Posted on: Thursday, May 19, 2005
Gentle giant will be missed
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
The stooped, silver-haired woman recoiled in surprise when, in attempting to exit a small neighborhood Tokyo shop, she suddenly found herself face-to-waist with the imposing 6-foot-3, 429-pound frame of sumotori Percy Kipapa.
Before she could regain her composure, a meaty hand reached around her and held open the door. Then, a wide disarming smile crossed Kipapa's bespectacled features.
"So big, so gentle," the woman marveled.
Often in his seven years in Japan's national sport did the Castle High graduate represent two such contrasting visions. A hard-thudding competitor in the ring and a quiet, laid-back regular guy outside of it, is how the 31-year-old, who was stabbed to death in Kahalu'u Monday, is remembered by a lot of those who knew him here and in Japan.
When he first joined the sport of emperors soon after high school graduation in 1991, Kipapa was given the ring name of Wakataisei (young great potential). But some fans shortly prevailed on stable owner Jesse Kuhaulua to change the name to Daiki (great joy) because they felt it better represented Kipapa, who was beginning to make a name for himself in the sport.
"That's why this is a big shock," Kuhaulua said yesterday from Tokyo, where word was spreading at the current tournament. "He was such a nice guy, so soft-spoken and humble. Everybody in the stable got along with him when he was here."
A spokesperson at the Japan Sumo Association, the sport's ruling body, called Kipapa's death, "very sad."
Kipapa could hardly have chosen to follow in larger, more formidable footsteps when he put on the belt, not only joining the stable of Takamiyama, the first foreign-born sumotori to win the Emperor's Cup, but becoming an understudy to Akebono, the foreign grand champion and a man with whom he would form a strong friendship.
Yet even after a grueling practice session at the hands of more experienced sumotori had left him bruised and caked in the sand of the practice ring, once Kipapa regained his breath a quick quip or smile would eventually emerge.
It was a temperament that helped see him through the hardships of an alien existence until he hit his stride in 1995. There, in a remarkable three-tournament stretch, he reeled off an 18-3 record, including a 7-0 makushita division championship in Nagoya, to earn promotion to juryo, the beginning of sumo's salaried division.
It would be a short, four-tournament stay in the hard-earned limelight before injuries and illness took their toll in the unforgiving sport and forced a 1998 retirement.
"A lot of people here still remember Percy," Kuhaulua said. "It is a very sad day."
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.
