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Taro Akebono, a Hawaii-born sumo wrestler who grew to become the game’s first overseas grand champion and helped to gas a resurgence in its recognition within the Nineteen Nineties, has died in Tokyo. He was 54.
He died of coronary heart failure in early April whereas receiving care at a hospital, in line with a press release from his household that was distributed by the US army 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 attain 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 thought, he was recognized 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 significant driver of sumo’s renewed recognition within the Nineteen Nineties. Throughout the opening ceremony for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Akebono demonstrated the sumo ring entrance ritual for a global viewers, commanding the sector along with his hulking physique and charming 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 shifting to Japan in 1988 on the invitation of a fellow Hawaiian wrestler who had develop into a coach.
Understanding nothing about Japan and talking virtually no Japanese, he 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 dimension.
“We have been simply brute power,” he mentioned in a later interview, referring to himself and his fellow wrestlers from Hawaii within the Nineteen 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 prime honor, denied it to a different Hawaiian, saying that 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 similar 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 of his nationality within the ring, considering of himself as a sumo wrestler firstly. He grew to become a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1996, and altered his title to Taro Akebono. His chosen sumo title, 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 informed 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 overlook he’s a foreigner due to his earnest angle 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.
In response to his household, Akebono is survived by his spouse, Christine Rowan; a daughter, Caitlyn; and two sons, Cody and Connor.
In 2001, he retired from the game at 31, citing power knee issues. He went on to coach youthful wrestlers, and he additionally competed in kickboxing, skilled wrestling and combined martial arts.
“I’m retiring,” he mentioned on the time, “with a sense of nice gratitude for being given the possibility to develop into a yokozuna and expertise one thing open to solely only a few individuals.”
Motoko Wealthy contributed reporting.
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