Takamiyama Daigoro
| Personal data | |
|---|---|
| real name | Jesse James Waluni Kuhaulua |
| Born | June 16, 1944 |
| place of birth | Happy Valley, Maui, USA |
| size | 1.92 m |
| Weight | 205 kg |
| Career | |
| Heya | Takasago |
| Career record | 689-774 |
| debut | March 1964 |
| Highest rank | Sekiwake (September 1972) |
| Tournament victories | 1 (makuuchi) |
| resignation | June 1984 |
Takamiyama Daigoro , Japanese髙 見 山 大 五郎, own Jesse James Waluni Kuhaulua (born June 16, 1944 in Happy Valley , Maui ) is a former Japanese-Hawaiian sumo wrestler . He was the first foreigner to win a Japanese sumo tournament.
Takamiyama came to Japan in 1964 and began a wrestling career that would last nearly twenty years, during which he competed in 97 tournaments in a row in the Makuuchi division alone . His record of 1,430 matches, which he played in this league between 1968 and 1984, lasted until 2011. Only Kaiō has fought more fights (1459). Even for a sumo wrestler, Takamiyama had a mighty stature with a fighting weight of up to 205 kg and a height of 1.92 m. Even as a maegashira , he was able to score against higher-rated opponents and defeated a yokozuna twelve times . The highest rank he ever achieved was that of a sekiwake .
In 1972, Takamiyama was at the height of his career when he won the Nagoya-basho tournament in July , becoming the first non-Japanese ever to win a basho . The then US President Richard Nixon sent his congratulations on the occasion of the award ceremony. These were the first English words ever spoken in a Japanese sumo ring - for many Japanese the reading of the greeting message in the language of the former enemy was a scandal. Since then, such congratulations for foreign tournament winners have always been presented in Japanese.
It was not until June 1984, when he reached the age of forty, that Takamiyama left active sumo and took over the management of his own stable as Azumazeki Oyakata. His most famous protégé was his compatriot Akebono , who was the first foreigner to be promoted to yokozuna in 1993 . The makuuchi wrestler Takamisakari also comes from the Azumazeki-beya.
At the end of his career, Takamiyama took on Japanese citizenship under the name Watanabe Daigoro.
literature
- Jesse Kuhaulua: Takamiyama - the World of Sumo . (English language) ISBN 0-87011-195-7
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Takamiyama Daigoro |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kuhaulua, Jesse James Waluni; Watanabe Daigoro; Azumazeki Daigoro |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese-Hawaiian sumo wrestler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 16, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Happy Valley, Maui , Hawaii |