Konishiki Yasokichi (born 1963)

## Konishiki Yasokichi

Konishiki Yasokichi - 小錦 八十吉 (born December 31, 1963) is a former American professional sumo wrestler from Nanakuli, Oahu, Hawaii. He made his debut in July 1982 and wrestled for Takasago stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 1984 and has 10 special prizes, 2 kinboshi and 3 top division championships. His highest rank was ozeki and he retired in November 1997.

## **Early Life**

Atisanoe entered sumo in July 1982 at the age of 18, recruited by another Hawaiian-born wrestler, Takamiyama of the Takasago stable. A promising student at the University High School in Honolulu, he 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 join sumo too good to resist.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Due to his potential he was given the name Konishiki, after the 17th Yokozuna, Konishiki Yasokichi I who came from the same training stable at the end of the 19th Century (during the Meiji period in Japan) and Konishiki Yasokichi II (a komusubi in the beginning of the 20th century). Atisano'e was the sixth "Konishiki" in history, though he was the third to reach the top division.

Konishiki posted a perfect 7-0 record in his first tournament and took the jonokuchi yusho. He replicated his performance in the following tournament and won the jonidan yusho with a perfect 7-0 record. He followed with three consecutive 6-1 records and was ranked at the top makushita ranks by 1983. In September 1983, Konishiki posted a strong 6-1 record and qualified for an eight-man playoff. He defeated fellow American and Washington-native Suetsugu in the first round, but lost to eventual winner Onohana in the second round. Nevertheless, since he was ranked at makushita 6, his record still earned him a promotion to juryo after only eight tournaments in the unsalaried ranks. It was the fastest rise at the time.

### **Juryo Career**

Konishiki made his sekitori debut in the November 1983 tournament. At the time he was still only 19 years old and was the youngest sekitori in both makuuchi and juryo. In his first tournament, he posted a strong 11-4 record, but missed out on the yusho after losing to Hoo in the playoff. In the following tournament he struggled and eventually pulled out on the ninth day which resulted in a 4-5-6 record: his first career losing record. In the next two tournaments he won the juryo yusho's and was promoted to makuuchi in July 1984.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He made his debut in the top makuuchi division in July 1984, and in the following tournament in September he defeated two yokozuna, Chiyonofuji and Takanosato, and was runner-up with a 12–3 record. He was promoted to komusubi for the first time in May 1985 and sekiwake in July 1985. However, he suffered an injury to his coccyx (caused by a stool collapsing underneath him) and had to sit out all the next tournament. In May 1986 he suffered another injury, this time in competition, during a bout with Futahaguro. Konishiki came back strongly from this setback and three consecutive double figure scores in 1987 earned him promotion to ozeki.

### **Ozeki Career**

Many people expected Konishiki to quickly make his push for yokozuna promotion. His stablemaster, the 46th Yokozuna Asashio Taro III had predicted Konishiki would reach the top rank by his 25th birthday. 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 ozeki 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 three-way playoff for the title but he was outshone by Asahifuji, who earned promotion to yokozuna in July. In May 1991 Konishiki won 14 consecutive bouts but was beaten in a playoff on the final day by Asahifuji.

By late 1991 Konishiki was a strong yokozuna candidate. He had overcome his injuries and showed much more consistency. Yokozuna Chiyonofuji and Onokuni 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. However, he was denied promotion to yokozuna, with the chairman of the Yokozuna Deliberation Committee, Hideo Ueda, announcing, "We wanted to make doubly sure that Konishiki is worthy to be a grand champion. Therefore, we decided to wait for another tournament." Another member of the committee, Noboru Kojima, said in an interview that Konishiki did not possess hinkaku, a word derived from hin meaning "grace, elegance and refinement." His remarks were given the headline, "We Don’t Need a Foreign Yokozuna" by a newspaper. 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 in which he tearfully denied making the remarks, insisting that one of his personal attendants had impersonated him, but the damage had been done. The media furor hampered his preparations for the forthcoming tournament which resulted in a mediocre 9–6 record. Konishiki never came close to promotion again.

### **Later Career**

Konishiki retained his ozeki ranking for 39 tournaments over more than six years, but he eventually lost it in November 1993 after two consecutive losing records. However, he continued to compete in the top division as a maegashira for another four years. Now weighing over 600 pounds (270 kg), he was very susceptible to belt throws and slap downs by lighter and more agile opponents. Even though he enjoyed less success, he became progressively more popular with Japanese fans due to his continuous fighting spirit, distinctive bulk and amiable personality. In November 1997, he faced demotion to the second juryo 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.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

Konishiki remained in the Japan Sumo Association as an elder for a short time under the name of Sanoyama, before branching out as a Japanese entertainer under the name "KONISHIKI" (the capitalization is an effort to reflect the association's requirement to write his name in the Roman alphabet, after prohibition of spelling it out in Japanese characters after his retirement from sumo).

In 2000 Shinichi Watanabe, director of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy, created an anime series called Dotto! Koni-chan, in which Koni, the protagonist, is a fat child who strongly resembles KONISHIKI.

