First, back in 1994, I spent my summer in Japan, and the July tournament was the first time I saw sumo:
It was only on TV, but I was over in Japan, and back in 1994, it was tough to get sumo coverage back home in North Carolina at the time. Alas, Akebono was out in July 1994, but Musashimaru did win. I made some comment about one of the Hawaiian rikishi winning: [from a journal I wrote at the time]
Did I mention that a Hawaiian guy won the sumo tournament (interesting
because sumo is considered so essentially Japanese they don't like
non-Japanese participating.)
Well. Anyway.
Akebono Video Tributes
From the JSA:
There are English captions, but it’s just titles of what the different video clips are about. That’s generally enough to understand, though, if you know sumo.
0:37 First Torikumi of Akebono
2:22 Torikumi that made Akebono to Juryo
2:44 First win in the Makuuchi Division
3:17 First time he won against Yokozuna
4:12 First time Akebono won The Sumo Grand Tournament
7:09 The promotion to the Yokozuna
11:00 4th~10th victory of Akebono in The Grand Tournament
12:09 11th and the last victory in The Grand Tournament
Akebono stories from Katrina Watts & John Jacques:
Hawaii News Now:
FROM THE ARCHIVES: How Akebono became one of the best sumo wrestlers to come from Hawaii
Other Akebono Material
Sumo Kaboom
https://twitter.com/SumoKaboom/status/1780618190743048654
2020 Podcast Episode
Akebono, Cellulitis, and Tochinoshin's Bandaids — click through to get to audio
Tachiai Blog, Sumo News Update for 14 Apr 2024
As I’ve noted before, my introduction to the sport of sumo was from late-night highlight digests, broadcast by ESPN. Akebono and this great rivalry with Takanohana and Wakanohana were featured prominently. When the Olympics came to Japan, he performed a dohyo-iri during the opening ceremony. The IOC remembered his life by posting a video from that event.
….
I encourage everyone to check out this montage, put together by Nikkan Sports. It features photos from early in his sumo career, his climb through the ranks, his reign as Yokozuna, retirement, and his post-sumo life. An ad may pop up, click the Japanese character for, “To close,” 閉. The opposite character is “Open,” 開. Note the difference in the central radical. The radical kind of looks like an open door in the character for “open” and a closed door in the character for “closed”.
via r/SumoMemes
Akebono & Kotonowaka
Sounds solid to me.