Miyagino Stable

1280px-Miyagino Beya 2011 — Miyagino stable

Miyagino stable (宮城野部屋, Miyagino-beya) was a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Isegahama ichimon or group of stables. It was the home to arguably the best sumo wrestler of all time: Hakuho Sho, who became the main coach at this stable with the name of Miyagino. It closed after the March 2024 tournament due to a scandal involving bullying done by the stable’s top wrestler Hokuseiho and the former Hakuho’s failure in reporting and stopping the hazing from occuring, all its wrestlers and personnel were transferred to Isegahama stable, but this move is expected to be largely temporary, but for the time being, the stable is considered as closed.

History[]

The 24th Yokozuna Otori was head coach of Miyagino stable from 1916 until his death in 1956 (there was no mandatory retirement age for oyakata at that time). He had insisted that his successor had to be a yokozuna, so it became inactive for a while, before 43rd Yokozuna Yoshibayama revived it in 1960.

The stable was re-established by 43rd yokozuna Yoshibayama as Yoshibayama dojo while he was still an active wrestler. The stable produced their first sekitori when Myobudani was promoted to juryo in 1957. The stable became Miyagino stable in 1960, upon Yoshibayama's retirement. Upon Yoshibayama's death in 1977, Miyagino stable was taken over by former komusubi Hirokawa, where he produced sekitori such as Koryu and Chikubayama.

Upon Hirokawa's sudden death in 1989, Chikubayama took over the stable. The first sekitori he produced was Kengaku in 1991, followed by Wakahayato in 1994 and Kōbō in 1999. In December 2000 he recruited future yokozuna Hakuhō, after making a promise to then maegashira Kyokushūzan of the affiliated Ōshima stable, who had invited his fellow Mongolian to Japan for trials. No other stable would take Hakuhō, as he weighed just 62 kg (137 lb; 9.8 st). at the time. However, after making his debut in March 2001 at the age of 16, Hakuhō trained hard and gained weight and muscle, and reached jūryō in January 2004.

In August 2004 former jūryō division wrestler Kanechika took over in controversial circumstances from former maegashira Chikubayama, who had been in charge since 1989. Unusually, the new stablemaster was from a different ichimon (Kanechika belonged to Kitanoumi stable, part of the Dewanoumi ichimon, in his days as an active wrestler). Kanechika was able to take control of the stable because he married one of the daughters of the 9th Miyagino's widow, who owned the toshiyori name which Chikubayama was only borrowing, and was adopted by her as her son. Chikubayama, who had guided future yokozuna Hakuhō to the top division, was able to stay on as a coach in the stable by acquiring the Kumagatani name. After this controversial takeover the Sumo Association changed the rules so that former wrestlers who only have elder stock on loan, as Chikubayama did, cannot become stablemasters. Chikubayama was the mentor of Hakuhō, who had just entered the top division at the time, and he continued to be Hakuhō's primary trainer. Kanechika, though he was now head as Miyagino, was rarely seen at training sessions.

Miyagino stable's rikishi, Hakuho earned promotion to yokozuna in 2007, becoming the 69th yokozuna.

However, in December 2010 Chikubayama regained control of the Miyagino name and stable after Kanechika was disciplined by the Sumo Association for being caught on tape discussing match-fixing. Miyagino has also coached Ryūō, Daikihō, Ishiura and Enhō to the top division.

In March 2020 the stable recruited, on Hakuho's recommendation, a 2 meter tall Mongolian born wrestler Hokuseiho. He was raised in Hokkaido from the age of five, allowing Miyagino to circumvent the Sumo Association's one foreigner per stable rule. He won consecutive championships with perfect records in the jonokuchi and jonidan divisions in July and September 2020.

In July 2022 the Sumo Association announced that Magaki-oyakata (ex-Hakuho) and Miyagino-oyakata (ex-Chikubayama) would be exchanging elder-stocks, with Hakuho becoming the 13th Miyagino and officially becoming the main coach at the stable. In the same announcement, it was made public that 23 year-old Keita Kawazoe, a college yokozuna, would be accepted into Miyagino-beya and that he would enter at the rank of makushita 15 thanks to the makushita tsukedashi system.

And again after the November 2022 tournament, it was announced that high school and corporate yokozuna, 19 year-old Tetsuya Ochiai, would be entering Miyagino-beya and that he would also make his debut at makushita 15 in January 2023, also due to the tsukedashi system.

The stable had one new foreigner recruit after the retirement of Hakuho, Mongolian 23 year-old Usukhbayar Demidjamts, who comes from a family of great sucess in bokh (Mongolian wrestling). His great-grandfather was a grand champion, the yokozuna-equivalent rank in bokh, and trained Hakuho's father. Demidjamts' dad is also a grand champion.

In February 2024, Hokuseiho, the highest ranking wrestler of the stable, was found guilty by the Association's Compliance Committee of beating, burning and other acts of violence against at least two junior stablemates. He handed in his retirement papers, which were accepted by the Association. Miyagino-oyakata was demoted two ranks in the JSA's hierarchy and given a pay cut for three months. For the March 2024 tournament, Tamagaki-oyakata (former komusubi Tomonohana), also from the Isegahama ichimon (family of stables), will oversee training for an unspecified period of time, as Hakuho was deemed to "lack a great deal of knowledge and awareness as a master", due to being noted of but not acting on his protege's violence. Hakuho will receive training from other oyakata on how to run a stable, but for the moment, he has been practically removed from the stablemaster position. Tamagaki began overseeing the stable on their lodgings in Osaka on February 28th.

In March 2024, it was announced that Miyagino stable would be closed and all its personnel and wrestlers would move to Isegahama stable. While this move is believed to be temporary, the timespan of this merger is still unknown. In April 2024, the move to Isegahama was finalized, with the former Miyagino wrestlers starting training there on April 8th.

Ring Name Conventions[]

Even while an active wrestler, Hakuho influenced the ring names or shikona traditions in the stable, with many wrestlers taking the character 鵬 (read: ho), meaning phoenix, in deference to his status as a great yokozuna and now as stablemaster. Examples include Daikiho, Enho and Hokuseiho.