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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rackhir" data-source="post: 654478" data-attributes="member: 149">This reminds me a bit of the controversy when Konishiki ( the first foriegner to reach Ozeki, iirc) was possibly up for promotion to Yokozuna. This was before the old men of sumo had made things clearer as to what it would take to make Yokozuna, which previously had been something like "Embodying the spirit of Sumo", which of course would neatly exclude foriegners who could never embody so Japanese a thing.There was a controversy about a supposed comment that Konishiki had made to the New York Times or some such news paper, that he had been denied promotion to Yokozuna, because of Racisim (In Japan? Unthinkable!!!). He denied it of course and said it was one of the other wrestlers playing a prank on him, but he was never the same after that controversy. The fighting spirit seemed to have gone out of him.My pet theory though as to why Konishiki got denied promotion, was that he was too lively and articulate to make Yokozuna. I've seen some interviews with the sumotori and they were all very monosylabic and uninteresting, where as Konishiki was so lively and entertaining, that he went on to a second career as a Media figure in Japan. Akebono I suspect made it because he was as inarticulate and uninteresting a speaker as the rest of them. Who knows, perhaps that was considered necessary to "Embody the spirit of Sumo".</blockquote>