Konishiki Yasokichi

Saleva'a Fuauli Atisano'e (born December 31, 1963), better known by his shikona, , is an American-born Japanese former professional sumo wrestler. He was the first non-Japanese-born wrestler to reach ōzeki, the second-highest possible rank in the sport. During his career, he won the top division championship on three occasions and came very close to becoming the first foreign-born grand champion, or yokozuna, prompting a social debate in Japan as to whether a foreigner could have the necessary cultural understanding to be deemed acceptable in sumo's ultimate rank. At a peak weight of he was also at the time the heaviest wrestler ever in sumo, earning him the nicknames "Meat Bomb" and, most famously, "The Dump Truck".

Early career

Playing truant from school one day, Atisano'e, already by the age of eighteen, was spotted on the beach in Hawaii by a sumo talent scout and was offered the chance to go to Japan to train. He entered sumo in July 1982, recruited by another Hawaiian-born wrestler, Takamiyama of the Takasago stable. A promising student at the University High School in Honolulu, Atisano'e initially wanted to be a lawyer and was also offered a music scholarship to Syracuse University. His father had regular work with the US Navy but had to support eight children. Atisano'e regarded Takamiyama as a local hero and found the opportunity to travel to Japan too good to resist, although his parents were reluctant for him to do so. However, his increasing weight caused a strain on his knee, exacerbated by previous high-school football injuries, which badly affected his performances. After a string of mediocre 8–7 scores he turned in a disastrous 3–12 in September 1988.

His problems continued in 1989 and a 5–10 mark in September left him in danger of demotion from ōzeki once again. He made a spectacular comeback in November 1989, taking his first tournament championship with a 14–1 record. He was the first foreigner to win a top division title since Takamiyama in 1972. In March 1990 he took part in a rare three-way playoff for the title, and despite winning the initial bout, he would then lose twice in a row, making Hokutoumi the champion. In May 1991 Konishiki won 14 consecutive bouts but was beaten in a playoff on the final day by Asahifuji.

Close to yokozuna

By late 1991 Konishiki was a strong yokozuna candidate. He had overcome his injuries and showed much more consistency. Yokozuna Chiyonofuji and Ōnokuni had both recently retired, and Asahifuji and Hokutoumi were struggling with illness and injury. Konishiki took advantage by winning two championships (his 2nd and 3rd overall) in November 1991 and March 1992, with a record in the last three tournaments of 38 wins and 7 losses. He was denied promotion to yokozuna, normally awarded to those with two consecutive tournament wins or an equivalent achievement. Konishiki had three non-consecutive wins. Another member of the committee, Noboru Kojima, said in an interview in the April issue of Bungei Shunjū that Konishiki did not possess hinkaku (), a word derived from hin, meaning "grace, elegance and refinement". The New York Times subsequently quoted Konishiki as saying, "If I were Japanese, I would be yokozuna already." The Japan Sumo Association demanded an apology. Konishiki held a press conference during which he made his apology and tearfully denied making the remarks. He insisted that The Nihon Keizai Shimbun had misinterpreted his remark, and that he had not spoken to The New York Times, and instead a Hawaiian apprentice Koryu had impersonated him on the telephone.

Despite the denial, the damage had been done.

In November 1997, he faced demotion to the second jūryō division and announced his retirement after 15 years in sumo. In addition to his chronic knee problems, he had been suffering from gout and a stomach ulcer. He said that in spite of his setbacks "I'm glad that I've continued with sumo, because I've learned a lot from sumo, and I've also learned the Japanese language and life style." He had spent 81 consecutive tournaments in the top division, and won 649 bouts there.

Fighting style

Early in his career, under the instruction of his first stablemaster, Konishiki was primarily an oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques such as oshi-dashi and tsuki-dashi that would win the bout as quickly as possible. Following his knee problems in 1988 and 1989, his balance suffered and as his weight continued to increase he began to change his style, preferring to bide his time by grabbing the opponent's mawashi and rely on his huge weight advantage to wear them out. By 1992 he was winning virtually all his matches by yori-kiri (force out), and his lack of ability to change tack once he had been sidestepped was one of the concerns raised by the Yokozuna Deliberation Committee when he was up for promotion. He had previously married former model Sumika Shioda in 1992. They divorced amicably in December 2000.

In 2006, he played in the film Check It Out, Yo Chekeraccho!! and also had a cameo appearance in the film The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

He has a recurring role as "Koni-chan" on an NHK children's education program called Nihongo de Asobo (にほんごであそぼ), aimed at conveying traditional and colloquial Japanese language and culture.

Although he continued to DJ for his FM Yokohama show Kony Island, he took a hiatus from Japanese celebrity life for a year in 2007, returning to Hawaii to prepare for gastric bypass surgery. Although he did not have high blood pressure or any heart problems, he had not lost much weight since his retirement, and underwent the operation in February 2008. He announced on his website that the operation went smoothly and that he had since lost . He returned to Japan in May 2008.

After sumo, he began to turn his talents to music, most notably with his collaboration with Rimi Natsukawa as well as L-Burna on the song "Livin Like Kings". He often sings and raps in a mixture of English and Japanese. He can also play the ukulele. In 2000, he released a hip-hop album called Kms, including songs "Island Girl", "Sumo Stomp", and the old-school classic "Sumo Gangsta".

Following the 2011 earthquake, Konishiki was a high-profile fund-raiser for disaster relief in the stricken regions of Japan.

He started the Konishiki Kids Foundation to help underprivileged children from Hawaii to experience Japanese culture.

In June 2022 he celebrated the 40th anniversary of his arrival in Japan with a party attended by around 300 people, including chairman of the Japan Sumo Association Hakkaku, former yokozuna Wakanohana III, as well as former sekiwake and fellow American-born Takamiyama.

At the end of 2024 Konishiki was hospitalized for about a month with obesity-related glomerulopathy. In December of that year he announced that he suffered kidney failure and received a successful organ transplant from his wife, Chie.

Career record

References

External links

KONISHIKI web site
Konishiki Kids Foundation