Yesterday we saw news from Justin, over on Twitter, that Michinoku-oyakata intends to close his eponymous heya upon retirement. He turns 65, the mandatory retirement age, in early April. That means the Osaka tournament would be his last as shisho, or stablemaster. Another interesting detail regarding this closure is that he will ask the members of his heya where they would like to be transferred, beginning with the heyagashira, Kirishima.
There has been quite a bit of speculation surrounding the fate of the Michinoku kabu, in particular. Kabu are shares in the Japanese Sumo Association. There are a fixed number of shares available and strict eligibility rules. Among them is the rule that Yokozuna are granted a special 5-year kabu upon their retirement. Essentially, this buys them time to find a permanent kabu. Takanohana was a famous exception where he was granted a permanent Takanohana kabu. That did not end well and might be why Hakuho was not offered a similar privilege. (Chiyonofuji had famously turned down the offer and decided to acquire the Kokonoe-heya, which he held until his death.)
On Kabu
For non-Yokozuna, that means there is a good deal of horse-trading. Some guys, like Endo, acquire a kabu while they are active and loan it out to others. There has not been an independent heya named Kitajin. Endo has loaned his kabu to Shotenro, Kotoyuki, and its current holder, Tenkaiho. Michinoku, himself, retired into the Shikoroyama kabu, owned by Wakabayama before trading into the Katsunoura kabu and finally acquiring Michinoku.
Thus, there are some kabu with storied histories, like Kokonoe, and others with evidently less cachet which seem to be temporary “homes” and trade hands often, like Sanoyama. The last time Sanoyama-beya was displayed outside a stable door was in the 1950s and 60s. Since then, it has been owned by Konishiki, Chiyotaikai, and now, Chiyonokuni. However, it has been loaned out to guys with less illustrious names like Toki, Zaonishiki, Dairyu, and Satoyama.
Michinoku Beya
Which do we have here in Michinoku? While not as legendary as Kokonoe, Sadogatake, or Isegahama, it has been a successful heya under its current leadership since 1997, as well as two other Michinoku-oyakata going back to the mid-1970s. That makes it perfect for a Yokozuna to take it over, right? Maybe not. There have been scandals, including a bullying scandal from last year. Kakuryu was only under the Michinoku banner for a brief time, anyway. Why transfer its skeletons to a guy who is trying to start fresh?
Then, there is Michinoku-oyakata’s own plans. While retirement will be thrust upon him this spring, he can stay on in an advisory (san’yo) role for another five years. Who knows how fun the experience of negotiating these kabu really was? That Katsunoura trade might have been an absolute nightmare. Maybe he bought high and sold low, stung by a rough deal? He is absolutely entitled to sit on the kabu he holds, like Oguruma-oyakata did. Takekaze had to split out into Oshiogawa and Yoshikaze left for Nishonoseki.
The manner in which Michinoku plans to handle the closure seems fair and considerate toward his charges. They will be consulted on where they want to go rather than shuffled off en masse to one stable. Who are they, anyway? Let’s take a look at who we have here.
Michinoku Beya Charges
First, we can take a glimpse of the management team, aka, other coaches, oyakatas, and wakamonogashira. We have two oyakata, Tatsutayama and Urakaze, who fought under the shikona of Sasshunada and Shikishima, respectively and both reached their best rank of Maegashira 1. With them is the Wakamonogashira, Fukunosato. Next up, we have a top level hairdresser in Tokodai and a Makushita yobidashi, Shin.
When we turn to the wrestlers, we have quite the mix, up-and-down the banzuke. Kirishima is at the top, currently Ozeki and the only sekitori in the bunch. We know that it would be a huge feather in ex-Kirishima’s cap if current Kirishima wins the yusho and earns promotion to Yokozuna. Maybe then, Kirishima can sit on his san’yo kabu for five years and pass the name on to a Yokozuna that he brought up, rather than one he inherited from Izutsu.
Next is Yuki in Makushita. He is an often featured assistant for Kirishima at open practices, degeiko, along the jungyo trail, and at other heya events. The bowler and baseball fan is known for his flexing poses in PR pictures. He started his sumo career in 2005 and rose steadily.
Michinoku has three wrestlers in the rough-and-tumble third division: Dainichido, Nikko, and Kamitani. Though currently in sandanme, Dainichido has had a few good stretches in Makushita since starting sumo in 2015. Nikko is still pretty early in his career, having started in September 2020. (That must have been a rough time to start your sumo career.) Most tournaments he has been in Jonidan but lately his judo background has helped him crack into Sandanme. Kamitani started sumo in 2018 and has made it as high as Makushita 19 after claiming a sandanme yusho.
In Jonidan, we have Chikureisen, who started in 2017 and Kirinohana. In Jonokuchi, we have Kirimaru, who has bounced around in the lower two divisions since starting his career in 2001.
