cchas 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 a press release from his household that was distributed by the USA 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 understood, 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 reputation within the Nineteen 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 arena together 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 shifting to Japan in 1988 on the invitation of a fellow Hawaiian wrestler who had change into a coach.
Understanding nothing about Japan and talking virtually no Japanese, {the teenager} started dwelling and coaching at a sumo secure ruled by strict hierarchy, cooking and cleansing for extra skilled wrestlers. Quickly he was charting a meteoric rise by way of the game’s ranks, dominating together with his measurement.
“We had been simply brute energy,” he stated in a later interview, referring to himself and 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 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 by way of 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 by way of that barrier.
He later stated in interviews that he not often 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 adjusted 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 midst of the ring and tackle the Japanese,’” he informed The New York Occasions 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, regardless that in his early competitions, cheers from the gang had 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, stated in 1993. By the early 2000s, dozens of the ranked wrestlers had 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 in addition competed in kickboxing, skilled wrestling and blended martial arts.
“I’m retiring with a sense of nice gratitude for being given the prospect to change into a yokozuna and expertise one thing open to solely only a few individuals,” he stated on the time of his retirement.
Motoko Wealthy contributed reporting.