Konishiki

Frank151: I heard you’re good friends with Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.
Konishiki Yasokichi: They were in Japan during my sumo career. They knew about me and they found me one day and we’ve kept a brotherhood since then. We stay in touch, very much. In fact, I was just talking to Gawtti a couple of days ago. He’s the one that joined sumo. I picked him up from LA when he was graduating high school.

F151: So what role does Samoan culture play in your life?
KY: It plays the biggest and the most important role.

And the one thing I’ve noticed about Samoan culture is that it is kept wherever we are. You go to LA and you see Samoan churches all over the place, even in San Diego and Seattle. There’s Samoan churches here in Hawaii. It’s a tight culture.
F151: Is Christianity important to you?
KY: Yeah, I was brought up in church. I think every Samoan was brought up in church. It’s part of the culture.


F151: Do you have a lot of family in Samoa?
KY: Yeah. I’ve visited Samoa three or four times in my life. I visit the villages that my mom and my dad are from on the American Samoa side, in Pago Pago. I have a lot of family still there. I think every Samoan has a lot of family over there.

F151: You spent most of your childhood in Hawaii. What about after that?
KY: All my life in Hawaii, until I was 18. Then I left to go to Japan.
F151: That’s when you started sumo. How were you recruited?
KY: They saw me roaming around and stuff in Hawaii. They saw me in football. They approached me, a guy who knows a lot of sumo people.
F151: Were you a big guy back then?
KY: Yeah, I was like 300 pounds already.
F151: Wow. Once you got to Japan, how different was the culture?
KY: Oh, it was completely different. Everything I know about Japan I had to learn in Japan. Adjusting is just a matter of being mentally ready, telling yourself that you’re going into a different culture, knowing that there’s nothing American about it and just accepting what they had for me on the plate when I got there.
F151: Did sumo dominate your life once you got to Japan?
KY: Yep. All training. That was my life for 16 years.
F151: Did you enjoy it while you were doing it?
KY: Oh yeah. It’s something different. I’m glad I did it. I learned the culture within the culture. And not even Japanese people are familiar with the culture inside sumo. It is a very unique, very cultured sport.

F151: I read that your birth name is Saleva’a Fuauli Atisano’e. Where did “Konishiki Yasokichi” come from?
KY: It’s my professional name. You know, like all professional wrestlers got ring names. In sumo we have a given name that belongs to the family stable or club that you’re from.
F151: What was your stable?
KY: It’s called Takasago. It’s one of the oldest sumo schools in Japan.

F151: As you began to win matches and gain titles, is that when you started to become a celebrity?
KY: I can’t walk the streets with no one bugging me, so I don’t walk the streets.
F151: Even in Hawaii?
KY: Hawaii too, but Hawaii is my hometown. It’s much easier at home. Back in Japan it’s more drastic. People are walking up to you and grabbing you, having the cameras in your face.
F151: That’s serious celebrity status. Was it strange at first?
KY: Oh yeah. Everything was strange. I’m a typical local boy. Status was nothing I really dealt with. We’re just typical people who try to make it through life.

F151: What are you up to now?
KY: Well, presently I have one of the best children’s shows in Japan, so I am very popular with the kids. It has been on for four years now. I also have a radio show and I run my own restaurant. My radio show is called Kony Island. It’s www.fmyokohama.co.jp. And my music label is called Kony Music Edutainment.
F151: Was it difficult to transition from sumo to music and acting?
KY: More natural, ‘cause I grew up singing in church and stuff. So it’s a natural thing for me.
F151: Are you still making music?
KY: Presently I do tours in Japan, singing and stuff. Just came out with a new album. I’ve done nine albums since 2000. I’m also working with some musicians, and I’m a producer for one of my nephews who is very popular in Hawaii right now. We have a lot of music here that people don’t know about and I hope it gets some status on a national level. It’s not just typical Hawaiian music. We have our own sound. It’s kind of R&B, it’s kind of reggae, but it’s something that we definitely know is not in the States. What me and a couple of my partners are trying to do is get people to start recognizing the music that comes out of Hawaii. Our music company is called Lost Coast Sound (www.lostcoastsound.com). Check it out as we give you a taste of a new vibe of music coming straight out of Hawaii.
F151: Who are the artists?
KY: There’s three artists that are very known right now. One of the artists that has made the breakthrough for this kind of music is named Fiji. Then there are two new artists who are just banging walls right now in Hawaii, on the West Coast, and anywhere that has a Polynesian community. One is called J Boog, and the other is my nephew, Laga Savea. We also have three other recording artists: Siaosi, Kiwini Vaitai, and Palm Triz. It’s Hawaiian pop music, but not stereotypical Hawaiian music. Of course we all know Hawaiian music because it’s part of our environment, but these guys are just as hip as the kids in LA, or New York, or Atlantic City.

F151: Are you still involved with sumo wrestling in any way?
KY: No, no. I have season tickets to the six major tournaments so I go and watch on my own. I stay very close to some of the retired guys that I wrestled with and try to keep closely in touch with the school that I came out from. I live right in the area too,
in Japan.
F151: Speak a little bit about Konishiki Kids.
KY: Konishiki Kids is my foundation, created in 1996, in Hawaii. I’m from the so-called low-income areas of Hawaii, so I try to help kids realize that beyond the horizon there’s a dream. This past year we donated $70,000 to the schools to help them buy equipment and make the classroom environment easier and more fun for the kids. We just did a big Fourth of July fundraiser at the water park in Honolulu. I’m trying to focus more on raising money to help the schools. That’s my biggest thing right now.



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