January 27, 1993 : Dignity and Humility are not japanese only



One person I remember from childhood is Akebono. Akebono was a rikishi (力士 = "strong man" - it is the word we use a lot to refer to sumo 'players'), really popular in the '90s. Why do I remember him so clearly, even though I was less than 10 years old? Let me explain a bit about sumo!

 

In Japan, sumo is called kokugi (国技 = "national sport"). We believe it is one of the sports that best reflects Japanese culture. Categories in sumo do not depend on weight as in boxing or judo, for example, but only on skills level. Only 42 rikishi can compete in the best category. They are called sekitori. In the sekitori world, there are 6 categories. The 5 best categories (called makuuchi) are :

  • maegashira
  • komusubi
  • sekiwake
  • oozeki
  • yokozuna

I know this is not so interesting, but it will be necessary to understand Akebono ;).

Depending on your tournament results (called basho), you can go up or down this ladder. Yokozuna is the best category. Only the best rikishi can hope to become one. It is really difficult to enter, but once you are a yokozuna, you can never go back to a lower level. You are a star, you enter history and your name will never be forgotten (at least in archives ^^). Komusubi to oozeki categories need at least 2 rikishi but the yokozuna category does not have a minimum. It means that you can spend several years with no yokozuna if nobody is good enough to become one. Why? Because strength is not sufficient enough. To become a yokozuna you need 3 things :

  • of course, strength: you need enough victory ratio in basho
  • skills: the way you 'fight' as a rikishi has to be a beautiful and perfect technique
  • hinkaku : this is the most difficult part. We often translate it into "grace, dignity, humility". It is very difficult to explain... for example you can't show too much pride or confidence, you shouldn't brag about your victories, you have to respect your opponents and be extremely polite, you have to move with grace (difficult when you are more than 150kg!), you should wear kimono in a perfect way (not so easy to achieve as it seems!), you have to speak perfect Japanese, etc.

 

So let's go back to Akebono. Akebono Tarou (born Chadwick George Ha'aheo Rowan - rikishi have to wear a Japanese name) is a Hawaiian-born rikishi. He was the 64th yokozuna in sumo history and he changed this sport forever as he was the first non-Japanese yokozuna ever. The first foreigners in sumo were all Hawaiian but none of them were a yokozuna before (Takamiyama was sekiwake and Konishiki, his apprentice, was oozeki).

His first sumo 'match' was in 1988. At the beginning of the Heisei era (we count years in "eras" in Japan especially for 'official' purposes - Heisei began in 1989), sumo was very popular. Two rikishi brothers, called Wakanohana and Takanohana were superstars. At the same time, Akebono became more and more popular. In 1993 (so, officially "Heisei 5") he was promoted to the rank of yokozuna after he defeated Takanohana. In fact, both of them were promoted on the same day. The newspapers spoke mainly about Takanohana since he was Japanese, but Akebono also caught attention because he was a foreigner. At that time, I did not realize it but Akebono had changed a lot of things in the sumo world. For the 7-year-old me, he was like the 'heel' in wrestling: you know, this guy who fights the 'good' Japanese but that you still like a lot because he is strong and cool ;) The rivalry between the Japanese brothers (both of them had become yokozuna too), especially Takanohana and Akebono was a very popular thing in Japan in the '90s.

 

In fact, his promotion was a big step forward for Japanese sumo and Japanese sport. Before him, even though he was very strong, Konishiki was never promoted. Why? Many people at the time thought that foreigners could not have hinkaku at all. It may sound racist, and maybe it was, but at the time in Japan, it was a common thought. Seeing Konishiki and then Akebono, more and more Japanese began to think "why foreigners are not promoted?". Thanks to Akebono, many foreigners now hope to become rikishi. After him 5 of the 8 yokozuna were foreigners (1 other Hawaiian and 4 Mongols) including the current active yokozuna, Hakuho who is Mongol. This event may not be a big feast nor a "once in a lifetime" event but it is without any doubt a big turning point in Japan. Sumo evolved a lot thanks to foreigners and it became more widely known outside of Japan. It also helped the Japanese to accept other cultures (something sometimes really difficult for a country that was closed completely until the Meiji era - 1868).

 

If you are interested in Akebono, here you can find highlights of the beginning of his career: the matches of his first won basho, the happiness of his parents, part of the yokozuna ceremony at the end. I am sorry that it is in Japanese, but even images only are interesting, especially if you didn't know anything about sumo before.

And here is a video about the well-known rivalry between Akebono and Takanohana.

And finally, if you are into wrestling, you may already know Akebono. Here is his iconic 'match' against the Big Show for WWE. After his sumo career, Akebono began an MMA career and then a wrestling career.

 

Hideto

 

Note: In Japanese names, the family name comes first, and when we refer to someone we prefer to use family names - even for friends.

Note 2: I provided Chinese characters for the words I thought it was interesting, but if you are interested in other words, or even in sumo in general, feel free to ask! 



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