: "At the board meeting,
the directors agreed this kind of reporting would escalate if there was no
response. 

"Clear measures are necessary...the association has to stand firm against
such accusations." 

Allegations of match-fixing have plagued sumo for decades. None have stuck,
however, and no wrestler has ever been kicked out of the sport for throwing
bouts. 

In 1963, novelist and future governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara accused
yokozuna Kashiwado and Taiho of fixing a bout. The sumo association filed a
criminal complaint against Ishihara, but the case was dropped when he
withdrew his allegations and apologized. 

Allegations were rife throughout the 1980s and resurfaced in 1996, when the
association filed a criminal complaint against a former maegashira who said
match-fixing was widespread. 

The case collapsed when the wrestler died under suspicious circumstances. 

In 2000, former komusubi Itai published memoirs in which he accused former
yokozuna Chiyonofuji of being the kingpin in widespread match-fixing. The
association wrote a letter of complaint to Itai, but did not sue. 

Association officials had originally planned to file a criminal complaint
against Kodansha, but reportedly ditched the plan due to the length of time
the case would take. The civil suit is in the name of the sumo association
and 17 wrestlers accused in Shukan Gendai. 

The association has previously ignored reports in weekly magazines, but a
sumo insider said chairman Kitanoumi was determined to pursue the case. 

"Kitanoumi is really angry," the source told Jiji Press. "Especially after
the in-house investigation was described in the press as 'thieves
investigating thieves.'" 

(Feb. 9, 2007)