Mito HollyHock

is a Japanese professional football (soccer) club located in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture. The team currently playing in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football.

Name origin

Its nickname "HollyHock" derives from the family crest of the Tokugawa clan who governed from Mito in the Edo period.

History

The club was founded in 1990 as Prima Aseno FC by the factory workers of Prima Ham (a food company) in Tsuchiura. It changed its name to Prima Ham FC Tsuchiura and gained promotion to the Japan Football League after finishing as runner-up in the 1996 Regional League play-off. It merged with FC Mito (founded in 1994) and re-branded itself as Mito HollyHock before the start of the 1997 season when Prima Ham decided to discontinue its financial support to the club.

Mito's application to play in the inaugural 1999 season of J. League Division 2 was initially turned down due to financial unstability, and low home attendance at their stadium. However, after finishing 3rd in the Japan Football League in 1999, and having an increasing stadium attendance, the club was invited into the J. League in 2000.

Mito HollyHock also fields teams in e-sports and in Ice Hockey (Ibaraki Prefectural League).

League and cup record

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

League													J. League Cup	Emperor's Cup
Season	Div.	Teams	Pos.	P	W (OTW / PKW)	D	L (OTL / PKL)	F	A	GD	Pts	Attendance/G
1997	Old JFL	16	16th	30	3 (1)	-	26	24	69	-45	10		Not eligible	2nd round
1998		16	14th	30	7 (1)	-	22	37	69	-32	23			3rd round
1999	New JFL	9	3rd	24	13 (3)	0	8 (0)	48	32	16	45	891		3rd round
2000	J2	10	9th	40	9 (6)	4	19 (2)	37	61	-24	43	2,021	1st round	3rd round
2001		12	11th	44	5 (3)	4	26 (6)	41	93	-52	25	1,559	1st round	3rd round
2002		12	10th	44	11	7	26	45	73	-28	40	2,739	Not eligible	3rd round
2003		12	7th	44	15	11	18	37	41	-4	56	3,085		3rd round
2004		12	9th	44	6	19	19	33	60	-27	37	3,773		4th round
2005		12	10th	44	13	13	18	41	57	-16	52	3,334		4th round
2006		13	10th	48	14	9	25	48	69	-21	51	3,017		3rd round
2007		13	12th	48	8	10	30	32	70	-38	34	2,415		4th round
2008		15	11th	42	13	8	21	52	70	-18	47	3,044		4th round
2009		18	8th	51	21	10	20	70	79	-9	73	2,673		2nd round
2010		19	16th	36	8	14	14	29	45	-16	38	3,608		3rd round
2011		20	17th	38	11	9	18	40	49	-9	42	3,349		4th round
2012		22	13th	42	15	11	16	47	49	-2	56	3,973		3rd round
2013		22	15th	42	14	13	15	50	58	-8	55	4,630		3rd round
2014		22	15th	42	12	14	16	46	46	0	50	4,734		3rd round
2015		22	19th	42	10	16	16	40	47	-7	46	4,816		4th round
2016		22	13th	42	10	18	14	45	49	-4	48	5,365		2nd round
2017		22	14th	42	14	12	16	45	48	-3	54	4,931		2nd round
2018		22	10th	42	16	9	17	48	46	2	57	4,938		3rd round
2019		22	7th	42	19	13	10	56	37	19	70	6,087		3rd round
2020 †		22	9th	42	16	10	16	68	62	6	58	2,018		Did not qualify
2021 †		22	10th	42	16	11	15	59	50	9	59	2,696		2nd round
2022		22	13th	42	14	12	16	47	46	-1	54	3,140		2nd round
2023		22	17th	42	11	14	17	49	66	-17	47	3,726		3rd round
2024		20	15th	38	11	11	16	39	51	-12	44	4,406	1st round	3rd round
2025		20	TBA	38									2nd round	1st round

Key

Honours

Mito HollyHock honours

Honour	No.	Years	Notes
Ibaraki Prefecture Division 1	2	1992, 1993	as Prima Ham Football Club
Ibaraki Prefecture Division 4 H Block	1	1994	as FC Mito
Ibaraki Prefecture Division 3 H Block	1	1995	as FC Mito
Kantō Soccer League	1	1995	as Prima Ham Football Club
Shakaijin Cup	1	1995	as Prima Ham Football Club

