“It is with great sadness that we announce that Akebono Taro died of heart failure in a hospital near Tokyo earlier this month,” his family said in a statement. Akebono won eleven major sumo tournaments before retiring in 2001.
He leaves behind his wife Christine and three children. Born in Hawaii in 1969 as Chadwick Haheo Rowan, the athlete, who is over two meters tall and weighs a good 230 kilograms, moved to Tokyo in the late 1980s. He won his first major championship in 1993, following which he was named the 64th yokozuna in history. Three years later, Akebono received Japanese citizenship. There are currently 73 grandmasters, including six other foreigners. Akebono later entered the ring as a wrestler and K-1 martial artist.
