Isegahama stable

Isegahama stable (伊勢ヶ浜部屋 Isegahama-beya), formerly known as Ajigawa stable, is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Isegahama ichimon or group of stables. Its current head coach is former yokozuna Asahifuji. As of January 2016 it had 26 wrestlers, led by the 70th yokozuna Harumafuji, and five sekitori in total, the most of any stable after Kokonoe's six.

History

The original Ajigawa stable was established in April 1979 by former sekiwake Mutsuarashi. He had originally hoped to become head of Miyagino stable and had married the daughter of the incumbent stablemaster there, but the marriage ended in divorce. He moved to Tomozuna stable upon his retirement in 1977 before opening up his new stable two years later. Ajigawa stable absorbed Kasugayama stable in 1990 on the retirement of its head coach. In April 1993 Asahifuji acceded to the Ajigawa name and took over the stable, due to the poor health of the incumbent. In late 2007 Asahifuji switched to the prestigious Isegahama elder name which had become available upon the retirement of its previous holder, thereby also changing the name of his stable.

Isegahama stable is currently a very successful stable, with five of its wrestlers ranked in the makuuchi and jūryō divisions. During its time as Ajigawa stable, most of the wrestlers' ring names started with the kanji 安 (pronounced a or an, meaning peaceful). Since the name change to Isegahama a new pattern has taken hold, with many wrestlers having ring names ending in -fuji, taken from the former name of their head coach.

In March 2013 the stable absorbed the oyakata and rikishi (Terunofuji, Wakaaoba and Shunba) of Magaki stable. Magaki was shut down due to the poor health of Magaki oyakata.[1]

The stable is unconnected to a previous incarnation, founded in 1859. Its sixth head was the 38th Yokozuna Terukuni Manzō who led the stable from 1961 until passing control over to former ōzeki Kiyokuni Katsuo in 1977. Under Kiyokuni's leadership the stable declined to a point where it had only two active wrestlers left. The stable was wound up shortly after Kiyokuni reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 in November 2006. Asahifuji's decision to switch to the Isegahama name can be seen as an attempt to restore his ichimon's reputation (the ichimon was known as Tatsunami-Isegahama for many years before becoming solely Tatsunami; as a result of the success of the re-named stable the ichimon is now solely known as Isegahama).

Ring name conventions

Many wrestlers at this stable take ring names or shikona that end with the characters 富士 (read: fuji), in deference to their coach and the stable's owner, the former Asahifuji.

Owners

Notable active wrestlers

See also: sekitori

Coach

Notable former members

Assistants

Referee

Ushers

Hairdresser

See also

References

  1. ↑ 間垣部屋　春場所後に閉鎖…伊勢ケ浜部屋に移籍へ. Sports Nippon (in Japanese). 27 January 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.

External links

Coordinates: 35°41′27″N 139°48′45″E / 35.6908°N 139.8126°E / 35.6908; 139.8126

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.