Akebono Tarō has left the ring

April 11, 2024 5:42 AM

Hawai'ian born sumo legend Chadwick Haheo Rowan, better known worldwide as Akebono, the first non-Japanese-born wrestler to reach grand master / yokozuna has died of heart failure. He was 54.
posted by seanmpuckett (26 comments total)

🟡
posted by briank at 5:52 AM on April 11 [7 favorites]

•
posted by Gelatin at 5:54 AM on April 11

For a short while, back in the day, ESPN actually had sumo on friday nights, and Akebono was the star. I had no idea he was this young, though.

•
posted by Thorzdad at 6:27 AM on April 11 [3 favorites]

.
posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 6:29 AM on April 11

.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:11 AM on April 11

Sumo stands out as one of the few sports that's even more destructive of the player's bodies than American football.

The average sumo wrestler dies around ages 60 to 65, that's 20 years less than the average age of death in Japan.
posted by sotonohito at 7:17 AM on April 11 [3 favorites]

🌺
posted by jraz at 7:29 AM on April 11 [1 favorite]

.
posted by Snowflake at 7:32 AM on April 11

Mahalo, Akebono.

.
posted by May Kasahara at 7:35 AM on April 11 [1 favorite]

He had an interesting career, full of ups (his unprecedented success in Japanese sumo as a foreigner), downs (his inability to find success in MMA), and the pleasingly ridiculous (his tours of duty in professional wrestling, from holding notable championships in AJPW to being hatched from an egg as Yinling the Erotic Terrorist's love child in HUSTLE).

.
posted by delfin at 8:04 AM on April 11 [2 favorites]

Rest in Peace Akebono. I was a huge sumo fan in the early nineties, was lucky enough to go see the 1991 Albert Hall basho, subscribed to Sumo World magazine, the lot. Sumo was a big reason I went to Japan on the JET programme after uni, and the 64th yokozuna was a big reason behind all that. Am kind of sad he had to go into professional wrestling for financial reasons. Wish he had got to do his kanreki doyho-iri at 60.
posted by runincircles at 9:28 AM on April 11 [7 favorites]

.
posted by northtwilight at 9:39 AM on April 11

.
posted by joedan at 10:06 AM on April 11

.
posted by riruro at 10:14 AM on April 11

.
posted by kinnakeet at 10:19 AM on April 11

.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:45 AM on April 11

.

Here's a compilation of all 15 of his bouts from Akebono's final yusho. He made his opponents look like little kids.
posted by ursus_comiter at 11:23 AM on April 11 [2 favorites]

.
posted by spinifex23 at 11:35 AM on April 11

.
posted by Sphinx at 11:50 AM on April 11

.
posted by adoarns at 12:57 PM on April 11

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:28 PM on April 11

Akebono meant a lot to the people in Hawaii:

Hawaii News Now: FROM THE ARCHIVES: How Akebono became one of the best sumo wrestlers to come from Hawaii

KHON 2 News in Hawaii: Iconic sumo legend Akebono remembered by friends

Island News: Famous Akebono Taro statue at Waikiki’s Sam’s Kitchen honors late sumo wrestling hero

During the 90s, coverage of sumo was a regular thing in Hawaii. As the beginning of the archive clip mentions, the names of Konishiki, Akebono and Musashimaru were known to everyone there.
posted by LostInUbe at 3:41 PM on April 11 [7 favorites]

.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 3:57 PM on April 11

.
posted by dragonplayer at 4:38 AM on April 12

I was living in Japan in the early nineties and watched the match that made him a Yokozuna. It was quite a shock when during the post match interview they put him mom on the phone and he sounded for a minute like a shy American teenager instead of this enormous Sumo.
posted by thirdring at 7:00 AM on April 12 [4 favorites]

.
posted by SageLeVoid at 3:33 AM on April 13