Sadogatake stable

Sadogatake stable (佐渡ヶ嶽部屋, Sadogatake-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Nishonoseki group of stables. In its modern form, it dates from September 1955, when it was set up by former komusubi Kotonishiki Noboru. Former yokozuna Kotozakura took over the running of the stable in 1974 following Kotonishiki's death. The stable is located in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture. Over the next thirty years the stable produced a string of top division wrestlers. Kotozakura stood down in November 2005, handing the stable over to his son-in-law, former sekiwake Kotonowaka.

A successful stable, Sadogatake is currently the active stable with the longest continuous presence (59 years) of at least one of its wrestlers in the makuuchi division.[1] Between September 2007 and July 2010, it became the first stable since Musashigawa stable in 2001 to have two wrestlers ranked at ōzeki simultaneously, with Kotomitsuki and Kotoōshū. It happened again between November 2011 and November 2013 with Kotoōshū and Kotoshōgiku. As of January 2023 the stable has 26 wrestlers, three of them being sekitori. In March 2020 Sadogatake-oyakata's son, who has taken the name Kotozakura after his grandfather, reached the top makuuchi division. On the May 2020 banzuke all five sekitori were ranked in the top division, although none were above maegashira 13. The most the stable has ever had in makuuchi simultaneously is seven, in November 1992 and January 1993.

In April 2024, the stable recruited Kōsei Motomura, a former Hakuhō Cup participant and the first wrestler since the end of the Second World War to measure less than 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) since the abolition of the weight and height minimums system.[2]

  1. ^ "【九州場所番付発表】碧山が十両転落 56年ぶりに春日野部屋の幕内力士不在に" (in Japanese). Sports Nippon. 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  2. ^ "戦後初の「身長150センチ台力士」誕生へ!体格基準撤廃後初の新弟子二次検査に元村康誠が合格". Sports Nippon (in Japanese). 19 April 2024. Retrieved 19 April 2024.