Taro Akebono, a Hawaii-born sumo wrestler who became the sport’s first foreign grand champion and helped to drive a resurgence in the sport’s popularity in the 1990s, has died in Tokyo. He was 54.
He died of heart failure in early April while receiving care at a Tokyo hospital, according to a statement from his family that was distributed by the United States military in Japan on Thursday.
When he became Japan’s 64th yokozuna, or grand champion sumo wrestler, in 1993, he was the first foreign-born sumo wrestler to achieve the sport’s highest title in its 300-year modern history. He went on to win a total of 11 grand championships.
Akebono, who was 6-foot-8 and 466 pounds when he was first named yokozuna at 23, towered over his opponents. He was known for using his height and the reach of his arms to his advantage, keeping his opponents at a distance and shoving them out of the ring.
Akebono’s rivalry with the Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana, both grand champions, was a major driver of sumo’s resurgent popularity in the 1990s.
Taro Akebono was born Chad George Ha’aheo Rowan in Waimanalo, Hawaii, in 1969. He moved to Japan in 1988 at the invitation of a fellow Hawaiian wrestler.
In 1992, a year before he became grand champion, the council that decides which wrestlers are worthy for that honor had denied it to another Hawaiian, saying no foreigner could possess the dignity befitting the title.
Akebono later said in interviews that he rarely considered his nationality in the ring, thinking of himself as a sumo wrestler first and foremost. He became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 1996.
“I wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m an American, I’m going to go out there, plant my flag in the middle of the ring and take on the Japanese,’” he told The New York Times in 2013.
He gained acceptance and popularity in the sumo world in part because people in Japan appreciated his devotion to the sport.
“He makes me forget he is a foreigner because of his earnest attitude toward sumo,” Yoshihisa Shimoie, editor of Sumo magazine, said in 1993.
Akebono is survived by his wife Christine Rowan, daughter Caitlyn, 25, and sons, Cody, 23, and Connor, 20, according to the family.
In 2001, he retired from the sport at 31, citing chronic knee problems. He went on to train younger wrestlers, and also competed in kickboxing, professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
“I am retiring with a feeling of great gratitude for being given the chance to become a yokozuna and experience something open to only very few people,” he said at the time of his retirement.
Motoko Rich contributed reporting.
