"Your professional name, Takamiyama — or 'mountain of the lofty view' — is just one indication of the esteem in which you are held."

— Telegram from then-President Ronald Reagan upon the retirement of Jesse Kuhaulua from sumo in 1984.

When he slapped his meaty, open-faced palms upon the wooden pole as part of a sumo practice ritual, the sound approximated thunder claps.

When he lifted high one leg, and then another, of his 400-pound frame, bringing them crashing down upon the hard-packed earthen ring, the ground seemed to shake.

If Jesse Kuhaulua, at 6 feet 3 and 400 pounds, sometimes seemed larger than life, his impact was more so.

The first foreigner to win the Emperor's Cup, symbolic of a tournament championship, in Japan's national sport of sumo, the Maui-born Kuhaulua was an international trailblazer.

In his size-14 footsteps followed dozens of other foreign nationals, more than 20 from Hawai'i alone. But none has achieved his fame and following in this country or Japan.

One of the best ambassadors of goodwill the United States has ever produced, then-U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield said in 1985. "A transpacific bridge of understanding. A man with the body of a giant (and) a heart to match."

For 45 years, until his mandatory retirement last month at age 65, Kuhaulua knocked down barriers and stereotypes in a once-alien land as if they were mere 200-pound opponents. Under the ring name of Takamiyama he became the first foreign wrestler to scale the salaried ranks and, in 1972, won the Nagoya Basho and with it the Emperor's Cup. Not content to make history, he did it with an ironman style, competing in a record 1,231 consecutive matches in the top division. It was only a month short of his 40th birthday in 1984 that a freak elbow injury finally derailed him into retirement.

And, then, he used his sumo acumen and popularity to become the first foreigner to own and operate a sumo stable, eventually producing the first foreign born grand champion, Chad Rowan, who competed as Akebono.

In Japan he came to reflect the virtue of "gaman" or perseverance. Kuhaulua entered Japan, "a foreigner but in 21 years became more Japanese than most (native-born sumo) wrestlers," said sumo observer Ichiro Miyamoto.

In Hawai'i, he was the Maui boy who made great on the world stage.

In the process he brought two countries with a shared World War II history together.

In this the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team became his biggest backer. The 442nd Veterans Club sponsored several of the expensive, the ornate kesho mawashi, the first of which bore its torch emblem, that Kuhaulua wore on ceremonial occasions. They, along with promoter Ralph Yempuku, organized many of the exhibition tournaments that brought him back to Honolulu. One of the 442nd officials, attorney Kats Miho, became a decades-long adviser and counselor.

Kuhaulua's success was an unlikely tale with an even more remarkable beginning. He took up sumo, in part, to help build up his legs and balance for football at Baldwin High, where he became an all-league pick. As a raw, 270-pound amateur sumotori, he was pointed out and "discovered" when a pro sumo group came here from Japan for an exhibition tour.

But even when he agreed to visit Japan as a possible prelude to entering the pro ranks, Kuhaulua maintains he was there "just to see Japan with my own eyes. I was just coming over to see what Japan was like."

It was a "visit" that, at age 19, became a career. "Sumo was all I had; I had to work harder to make something of myself," Kuhaulua recalls. Unable to speak more than a few words of Japanese when he first arrived and largely ignorant of daily sumo life, he learned the hard way.

For example, Kuhaulua recalls, a senior sumotori would cuff him on the ear and snort, "mimi" for "ear" and so on. He learned much of his ring techniques and stable protocol the same way.

Being ordered around by 15- and 16-year-olds in the strict pecking order of rank helped inspire him to hard work and success. Plus, he recalls, he had little money and the stablemaster had his passport locked up in a safe. "I wanted to go (home), but I couldn't," Kuhaulua recalled. "I remember the hardships at the beginning. I never thought I would be here this long."

In time he raced up the ranks to the third highest position of sekiwake earning not only victories with his power but a following with his outgoing personality and humility.

His return to Hawai'i in 1972 drew the largest crowd of fans and well-wishers some had seen since Duke Kahanamoku's return from the 1912 Olympics.

With trademark mutton chop sideburns and a hoarse voice, the result of a sharp hand thrust to the throat, Kuhaulua became one of Japan's most recognizable figures. As a much-in-demand advertising figure, he pitched a variety of products from electronics to futon.

It helped make him a wealthy man, allowing him to buy a home in a posh area of Tokyo for his Japanese wife and two children and, eventually build a five-story stable upon ring retirement.

"I'm happy for him," Miho said. "He worked ... and worked hard for everything he got. It was a tough road."

Even a quarter century removed from his competitive days, Kuhaulua remains a popular figure whether walking his dog in Tokyo or strolling through Honolulu during regular visits.

When Kuhaulua appeared at Shirokiya in 2007 with a visiting sumo delegation, he drew long lines of autograph seekers, some born after he had retired from the ring. "A lot of people told me their grandfather or grandmother had been fans of mine," Kuhaulua said. "And, that's how they knew me. That made me very happy."