Reader jmotzi had a very interesting question that I felt needed more/better explanation on my part. First of all, the reports do not indicate that Isegahama-oyakata will be appointed to supervise Miyagino-beya. As jmotzi points out, Isegahama had his own bullying controversy which resulted in the loss of his powerful position on the Kyokai’s board. Instead of Isegahama-oyakata, the reports indicate that an oyakata will come from Isegahama-ichimon and if that name has been determined, I have not seen it reported.
“Interesting that the caretaker is from Isegahama-beya which had it’s own bullying episode in 2022. Or maybe I am confused by the names. Anyway we can hope that this puts everybody on notice regarding these type of behaviors and all stables become more proactive.”
jmotzi
The various (usually around 40) stables are organized into associated groups, or factions, called Ichimon. I’m not going to dive into the politics and the leadership contests and leadership struggles because, well, I am still just trying to bring myself up-to-speed on that. But if you are trying to run an organization and achieve consensus on issues, it’s easier to work with a smaller group of factions than 40 independent leaders, no?
The Isegahama Ichimon includes Miyagino-beya, as well as Oshima, Asakayama, Asahiyama, and Ajigawa. The latter two of these stables do not have subordinate oyakata, or coaches but the others have a number of subordinate coaches who might be able to pick up the mantle here. I have not seen any indication that the Kyokai is planning to choose a current stablemaster, or a subordinate oyakata. If anyone has seen that, please let me know.
Isegahama Ichimon
I would not be surprised if the Kyokai would prefer an existing stablemaster. Then again, I would not be surprised if the Kyokai thinks it would be too much and would prefer the caretaker be one of the subordinates. I have listed a table of the oyakata available here and there are a number of very interesting possibilities. I think a lot of people would love to see Kaisei take a leadership role but that would be quite the surprise, no?
Former Komusubi, Homasho, has officially inherited Shikoroyama-beya. He has been acting stablemaster since the death of Terao. He now takes over full time and officially switches kabu and changes name from Tatsutagawa to Shikoroyama. I need to update my kabu dashboard and will try to get an update out this weekend.
Homasho was the first wrestler to reach sanyaku under the tutelage of Terao. Fans appreciated his style as well as his distinctive, deep, respectful bows to his opponents…in victory and defeat. Abi is currently the heya’s top wrestler, or heyagashira. Congratulations to Homasho, I mean, Shikoroyama-oyakata.
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.
Yuki
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.
Dainichido
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.
There are a couple more news-worthy items which have come up that I must share with you all, both related to heya. First up, Kakuryu has secured a kabu and will branch out with his own, independent stable: Otowayama. He takes Tokotsuru, the top-ranked Tokoyama (hairdresser) along with a couple of deshi, Hagane and his new recruit. Hagane is the only banzuke-ranked wrestler currently listed on the heya profile. This is fantastic news as the search has been a running drama for a few years with the 5-year shot clock running down.
Secondly, former Homasho (Tatsutagawa-oyakata) has officially been named acting stablemaster at Shikoroyama-beya, following the passing of Terao. Both he and Kakuryu…oops, Otowayama… will be gearing up in earnest for Hatsubasho once the New Year holidays calm down.
These machinations are often difficult for me to track in my head, so I am in the process of building a visualization based on the Kabu history pages at the SumoDB. There are a bunch of ways to look at these and I’m starting off with several different Gantt-style charts to look at the changes through time.
This first one that I would like to share is a list of all kabu, with color indicating whether the kabu holder is the stable master or a coach within another heya. What becomes apparent is that several names have long histories of being independent (Izutsu, Nishonoseki, Sadogatake) while others do not, like Otowayama and Ikazuchi. Homasho’s Tatsutagawa kabu has had a bit of a history as an independent heya but not as storied as Isegahama, obviously.
One thing that I would like to do is to tie the heya to exactly how storied or successful they were (have been). I’m trying to work out a defensible metric that I can use to gage such success through time. Maybe with the number of sanyaku wrestlers or top division wrestlers? It’s a tough call. Would you say that Oitekaze tops Isegahama as the most dominant heya, currently? Another tab on the visual already shows the holder by rank, as pictured on the left. Yokozuna are yellow, with lower ranking wrestlers darker shades of green. It’s interesting to see that according to the SumoDB data, gyoji had owned some of the kabu in the past.
I’ve got a draft version of another visualization that tracks the kabu by holder so that we can see how often some of these swap hands. Kobo, one of Hakuho’s former stablemates at Miyagino-beya, traded five different kabu during the ten years he remained a coach. Sanoyama is another kabu which seems to trade hands frequently, being held by Konishiki, Chiyotaikai, and recently Satoyama. However, with that visualization, there are so many holders and so few colors that it looks a bit crazy. Once I figure out a clean way to pair that down, it will be more helpful.
