Takadagawa stable

Takadagawa stable (高田川部屋, Takadagawa-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Nishonoseki ichimon or group of stables. It was formed in 1974 by former ōzeki Maenoyama, and was originally in the Takasago group of stables, but was excommunicated from that group in 1998 due to disagreement over group nominations to the Japan Sumo Association's board of directors. Maenoyama handed over control to former sekiwake Akinoshima in 2009, as he was approaching the mandatory retirement age. A series of wrestlers from Taiwan were recruited in the late 1980s. Later a Mongolian, Maenoyu, was at the stable from 2004 until 2007, but there have been no foreigners recruited since Maenoyu's retirement and the current stablemaster has indicated there are no plans to do in the immediate future.[1]

The stable did not have any sekitori between Dairaidō′s last appearance in jūryō in July 2006 and the promotion of Ryūden in September 2012, where he lasted for only one tournament. In September 2014 Kagayaki reached jūryō, ending Takadagawa's sekitori drought. Kagayaki went on to reach the top makuuchi division in January 2016, the first Takadagawa wrestler to do so since Kenkō in 1992, and Ryūden returned to jūryō in November 2016, reaching the top division himself in January 2018.

The new Takadagawa head ended the stable's nearly thirteen years of non-alignment with an ichimon in January 2011 when he was accepted into the Nishonoseki group. As of January 2021, it had 22 wrestlers.

On 10 April 2020, the Sumo Association announced that an undisclosed wrestler had tested positive for the coronavirus. It was later confirmed to be Shobushi of Takadagawa Stable, a sandanme wrestler who died from coronavirus complications on 13 May 2020.[2] It had also been announced in late April 2020 that seven individuals, including Takadagawa's stablemaster and jūryō wrestler Hakuyozan, were hospitalized after testing positive for the virus.[3] The stable was only one of the 45 stables in sumo not included in the "all-clear" antibody test results issued by the Sumo Association on 6 July 2020.[4] The tate-gyōji at the stable, Shikimori Inosuke, missed the July 2020 tournament with an unspecified illness.