In professional sumo wrestling, a is an organization of wrestlers where they train and live in a "quasi-monastic and militaristic lifestyle". It is most commonly and metaphorically translated in English as "stable", but is also translated as "training quarters", or "fraternity".
The stable system originated in the Genroku period and flourished in the Edo period. It was called into question during the Meiji Restoration, but it has survived to this day. Closer to a medieval fraternity than a modern sports team, a stable is a group that lives, eats, trains, sleeps, and socializes together, under the authority of one or more elders. There are no player trades in professional sumo, so joining a stable is expected to be a lifetime commitment. Of all the staff at the Japan Sumo Association, only can open or inherit a and manage it, as part of a system regulated by the association. Each is financially supported both by the Association and by groups of patrons known as . All traditional sports professionals (such as , and ) must belong to a stable, and wrestlers from the same stable are not allowed to fight each other during official tournaments ().
The Association only permits one foreign-born wrestler per stable. The system excludes women, who remain confined to a role of support and devotion to sumo and its ancestral rules. Although largely independent, the stables belong to clans, called , that form loose coalitions. The clans traditionally serve to maintain the cohesion of stables linked by family ties, and affect the distribution of influence within the Japan Sumo Association. As of October 2024, there are 45 active stables across five clans. Stables have long developed recruitment networks, encouraged by subsidies from the association, which create disparities in size, sometimes significant, between . The largest and most successful have a completely different training environment from the smaller stables, which are described as being more family-oriented.
Stable buildings typically share the same spatial layout, with the training room () as a central focus. This land is considered sacred ground and no one is supposed to walk or sleep above it. Most stable buildings share the same neighborhood in Ryōgoku (Sumida, Tokyo), sumo's traditional heartland, although issues with finding land have led to some newer being built in other parts of Tokyo or its suburbs. Although based in Tokyo or its surrounding areas, the stables are required to travel for external tournaments and tours around Japan, relying on a system of accommodation supported by shrines or town halls, linked both by the ties between professional sumo and the Shinto religion and by the economic and social benefits of having professional athletes in nearby areas.
In the daily life of the , the distribution of activities is highly hierarchical and governed by the rank of the wrestlers, with those at the bottom of the ranking being assigned the most thankless tasks and the being exempt from any participation. At the top of the hierarchy are the , or coaches, who are responsible for training the wrestlers and assigning tasks. Life in the is also characterized by a high degree of closeness, with wrestlers having little personal space. In recent years, have distanced themselves from traditional communal life practices, improving their transparency, and reusing codes from modern sports teams. Some have also changed their internal organization, allowing wrestlers to be exempt from chores so that they can devote themselves to training, or training stablemasters at universities before they take on their responsibilities. In an effort to open up and popularize the sport, many now welcome visitors and forge links with local communities.
In 2004, the Japan Sumo Association recorded a record number of 55 active stables.
History
During the Genroku period, sumo groups concentrated from the countryside to the major cities of Edo, Osaka and Kyoto.These groups consisted of masterless (called ) who had lost their social benefits with the peace established by the Tokugawa shogunate. These put their martial art skills to use in street sumo tournaments, called , for the entertainment of passers-by. A number of street entertainment wrestling groups formed and sometimes toured shrines with benefit sumo performances to raise money for the construction of buildings.
Gradually, the groups self-organised under the leadership of elders, who welcomed the wrestlers into their homes. Their homes took the name of (meaning "fraternity house") in reference to the rooms in which these elders met to organise matches during tournaments. During this period, the term therefore referred to both the training institutions and the living space of the masters. The system became profitable and was adopted by sumo associations in Osaka and Edo between 1757 and 1792. During the Hōreki era, masters began to inherit the names of their predecessors, and were gradually referred to by the name borne by the master. Almost every sumo stable founded within the Edo-based sumo association was created between 1751 and 1781. Edo established itself as a major sumo sports center, and it was common for wrestlers from other major metropolises (such as Kyoto and Osaka) to emigrate and train with the of the Edo-based sumo association. Although mostly founded by former wrestlers, some stables dating back to the 17th century were founded by (referees).
During the Edo period, all wrestlers were officially attached to a stable, but a formal exception existed for wrestlers who benefited from the patronage of local lords, who took the most prominent wrestlers under their wing. These wrestlers, who continued to wrestle for their stable, were considered "borrowed" from the lords rather than officially attached to their , thus giving the name to the wrestlers and to the system.
