Konishiki Yasokichi - Life After Sumo

Life After Sumo

Konishiki remained in the Japan Sumo Association as an elder for a short time under the name of Sanoyama, before branching out as a Japanese entertainer under the name "KONISHIKI" (the capitalization is an effort to reflect the association's requirement to write his name in the Roman alphabet, after prohibition of spelling it out in Japanese characters after his retirement from sumo).

In 2000 Shinichi Watanabe, director of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy, created an anime series called Dotto! Koni-chan, in which Koni, the protagonist, is a fat kid who strongly resembles KONISHIKI. The series pays homage to KONISHIKI, who is well loved by many Japanese people.

In January 2004 he married his girlfriend of two years, former medical worker Chie Iijima. He had previously married former model Sumika Shioda in 1992, but they divorced amicably in December 2000.

In 2006, he played in the film "Check It Out, Yo" Chekeraccho!! and also made a short cameo appearance in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

In 2006, his image was erroneously used as Akebono's in that year's Guinness Book of World Records in which his Hawaiian compatriot was recognized for being the heaviest Yokozuna in history.

Until March 2007, he was the host of an NHK children's program called Nihongo de Asobo (にほんごであそぼ) which teaches children traditional and colloquial Japanese. He was replaced by Sanyō Kanda and for the next year had a minor role on the show; mostly clips from older episodes or filmed from Hawaii. He returned from his hiatus in April 2008.

Although he continued to DJ for his FM Yokohama show Kony Island, he took a hiatus from Japanese celebrity life for a year, returning to Hawaii to prepare for gastric bypass surgery. Although he did not have high blood pressure or any heart problems, he had not lost much weight since his retirement, and underwent the operation in February 2008. He announced on his website that the operation went smoothly and that he has since lost some 70 kg (150 lb). He returned to Japan in May 2008.

After sumo, he began to turn his talents to music, most notably with his collaboration with Rimi Natsukawa as well as L-Burna on the song 'Livin Like Kings'. He often sings and raps in a mixture of English and Japanese. Konishiki can also play the ukulele.

Following the 2011 earthquake, Konishiki has been a very active and high profile fund-raiser for disaster relief in the stricken regions of Japan.

He started the Konishiki Kids Foundation to help underprivileged children from Hawaii to experience Japanese culture.