Re: Heya history

["Nashinokawa" <nashinokawa@parbrook.free-online.co.uk>]

> > The German Eurosport commentator once said that Wakanohana will become
> > Futagoyama Oyakata once he retires.Is that correct?Or will he have to
wait
> > until his father is 65?Someone on the ML also mentioned that Takanohana
> > might also get Futagoyama Beya.
> > The commentator also once said that Takatoriki gets Taiho Beya when he
> > retires.So if he hangs up his Mawashi in March will he get it directly
or
> > will he have to wait until Taiho is too old?
>
> I believe that the transfer of power is a rather individual preference.
> Taiho will turn 60 this year.  He may turn the reins right over to T'riki,
> or he might wait.  Same with Futagoyama and Wakanohana.  I have the
feeling
> though that they'll choose early retirement.  Kitanofuji was well, well
> below the retirement age when he turned Kokonoe beya over to Chiyonofuji.
> Asahiyutaka stepped off the dohyo and right into the shoes of Tatsunami
> oyakata.  On the other hand, the first Wakanohana waited until he was the
> mandatory retirement age before passing Futagoyama beya to his brother.
But
> anyway, there are no rules that say when exactly the transfer must take
> place.
>

Taiho as an ichi-dai (one-generation) oyakata will retire on his 65 birthday
all being well.  He cannot pass the Taiho name on so there is no point in
him retiring early.  However, Takatoriki holds the rights (through his
marraige to Taiho's daughter) to the Odake stock and it is possible that he
may be given control of the heya early given Taiho's general health.  If
this happens then Taiho-beya will immediately become Odake-beya.
Taiho-oyakata would then remain associated to the stable as a 2nd oyakata
until his retirement.

The present situation with Futagoyama is different in that the former
Takanohana-I would need to either retire early, or find another name to
allow Waka to become the new Futagoyama oyakata.  I believe that the Hanada
family have rights over three stocks of their own, and this being the case
what is likely is that Wakanohana will retire to a named stock and remain in
it for a couple of years, then he will swap names with his father to take
over the stable.  This is what happened with ex-Kitanofuji and
ex-Chiyonofuji when Chiyo took over the stable. Kitanofuji remained in the
sumo association as Jinmaku oyakata for a few years.  He left the
association two years ago after he lost his riji (directorship) position in
the kyokai caused by Takadagawa oyakata deciding to stand against his
ichimons wishes.

The former Futagoyama situation was that both ex-Wakanohana-I and
ex-Takanohana-I had successful heya in their own right, so there was no
pressure on ex-Wakanohana-I to let his younger brother establish himself by
passing on the heya early.

Asahiyutaka only stepped directly into Tatsunami's shoes as Tatsunami was
forced to retire as he was 65. If this was not the case he would have had to
wait to take over the reins of the stable (at least two years as a
jun-toshiyori probably).

In summary an oyakata can pass on his stable to any other (established)
oyakata at any time, usually swapping names in the process.  In doing so
they do not need to retire.  If the former-rikishi he wishes to pass the
stable to has no name to swap with then he might have to retire early. Other
reasons for retiring early are kyokai politics (Jinmaku -- ex-Kitanofuji),
health (Michinoku-oyakata was in this situation I believe when he passed his
name and stable to ex-Kirishima)

Nashinokawa