Top knot
Champion Konishiki retires in tearful ceremony
Posted: Saturday May 30, 1998 06:45 PM
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Over 300 people took turns cutting small strands of hair from Konishiki's top knot (AP) |
TOKYO (Reuters) -- Charismatic and massive sumo
champion Konishiki had his top knot clipped off on Saturday in a
tearful retirement ceremony.
Over 300 people, including political and business leaders,
along with numerous sumo legends, each took turns at the
scissors to cut a few strands of Konishiki's hair.
The American-born Konishiki was the heaviest wrestler in the
history of the sport known for its massive athletes. The
660-pound giant fought back tears for most of the
traditional ceremony.
Konishiki had a tumultuous and glorious 16-year career that
saw him win three Grand Sumo tournaments and the eventual
admiration of many Japanese who initially dismissed him as an
oversized American import.
Over the years Konishiki became fluent in Japanese and
became the first foreign-born wrestler to rise to the "ozeki"
champion rank.
"To me, the whole thing was like going to school, learning
a lot of things - about the culture, the language," Konishiki
told Reuters about his life in sumo.
"The hardest thing was trying to learn to deal with the
lifestyle, learning to accept and then taking it from there,"
he said.
Born in 1963 in Hawaii as Salevaa Atisanoe, Konishiki was
spotted by the first foreign sumo hero and fellow Hawaiian,
Jesse Takamiyama, when he was an 18-year old American high
school football player.
Konishiki was 385 pounds when he first entered the
ring in 1981. His weight and prowess in sumo increased over the
years and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Konishiki was one
of the top wrestlers in the sport.
Along the way he picked up the nicknames "dump truck" and
"meat bomb" because of his massive size.
In 1992, after winning two out of three tournaments,
Konishiki appeared on the verge of becoming the first foreign
"yokozuna," or grand champion.
But controversy arose over the fact that his two wins were
not consecutive and whether or not he had "hinkaku," meaning
grace and dignity.
Fuel was added to the fire after Konishiki was quoted by a
newspaper as blaming racial discrimination for his failure to be
promoted - a remark he denies ever making.
"The thing about the yokozuna was probably the biggest down
for me. It hurt too many people - my family, my wife - and got
me to a point where I lost my concentration. That was a very sad
moment in my career," he said.
Since he announced his retirement in 1997, Konishiki has
used his singing and dancing skills to become one of the leading
product endorses in Japanese advertising. He is also running his
own sumo stable.
And since he stopped wrestling last year, Konishiki has
dropped 33 pounds and aims to shed another 264
pounds in the months to come.
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