"Your professional name, Takamiyama, or 'mountain of the lofty view,' is just one indication of the esteem in which you are held."
— From telegram by President Reagan upon Jesse Kuhaulua's last sumo match in 1984.
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When he left Happy Valley, Maui, in 1964, a 6-foot-3, 270-pound, 22-year-old, there was little indication that Jesse James Wailani Kuhaulua would shape the world of sumo or so strongly connect it with Hawai'i.
But by the time Kuhaulua retired as the sport's ironman, he had become, as U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield put it, "a trans-Pacific bridge of understanding."
Kuhaulua won over a legion of fans in Japan with his tenacity and dedication, becoming the first foreign-born performer to win the Emperor's Cup, symbolic of a sumo tournament championship.
That triumph in 1972 opened the way for a tide of other foreigners. One of them, Kuhaulua's protege, Chad Rowan (Akebono) of Waimanalo, became the first foreign-born yokozuna or grand champion of the sport.
In all, more than 20 candidates from Hawai'i and dozens more worldwide would step into sumo attempting to follow in Kuhaulua's large footprints.
Some surpassed his rise to sekiwake, the sport's third-highest rank, but none eclipsed his popularity or legacy in Japan, where Kuhaulua remains a stable owner in Tokyo.
