Kimura Shonosuke

The highest-ranking referee since the Edo period. In recent years, he only judges the bouts of Yokozuna. He started out as Kokonoe Shonosuke, changed his name to Nakadachi in 1708 (5th year of the Hoei era), and then changed it to Kimura Shonosuke in 1726 (11th year of the Kyoho era). He is the 35th referee to serve as a tate referee (main referee) for many generations. Since the appearance of Shikimori Inosuke in 1769 (6th year of the Meiwa era), Edo sumo has been divided into two families, Kimura and Shikimori, and each family trained its own referee. Shikimori never took the name Kimura, but in the Meiji era, there were cases of a referee being promoted to Kimura Shonosuke via Shikimori Inosuke, and Inosuke was ranked next to Shonosuke, and both were tate referees. In 1827 (Bunsei 10), during the time of the 6th Shonosuke, the current number of generations was established because three fictitious ancestors were inflated and added to the numbers.

[Masao Ikeda]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代から続く最高権威の行司。近年は横綱の結びの一番だけ裁定する。初め九重(ここのえ)庄之助と名のり、1708年（宝永5）に中立(なかだち)と改名、さらに1726年（享保11）に木村庄之助と改め、代々立(たて)行司（おもだった行司）として、当代35代目を数える。1769年（明和6）に式守伊之助が出現してより、江戸相撲(ずもう)は木村、式守の2家になり、それぞれ行司を養成し、式守が木村を名のることはなかったが、明治に入ってから式守伊之助を経て木村庄之助に昇進する例が開かれ、庄之助の次位が伊之助という序列になり、両者とも立行司である。1827年（文政10）6代目庄之助のとき、架空の先祖3人を創作水増ししたため現在の代数になる。

［池田雅雄］

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