Taro Akebono: Hawaiian-born Japanese sumo legend dies

Sumo legend Taro Akebono, who drove a resurgence within the sport’s recognition and have become its first international grand champion, has died of coronary heart failure on the age of 54.

The Hawaiian-born wrestler handed away in a Tokyo hospital earlier this month, his household stated in a press release.

A towering determine of the game, each actually and figuratively – the 210kg, 2m-tall (462lb; 6ft 6in) big was well-known for his distinctive preventing type that always noticed him thrust his opponents out of the ring.

On either side of the Pacific, followers and friends paid tribute to him as a pioneer who had blazed a path for different international sumo wrestlers to observe.

Akebono had been battling sickness since collapsing within the metropolis of Kitakyushu seven years in the past, in accordance with native media.

Born Chad Rowan in 1969, he grew up in Honolulu earlier than shifting to Japan in 1988 to pursue his wrestling profession.

Inside six years he would change into Japan’s sixty fourth yokozuna – or grand champion – an honour which the sumo council had beforehand dominated was off-limits to non-Japanese athletes.

In addition to breaking limitations, his devotion to the game noticed his recognition skyrocket and received him the respect of native followers.

“He makes me overlook he’s a foreigner due to his earnest angle towards sumo,” the editor of Sumo Journal, Yoshihisa Shimoie, stated in 1993.

Throughout his profession he went on to assert 10 extra championship titles, whereas bringing in hundreds of thousands of viewers from all over the world.

His well-known rivalry with the Japanese brothers Takanohana Koji and Masaru Hanada is extensively credited as respiratory recent life into the game, at a time when it was struggling for relevance.

In 1996 he turned a naturalised Japanese citizen, taking the identify Taro Akebono. When he retired from sumo wrestling in 2001 resulting from repeated knee accidents, over 11,000 spectators attended his leaving ceremony – throughout which he had his topknot step by step reduce off by 320 pals and former opponents.

“I really feel unhappy, far more than I had anticipated. I really feel my head is lighter. I feel it isn’t the burden off my hair however the weight off my accountability,” he stated on the time.

As tributes poured in on Thursday, among the largest names within the sport honoured him for his power, modesty, and kindness.

“It was all so sudden, and I can’t give you phrases to ship him. He was an individual full of affection,” Hanada wrote on X, previously Twitter.

US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel praised Akebono for serving as a “bridge between the USA and Japan” and strengthening cultural ties between each international locations.

Former sports activities broadcaster Neil Everett credited him with representing Hawaii in Japan and “carrying the burden of the complete state” on his shoulders.

Akebono is survived by his spouse Christine Rowan, in addition to their daughter and two sons.

Extra reporting by Shaimaa Khalil and Chie Kobayashi in Tokyo