Michinoku stable

The Michinoku stable (陸奥部屋, Michinoku-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Tokitsukaze ichimon or group of stables. It was established in 1974 by former maegashira Hoshikabuto, who branched off from Izutsu stable. Former ōzeki Kirishima became the current head coach in December 1997. It absorbed Tatsutagawa stable in November 2000 upon the retirement of the stablemaster there.[1] It lost four top members in April 2011 (Hakuba, Toyozakura, Jūmonji and Kirinowaka), who were forced to retire after being found guilty of match-fixing.[2] The retirement of Ryūhō in 2012 left it with no sekitori until Mongolian Kiribayama reached the jūryō division in 2019. Kiribayama reached the top makuuchi division in January 2020, the first for the stable since Hakuba in 2008. In May 2023 Michinoku's old shikona (ring name) of Kirishima was adopted by Kiribayama following the latter's promotion to ōzeki.[3]

After the death of Izutsu-oyakata in September 2019,[4] all personnel from Izutsu stable moved to Michinoku on 1 October 2019.[5] This expanded the stable to 15 wrestlers, the most senior of whom was yokozuna Kakuryū, who retired in March 2021. As of January 2023, it had 12 wrestlers.

In May 2023, Michinoku stable was at the heart of a scandal linked to a case of violence that was made public. A senior wrestler, Kirinofuji, assaulted another young wrestler, Yasunishi, in January 2023 with a frying pan and whipped him with a jump rope. Michinoku stablemaster (former ōzeki Kirishima) is accused to have covered the violence by directly allowing the aggressor to remain within his stable and allowing him to perform a hair cutting ceremony in April despite the information being relayed to the Compliance Department.[6] However, since the Sumo Association was informed in January and the victim withdrew his complaint, Michinoku is not subject to any disciplinary action.[7]