During the Meiji Restoration and the abolition of the han system, stables lost the patronage of the lords, who were forbidden to maintain households of their own. With the loss of income security and social status came a period of semi-censorship of sumo. The adoption of Western ideology led to the perception of sumo as unworthy of the new era, as the matches were seen as barbaric and the semi-nudity of the wrestlers shocking. Some stables organized themselves into fire brigades.
In 1943, at the turning point of the Pacific War, sumo competitions were disrupted and Tokyo became the target of intensive bombardments that destroyed many stables. Most of the remaining stables moved to the Tokyo suburbs or neighboring towns to escape the bombing. Wrestlers were either drafted into the army or navy, or incorporated into provincial work units organized by stable.
During the 1970s, the question arose of opening up the title to foreign wrestlers, and ultimately allowing them to create stables. The Japan Sumo Association initially declared that it was inconceivable that a foreigner could participate as a trainer because sumo was Japan's national sport. After harsh criticism from the press, the JSA declared that the two rising stars of foreign origin Takamiyama and Kaneshiro would indeed be eligible to become coaches after their retirement. Takamiyama was the first to retire, becoming a coach under the name Azumazeki and founding Azumazeki stable, the first foreign-born sumo wrestler to do so. In 2003, former Musashimaru also retired and in 2013 founded Musashigawa stable.
Organization and running Stable ownership
The approval of the Japan Sumo Association is required to open a new stable or to inherit an existing one. The approval is regularly granted and the association gives its elders a great deal of leeway, but it ultimately has the final say in organization. Technically, any retired wrestler who has become a by acquiring an elder share in the Japan Sumo Association can open his own stable. Since only 105 shares exist, there is thus a maximum potential of 105 stables. A is always named after the (the name of the elder share) owned by its head coach. A stablemaster is obligated to retire and pass on ownership of his at age 65. When someone who has not inherited the retiree's elder name takes over a , the name of the is generally changed to the new owner's elder name.
In most cases, men become stablemasters through inheritance. A stablemaster can choose any successor who meets the eligibility requirements. Most leave their stable to one of its members when they die or retire. His heir will usually change his elder name to take over the reins of the stable. To do so, he must make a traditional payment to the former stablemaster for the elder share, as well as a payment for the building and land. Since the cost is high, sometimes masters sign a contract to make monthly payments or rental fees instead. There are nuances in the inheritance of stables that differ slightly from the classic management of an elder share. Stables are run on the basis of family relationships, and hence a stablemaster is more likely to give his stable to a relative, or to someone who marries into the family.
The other way to become a stablemaster is independence, through the founding of a new stable. Often, new stables are founded by masters who have little chance of inheriting their home stable. The creation of a stable is never immediate. Elders who wish to set one up usually stay with their former stable for a while as a coach, to learn how to manage it. The new stable is usually founded by taking on some of the wrestlers from the old stable. It is common for the new stable to maintain strong links with its original stable. However, the creation of new stables remains a marginal phenomenon, as elders often lack the financial backing to become independent. In the 1990s, rumor had it that founding a stable required around ¥200 million. In the early 2020s, the trend was for stables to close and merge with one another.
Finances Until 1950, the stables operated without assistance from the association. In return, the stables divided up the Japanese territory to organize tours and the donations collected went entirely to the stable. Since 1950, stablemasters receive an additional sum with their salary every month to cover the needs of their stable. These include the cost of buying food, maintaining the building and training equipment, and paying for the extra costs of training wrestlers. In addition to this maintenance sum, a fixed sum is paid for any wrestler in the stable who has not reached status. A so-called "incentive" sum is also paid every tournament month, meaning every two months starting in January, for each wrestler trained to status. This sum varies according to a wrestler's current rank: the higher he is in the hierarchy, the higher the sum paid to his stable master. In this system, where the big stables receive large sums of money, the distribution of funds is designed as an incentive for elders to recruit and train winning wrestlers. In the wake of a scandal that revealed links between several wrestlers and trainers and organized crime, reforms were put in place forcing stables to publish the list of their patrons and to be able to set up only in buildings whose owners had been previously recognized by the Sumo Association, in order to increase the financial transparency of professional sumo.