In 2000, he released a hip-hop album called Kms, including songs "Island Girl," "Sumo Stomp," and the old-school classic "Sumo Gangsta."

In January 2004 he married his girlfriend of two years, former medical worker Chie Iijima. He had previously married former model Sumika Shioda in 1992, but they divorced amicably in December 2000.

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

He is the host of an NHK children's program called **Nihongo de Asobo** (にほんごであそぼ) which teaches children traditional and colloquial Japanese. He is known as "Koni-chan" on the show.

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 has since lost 70 kg (150 lb). 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. Konishiki can also play the ukulele.

Following the 2011 earthquake, Konishiki has been 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.

## **Personal Life**

* Konishiki is close friends with professional wrestler Tatsumi Fujinami and baseball player Hirokazu Kato. He is also close friends with Chiba Lotte Marines baseball player, Benny Agbayani, who also comes from Honolulu, Hawaii.
* Konishiki is of Samoan descent and six of his siblings were born in Samoa. He is distantly related to the California-based rap group, Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.. One of the members Vincent Devoux, better known as Gawtti, was recruited by Konishiki to join sumo, and he wrestled under the shikona Shinnishiki.
* At a peak weight of 287 kg (633 lb) he was also at the time the heaviest wrestler ever in sumo, earning him the nicknames "Meat Bomb" and "Dump Truck".

## **Fighting Style**

Early in his career, under the instruction of his first stablemaster, Konishiki was primarily oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques such as oshidashi and tsukidashi 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. His peak weight of 285 kilograms (628 lb) recorded in March 1996 was the heaviest ever for a sumo wrestler until surpassed by Orora in 2017.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 730-498-95/1219 (93 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 649-476-89/1117 (81 basho)
* **Juryo:** 39-15-6/53 (4 basho)
* **Makushita:** 16-5/21 (3 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 12-2/14 (2 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 7-0/7 (1 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 7-0/7 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 3 **Makuuchi** Championships
	+ 1st (November 1989)
	+ 2nd (November 1991)
	+ 3rd (March 1992)
* 2 **Juryo** Championships
	+ 1st (March 1984)
	+ 2nd (May 1984)
* 1 **Jonidan** Championship (November 1982)
* 1 **Jonokuchi** Championship (September 1982)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (5), Outstanding Performance Prize (4), Technique Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** 2: (1) Chiyonofuji, (1) Takanosato
* **Record:** **2nd** heaviest sumo wrestler (287 kg)
* **Record:** **6th** most tournaments ranked at ozeki (39 tournaments)
* **Record:** Tied for **8th** fastest progress to top division (12 tournaments)
* **1st** non-Japanese ozeki

## **Shikona History**

* Konishiki Yasokichi (1982.07 - 1997.11)

## **Gallery**

### **JSA Profile Pictures and Tegata**

Konishiki Yasokichi - 1997 (Retrieved from the JSA)Konishiki's tegata
### **Career Overview**

Konishiki gets measured upon joining professional sumo (c. 1982)Konishiki in Maezumo (c. 1982)Konishiki's very first sumo tournament (c. 1982)Konishiki was recruited into sumo by Takamiyama (c. 1982)Konishiki after promotion to Juryo in record time (c. 1983)Konishiki in Juryo (c. 1983)Konishiki after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 1984)Konishiki battles Yokozuna Takanosato (c. 1984)Konishiki defeats Koboyama (c. 1985)Konishiki defeats Ozeki Wakashimazu (c. 1987)Konishiki defeats Yokozuna Chiyonofuji (c. 1987)Konishiki after promotion to Ozeki (c. 1987)Konishiki celebrates promotion to Ozeki (c. 1987)Konishiki and Mike Tyson (c. 1988)Konishiki defeats Kotogaume to win his first Yusho (c. 1989)Konishiki reacts to winning his first Yusho (c. 1989)Konishiki wins his first Yusho (c. 1989)Konishiki's Yusho parade (c. 1989)Konishiki battles Yokozuna Chiyonofuji (c. 1990)Konishiki defeats Ozeki Kirishima to win his second Yusho (c. 1991)Konishiki wins his second Yusho (c. 1991)Konishiki's second Yusho parade (c. 1991)Konishiki wins his third Yusho (c. 1992)Konishiki's third Yusho parade (c. 1992)One of Konishiki's three Yusho portraits (c. 1992)Konishiki responds to his Yokozuna rejection (c. 1992)Konishiki defeats future Yokozuna Wakanohana (c. 1993)A demoted Konishiki battles Yokozuna Takanohana (c. 1995)Konishiki battles the much smaller Mainoumi (c. 1997)Konishiki loses his final match to Kotonowaka (c. 1997)Konishiki reacts after wrestling his final match (c. 1997)Konishiki announces his retirement (c. 1997)Konishiki after retirement as Sanoyama Oyakata (c. 1997)Konishiki's retirement ceremony (c. 1998)Konishiki after retirement as an entertainer (c. 2018)
## **See Also**

* List of American Sumo Wrestlers
* List of Heaviest Sumo Wrestlers

## **Sources**

* Konishiki Yasokichi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Konishiki Yasokichi Rikishi Information