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Taro Akebono, the Hawaii-born sumo wrestler who turned the game's first international grand champion and helped revive the game's reputation within the Nineteen Nineties, has died in Tokyo. He was 54 years previous.
He died of coronary heart failure in early April whereas below care in a Tokyo hospital, based on a press release from his household distributed by the US navy in Japan on Thursday.
When he turned Japan's sixty fourth yokozuna, or grand champion sumo wrestler, in 1993, he was the primary foreign-born wrestler to attain the game's highest title in its 300-year fashionable historical past. He gained a complete of 11 main championships and his success laid the muse for an period throughout which foreign-born wrestlers dominated the highest ranges of Japan's nationwide sport.
Akebono, who stood 6 ft 8 inches tall and weighed 466 kilos when he was first named yokozuna on the age of 23, towered over his Japanese opponents. Painfully shy outdoors the dohyo, because the sumo ring is thought, he was identified for utilizing his top and attain to maintain opponents at bay.
Akebono's rivalry with Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana, each grand champions, was a serious driver of sumo's new reputation within the Nineteen Nineties. In the course of the opening ceremony of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Akebono carried out the sumo ring entrance ritual for a global viewers, command of the sector Along with his enormous physique and fascinating eyes.
Taro Akebono was born Chad George Ha'aho Rowan in 1969 in Waimanalo, Hawaii. He performed basketball in highschool and performed briefly at Hawaii Pacific College earlier than shifting to Japan in 1988 on the invitation of a fellow Hawaiian wrestler who had change into a coach.
Realizing nothing about Japan and talking nearly no Japanese, the teenager started dwelling and coaching in sumo stables ruled by a strict hierarchy, cooking and cleansing for extra skilled wrestlers. Quickly he was planning a meteoric rise by way of the ranks of the game, dominating together with his dimension.
Referring to himself and fellow Hawaii wrestlers within the Nineteen Nineties, he later stated in an interview, “We have been simply brute power.” “We win quick or we lose quick. “We weren’t very technical.”
In 1992, the Yokozuna Promotion Council, which decides which wrestlers are worthy of sumo's prime honor, refused to award it to a different Hawaiian, saying no foreigner might obtain the dignity commensurate with the title. can do. The choice led to allegations of racism and questions have been raised over the council's choice course of. Just a few wrestlers maintain the title on the similar time, and they’re chosen by way of a vote of candidates who’ve gained two consecutive tournaments.
A yr later, precisely 5 years after arriving in Japan and becoming a member of the game, Akebono broke that barrier.
He later stated in interviews that he hardly ever thought of his nationality within the ring, contemplating himself a sumo wrestler in the beginning. He turned a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1996 and altered his identify to Taro Akebono. His chosen sumo identify, “Akebono”, means daybreak in Japanese.
“I wasn't pondering, 'I'm an American, I'm going to go on the market, plant my flag in the course of the ring and struggle the Japanese,'” he informed The New York Occasions in 2013.
He gained acceptance and recognition within the sumo world as a result of folks in Japan appreciated his dedication to the game, regardless that in his early competitions, the cheering from the gang was too loud for his Japanese-born rivals.
Yoshihisa Shimoi, editor of Sumo journal, stated in 1993, “His severe perspective in the direction of sumo makes me overlook he’s a foreigner.” By the early 2000s, dozens of ranked wrestlers have been foreigners, together with a Mongolian, a Georgian, and a Russian. Argentina.
In keeping with the household, Akebono is survived by his spouse Christine Rowan, 25-year-old daughter Caitlin, and 23-year-old sons Cody and 20-year-old Connor.
In 2001, he retired from the sport on the age of 31, citing power knee issues. He skilled younger wrestlers and in addition competed in kickboxing, skilled wrestling, and combined martial arts.
He stated on the time of his retirement, “I’m retiring with a way of nice gratitude for having been given the prospect to change into yokozuna and expertise one thing open to only a few folks.”
Motoko Wealthy Contributed to the reporting.