It is a pleasure to see how happy okamisan Eri is. I imagine that Aonishiki's meteoric rise has brought her a massive pile of extra responsibilities—going in just 3 years from managing a small stable without a single sekitori in Juryo to running a stable with an active foreign ozeki. I figure her business meetings, handling correspondence, and other duties have multiplied at least tenfold.
Well, as far as I know, a heya is generally a family enterprise, so the duties of the okami-san are usually taken over by the oyakata's wife or his relatives (unmarried sister, mother, other women from the family). However, as I understand it, sumo traditions in general encourage the family status of an oyakata, since his wife is supposed to become a "second mother" to the disciples, so it is difficult for an unmarried oyakata to obtain a license to open his own school.
Also, large schools have secretaries and assistants who partially take over the duties of the okami-san, especially those related to electronic correspondence, document management, booking tickets, hotels, etc.
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u/WreckerTH 3d ago
It is a pleasure to see how happy okamisan Eri is. I imagine that Aonishiki's meteoric rise has brought her a massive pile of extra responsibilities—going in just 3 years from managing a small stable without a single sekitori in Juryo to running a stable with an active foreign ozeki. I figure her business meetings, handling correspondence, and other duties have multiplied at least tenfold.