[sumo] heya jumping?

["Andrew Coulston" <wakaranyo@hotmail.com>]

Here's a question posed to me by one of my friends:

Can sumo wrestlers ever switch heya?

My instinct was to answer that I'd never heard of it happening, but I didn't 
know if there was an explicit rule against this, or if it was just 
tradition.  So, my question to all of you is, has a wrestler ever switched 
heya?  Could a heya "buy" a wrestler from another heya like professional 
sports teams do in the U.S.? Or is there some kind of unbreakable contract 
with one and only one heya by which rikishi must abide upon their entering 
the sport?

Oh, here's another one, posed by the same friend:

Regardless of the mythical origins of sumo, is there a generally recognized 
date for the beginning of the sport as a modern sport?

I know that it has been practiced as a contest for 1500 years, and the 
official Nihon Sumo Kyokai site says that, "Professional sumo groups were 
organized to entertain the rapidly expanding plebian class and sumo came 
into its own as the national sport of Japan. The present Japan Sumo 
Association has its origins in these groups first formed in the Edo Period." 
 I guess this answers that question, but does anyone know the years of 
active wrestling/promotion of the first Yokozuna, Akashi Shiganosuke?

Thanks,
Andonoryu

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[EndPost by "Andrew Coulston" <wakaranyo@hotmail.com>]