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for rikishi: can they choose any beya they want? can a beya decline?
if so, can it be possible for very low rankers/ low prospects to just end out without a beya?
for admin staff like hairdressers, are they also guarantee to get a place in another beya?
Good questions. From my limited knowledge, the heya can refuse, the wrestlers cannot pick. But if you are already in a heya, you can’t just be ditched. Everyone who is in will find a new heya, if they want to stay in sumo.
I’m not sure it’s that absolute. Let’s say there’s a known troublemaker who somehow wasn’t pushed out the door by his retiring shisho already – I wouldn’t be surprised if such a guy would have it made clear to him that he’s not going to be welcomed anywhere else and his career in sumo is now over. (To be clear: I’m speaking strictly in generalities here, this isn’t veiled talk about anyone in Michinoku-beya specifically.)
BTW, the Oguruma non-succession wasn’t just a matter of ex-Kotokaze not wanting to give up the kabu. Clear information isn’t easy to come by, obviously, but it’s apparent that ex-Takekaze and ex-Yoshikaze weren’t exactly getting along. Putting a clean break between old-Oguruma and new-Oshiogawa provided a way to have not just the two go their separate ways, but also whoever else in the stable had taken their respective sides. If Takekaze had simply taken over Oguruma-beya, everyone bar Yoshikaze would have been stuck.
thanks!
always some additional perspective to the “official” sumo announcements
another question, can Kirishima choose any heya? or is there some kind of “balance of power” that need to be maintained to avoid important heyas like Isegahama taking the best rikishi
Almost without exception the rikishi from shuttered heya will go to stables that are part of the same ichimon group, and even with Michinoku-oyakata’s open-ended comment that they should go where they want, it would be extremely surprising if anyone went somewhere else entirely. For Michinoku-beya that group is Tokitsukaze-ichimon and comprises Arashio, Isenoumi, Oitekaze, Otowayama, and Tokitsukaze stables.
Other than Kakuryu’s new Otowayama which is just starting up, there isn’t much between these heya as far as high-ranker presence is concerned. Arashio has the Waka brothers, Isenoumi has Nishikigi, Oitekaze has Daieisho and Tobizaru, and Tokitsukaze has Shodai. Somebody might push to have the ozeki go to the heya with the biggest name (that’s almost certainly Tokitsukaze here as the one that’s giving its name to the entire group), but I’m not sure if that would override Kirishima’s personal wishes.
He might still end up in Tokitsukaze anyway, if only because it’s located closest to Michinoku, and Kirishima has already spent a lot of time there training as a guest and so he’s likely familiar with it.
Thanks for the analysis, Andy.
I know there’s generally a different mindset in Japan surrounded intended lifespan of non-heritage buildings (torn down and rebuilt at regular intervals, rather than attempting to keep them going for 100+ years), but does it not make sense for a building fitted-out for the very esoteric niche of sumo, to be re-used for such purpose?
Or are heya leased by supporters’ groups on behalf of the stablemaster / some other arrangement where it lowers the barrier to setting a new stable up from scratch?
BTW, I feel that fans generally overestimate how much value members of the sumo world place on the “reputation” of particular kabu. There’s certainly a subset of them that does have increased recognition, but it’s tiny compared to the total number of 105, and almost entirely tied to two aspects, which overlap to boot: a) heya with extremely long continuous history and at least one period of major success, and b) heya which are the namesake of an ichimon. Consequently I’d only put Dewanoumi, Isegahama, Kasugano, Kokonoe, Nishonoseki, Sadogatake, Takasago, Tatsunami and Tokitsukaze into that group; maaaybe also Isenoumi, Izutsu and Miyagino.
So, for 90+ shares fame and reputation have always been fleeting. I don’t think anybody consciously draws a connection from the current incarnations of Hanaregoma or Futagoyama-beya to their much more famous predecessors. Other once storied heya names don’t exist as such anymore at all (Hanakago), others took a looong time to come back (who even knows that Ikazuchi was a major heya over 100 years ago?), and some that actually continue to exist might as well not (who’s still going to care about moribund Kataonami-beya and its 60-year history once Tamawashi has retired?).
On the flipside, new reputations are getting built all the time. Maybe in 30 years we’ll look back at December 2023 as the time the Otowayama dynasty began. What came before just doesn’t matter; every oyakata has the opportunity to be recognized for his work, the names are just vehicles. The almost certainly most famous example of that is no less than Futabayama – before he took it on, Tokitsukaze was arguably the kabu name with the worst reputation in all of sumo.
I should add one more name to the maaaybes, namely Tomozuna. But like Izutsu the near-term fate of its reputation is going to depend on how long it takes until there’s actually a heya with that name again, and if there’s any scope to see them as a spiritual successor of the previous ones. Otherwise they’ll just start from scratch like Hanaregoma and Futagoyama.