Current squad

As of 30 June 2025. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
2	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Sho Omori
3	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Koshi Osaki
4	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Takeshi Ushizawa
5	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Tetsuya Chinen (on loan from Vegalta Sendai)
6	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Takahiro Iida
7	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Arata Watanabe
8	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Shunsuke Saito
9	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Mizuki Ando
10	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Ryosuke Maeda
11	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Yuki Kusano
14	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Fumiya Sugiura
15	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Yuto Nagao
16	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Koki Tsukagawa (on loan from FC Tokyo)
17	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Kosei Ashibe (on loan from Machida Zelvia)
18	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Yuhi Ono
19	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Koichi Murata
20	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Kaito Umeda
21	GK	Template:Country data JPN	Shuhei Matsubara

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
22	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Seiichiro Kubo
24	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Kiichi Yamazaki
25	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Keisuke Tada
27	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Sora Okita
28	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Kota Saga DSP
31	GK	Template:Country data JPN	Kenta Matsuyama
34	GK	Template:Country data JPN	Konosuke Nishikawa
36	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Kenta Itakura
39	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Hayata Yamamoto
40	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Shunta Morimura
41	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Ryusei Nose
44	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Koya Okuda
45	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Shimon Teranuma
71	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Malick Fofana
77	GK	Template:Country data JPN	Uwabright Hayakawa
82	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Kotatsu Kawakami
97	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Travis Takahashi
99	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Chihiro Kato

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
32	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Asuma Ikari (at Hannover 96 II)
35	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Ryoya Iizumi (at Blaublitz Akita)
49	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Yusei Uchida (at Kochi United)
—	GK	Template:Country data JPN	Ryusei Haruna (at Tegevajaro Miyazaki)

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	DF	Template:Country data JPN	Kazuma Nagai (at Blaublitz Akita)
—	MF	Template:Country data JPN	Yota Tanabe (at Kochi United)
—	FW	Template:Country data JPN	Soki Tokuno (at Tiamo Hirakata)

Club officials

Position	Name
Manager	Template:Flagicon Naoki Mori
Assistant manager	Template:Flagicon Yoshitaka Yasuda Template:Flagicon Daisuke Kimori
Analyst & First-team coach	Template:Flagicon Ryosuke Sato
Development coach	Template:Flagicon Naoki Mori
Goalkeeper coach	Template:Flagicon Takahiro Kono
Analyst	Template:Flagicon Tsukasa Takahashi
Physical coach	Template:Flagicon Yuki Nakamura
Chief trainer	Template:Flagicon Tatsuya Doi
Trainer	Template:Flagicon Takahiro Yamada
Physiotherapist	Template:Flagicon Toru Yaguchi
Equipment manager	Template:Flagicon Shunki Iwata Template:Flagicon Yoshifumi Yoshida
Competent	Template:Flagicon Hiromitsu Nonaka

Managerial history

Manager	Nationality	Tenure
		Start	Finish
Gert Engels	Template:GER	1 July 1990	30 January 1993
Yuji Nakano		1 January 1992	31 December 1997
Toshiya Miura		1 February 1998	31 January 1999
Branko Babić		1 January 2000	31 December 2000
Hiroshi Kobayashi		1 February 2001	16. July 2001
Masaaki Kanno		17 July 2001	31 January 2003
Hideki Maeda		1 January 2003	31 December 2007
Takashi Kiyama		1 February 2008	31 January 2011
Tetsuji Hashiratani		1 February 2011	7 June 2015
Takayuki Nishigaya		27 June 2015	31 January 2018
Shigetoshi Hasebe		1 February 2018	31 January 2020
Tadahiro Akiba		1 February 2020	31 January 2023
Yoshimi Hamasaki		1 February 2023	4 May 2024
Naoki Mori		9 May 2024	current

Images from the former home stadium

• Home side goal seat section
  Home side goal seat section
• Home side A seat section, with supporters
  Home side A seat section, with supporters
• Mito vs. Sapporo, 18 November 2006
  Mito vs. Sapporo, 18 November 2006

External links

• Template:Official website Template:In lang
• English news site (archived)
• Mito HollyHock 2014 Squad