Chicken-skin moment for Akebono
By Mina Hall
Special to The Advertiser
TOKYO — My first experience watching sumo live was in 1993.
Associated Press
It was a cold spring day in March. Snow was falling. Bundled in a heavy coat, I made my way among thousands at the renowned Meiji Shrine in western Tokyo.
Hawai'i-born wrestler Akebono (Chad Rowan of Waimanalo) couldn't hold back the tears as stable master Daigoro Azumazeki (Jesse Kuhaulua of Maui) cut off the topknot during Saturday's retirement ceremony.
As I shivered, I peered around the corner, and laid my eyes on the biggest man I had ever seen.
It was 6-foot-8 Chad Rowan, a Hawai'i-born wrestler who had just been promoted to yokozuna.
Akebono had become the first foreign-born wrestler to be promoted to the exalted rank of grand champion in the sport's 2,000-year history.
He was practically naked, wearing only a kesho-mawashi (ceremonial apron) and his first tsuna (belt).
As he passed the crowd, he stood tall with his shoulders back and his head high. He looked like a massive statue.
After finding his position in front of the shrine, he stopped, bowed his head and took a deep breath.
He ceremoniously clapped his hands and stretched them out to the sky, sending a message to the gods. Time seemed to stand still as he performed the ancient yokozuna dohyo-iri (ring entering ceremony) that only 63 other men before him had done.
Snow continued to fall as he took deep and long breaths in the cold air. Each snowflake instantly melted as it hit his broad shoulders.
Gracefully, he raised his leg high in the air, stomped it down to the ground and lowered himself slowly in a dramatic pose, absorbing every second of the ritual ceremony.
Cameras flashed and thousands of eyes focused on him. In that moment, I noticed one revealing detail about Akebono.
He had chicken skin all over his body.
But it wasn't from the cold.
"I was too nervous to be cold," he said. "The moment was just overwhelming."
Saturday, inside the Kokugikan arena in Ryogoku, Tokyo, it wasn't cold at all. Even though it was a beautiful autumn day outside, the indoor climate was controlled.
But as I witnessed Akebono's last dohyo-iri, I looked closely at his arms. And there it was again.
Chicken skin.
For a big guy, he's awfully sensitive, I thought.
But like his first dohyo-iri performed as the first foreign-born yokozuna, Saturday's ceremony had much deeper meaning for Akebono.
He stepped up to the ring together with fellow yokozuna Musashimaru (Wai'anae's Fiamalu Penitani), ozeki Musoyama, and his 15-month-old son, Cody.
"It's been a dream of mine to be in the dohyo with my own son," Akebono said. "It was an incredible moment."
I have probably watched the yokozuna dohyo-iri more than a hundred times, performed by several sumotori, but I have never seen it done before with so much emotion.
Akebono seemed to perform the ritual slower than normal, as if he were trying to extend the ceremony.
For me, as I watched him clap and open his hands toward the sky, it felt like completing a full circle.
I had covered Akebono's career from his first yokozuna dohyo-iri to his last and it was all coming to an end right before me.
As I held up my camera to capture the moment, Akebono, by his mere presence, had given me a gift.
I, too, had chicken skin.
Mina Hall is author of "The Big Book of Sumo." She played tennis for the University of Hawai'i from 1987-92 and currently lives in Las Vegas.
