Taro Akebono, a Hawaii-born sumo wrestler who grew to become the game’s first overseas grand champion and helped to gasoline a resurgence within the sport’s recognition within the Nineties, has died in Tokyo. He was 54.
He died of coronary heart failure in early April whereas receiving care at a Tokyo hospital, in response to an announcement from his household that was distributed by america navy in Japan on Thursday.
When he grew to become Japan’s sixty fourth yokozuna, or grand champion sumo wrestler, in 1993, he was the primary foreign-born wrestler to realize the game’s highest title in its 300-year fashionable historical past. He went on to win a complete of 11 grand championships, and his success set the stage for an period throughout which foreign-born wrestlers dominated the highest ranges of Japan’s nationwide sport.
Akebono, who was 6-foot-8 and 466 kilos when he was first named yokozuna at 23, towered over his Japanese opponents. Painfully shy exterior the dohyo, because the sumo ring is understood, he was identified for utilizing his top and attain to maintain opponents at a distance.
Akebono’s rivalry with the Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana, each grand champions, was a serious driver of sumo’s renewed recognition within the Nineties. In the course of the opening ceremony for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Akebono demonstrated the sumo ring entrance ritual for a global viewers, commanding the world along with his hulking physique and fascinating stare.
Taro Akebono was born Chad George Ha’aheo Rowan in Waimanalo, Hawaii, in 1969. He performed basketball in highschool and briefly at Hawaii Pacific College earlier than transferring to Japan in 1988 on the invitation of a fellow Hawaiian wrestler who had change into a coach.
Realizing nothing about Japan and talking virtually no Japanese, {the teenager} started residing and coaching at a sumo secure ruled by strict hierarchy, cooking and cleansing for extra skilled wrestlers. Quickly he was charting a meteoric rise via the game’s ranks, dominating along with his measurement.
“We have been simply brute power,” he mentioned in a later interview, referring to himself and fellow wrestlers from Hawaii within the Nineties. “We received quick or we misplaced quick. We weren’t too technical.”
In 1992, the Yokozuna Promotion Council, which decides which wrestlers are worthy of sumo’s high honor, denied it to a different Hawaiian, saying no foreigner may possess the dignity befitting the title. The choice prompted allegations of racism and raised questions concerning the council’s choice course of. Solely a handful of wrestlers maintain the title on the identical time, and they’re chosen via a vote from candidates who’ve received two consecutive tournaments.
A 12 months later, simply 5 years after arriving in Japan and becoming a member of the game, Akebono broke via that barrier.
He later mentioned in interviews that he hardly ever thought-about his nationality within the ring, considering of himself as a sumo wrestler before everything. He grew to become 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 considering, ‘I’m an American, I’m going to go on the market, plant my flag in the course of the ring and tackle the Japanese,’” he instructed The New York Instances in 2013.
He gained acceptance and recognition within the sumo world partially as a result of individuals in Japan appreciated his devotion to the game, despite the fact that in his early competitions, cheers from the group have been far louder for his Japanese-born rivals.
“He makes me neglect he’s a foreigner due to his earnest perspective towards sumo,” Yoshihisa Shimoie, editor of Sumo journal, mentioned in 1993. By the early 2000s, dozens of the ranked wrestlers have been overseas, together with Mongolians, a Georgian and an Argentine.
Akebono is survived by his spouse, Christine Rowan, daughter Caitlyn, 25, and sons Cody, 23, and Connor, 20, in response to the household.
In 2001, he retired from the game at 31, citing power knee issues. He went on to coach youthful wrestlers, and likewise competed in kickboxing, skilled wrestling and blended martial arts.
“I’m retiring with a sense of nice gratitude for being given the possibility to change into a yokozuna and expertise one thing open to solely only a few individuals,” he mentioned on the time of his retirement.
Motoko Wealthy contributed reporting.
