Akebono Taro, a sumo wrestler from Hawaii who became the sumo world's first foreign grand champion and helped revive the sport's popularity in the 1990s, has died in Tokyo. He was 54 years old.
He died of heart failure in early April while being treated at a Tokyo hospital, according to a family statement distributed Thursday by U.S. Forces Japan.
When he became Japan's 64th yokozuna, or grand champion sumo wrestler, in 1993, he became the first foreign sumo wrestler in the modern 300-year history to win the sport's highest title. He went on to win a total of 11 Grand Championships.
When Akebono was first selected as a yokozuna at the age of 23, at 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 466 pounds, he towered over his opponents. He was known to use his height and arm reach to his advantage, pushing his opponents away and out of the ring.
The rivalry between Akebono and the Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana (both grand champions) was a major driving force behind the resurgence of sumo's popularity in the 1990s.
Akebono was born Chad George Ha'aheo Rowan in 1969 in Waimanalo, Hawaii. He moved to Japan in 1988 at the invitation of a fellow wrestler from Hawaii.
In 1992, the year before he became Grand Champion, the council that decides which wrestlers deserve the honor refused to award the award to another Hawaiian, saying that a foreigner did not have the dignity worthy of the title. did.
Akebono later said in an interview that he rarely thought about his nationality in the ring, thinking of himself first and foremost as a sumo wrestler. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1996.
“I wasn't thinking, 'I'm an American and I'm going to play against Japan with a flag in the middle of the ring,'” he told The New York Times in 2013.
His acceptance and popularity in the sumo world was partly due to the Japanese people's high regard for his dedication to sumo.
“His sincere attitude towards sumo makes me forget that I am a foreigner,'' sumo magazine editor Yoshihisa Shimoie said in 1993.
According to his family, Akebono is survived by his wife, Christine Rowan, daughter Caitlin, 25, and sons Cody, 23, and Connor, 20.
He retired in 2001 at the age of 31 due to chronic knee problems. He trained younger wrestlers and also competed in kickboxing, professional wrestling, and mixed martial arts.
“I am retiring with great gratitude for having had the opportunity to become a yokozuna, an experience that only a select few can have,'' he said at the time of his retirement.
Motoko Rich Contributed to the report.