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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, July 12, 2002

Yempuku bridge for sumotori

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

One by one the living Gods of sumo had strode up the aisle in Japan's national sumo arena and, with a deferential bow and stout handshake, paid their respects to the man in the aloha shirt.

After Taiho, Wakanohana I, Kitanofuji and the others had moved on, a bystander who had marveled at the parade passing before him asked an official about the identity of the VIP.

"Hawai'i's Mr. Sumo," was the reply.

In an 88-year life that never lacked for excitement or accomplishments — behind-the-lines World War II hero, entertainment promoter etc. — one of Ralph Yempuku's enduring legacies is Hawai'i's tie to sumo.

He promoted a myriad of events, but the sport of emperors remained close to his heart. Yempuku's death Tuesday "was a big loss," said Jesse Kuhaulua, whose own trailblazing career was given several assists by Yempuku.

"Mr. Yempuku did a lot to bring sumo to Hawai'i and the rest of the country," Kuhaulua said from Nagoya, Japan.

Musashimaru's nightly appearances on television now and the precedent-setting success of Takamiyama, Konishiki and Akebono before him are testament to the link Yempuku helped forge.

Over a four-decade period from the 1960s into the '90s, Yempuku, a man who often operated by handshake, was the point person on bringing professional sumo to Hawai'i. Ostensibly, he was the promoter for a series of goodwill sumo exhibitions, carrying the ball for the 442nd Veterans Club which, with various sponsors, underwrote the ventures.

However, together with Katsugo Miho, who whom it would also be a labor of love, they helped crack open the door of sumo internationally in 1962 with the first post-war tour outside Japan. Its success — 21,550 over four nights at the Civic Auditorium — prompted almost biennial visits to Hawai'i and, in the process, stops in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and elsewhere.

It was the Maui-born Kuhaulua's performance before the former Maedayama in workouts during the 1964 tour that helped seal the deal that would send him to Japan where he became the first foreigner to win the Emperor's Cup and run a stable.

"He (Yempuku) and Maedayama were very good friends," Kuhaulua said. "He helped me out a lot. Whenever he (Yempuku) came to Japan, the stable would have him over to dinner. In my first few years in Japan, when I was learning to speak Japanese, he would translate for me and help me out."

But it wasn't just Kuhaulua and those from Hawai'i who followed in his massive footsteps that would have reason to thank Yempuku.

As Kitanoumi, who went on to become a yokozuna and, now, chairman of the Japan Association once put it, "because he brings us to Hawai'i, our favorite place, he is the friend of all (the sumotori)."