Age: 45
male
Asashōryū Akinori (朝青龍 明徳, born 27 September 1980, as Dolgorsürengiin Dagvadorj, Mongolian Cyrillic: Долгорсүрэнгийн Дагвадорж) is a Mongolian former sumo wrestler (rikishi). He was the 68th yokozuna in the history of the sport in Japan and became the first Mongol to reach sumo's highest rank in January 2003. He was one of the most successful yokozuna ever. In 2005, he became the first wrestler to win all six official tournaments (honbasho) in a single year. Over his entire career, he won 25 top division tournament championships, placing him fourth on the all-time list. From 2004 until 2007, Asashōryū was sumo's sole yokozuna, and was criticized at times by the media and the Japan Sumo Association for not upholding the standards of behaviour expected of a holder of such a prestigious rank. He became the first yokozuna in history to be suspended from competition in August 2007 when he participated in a charity soccer match in his home country despite having withdrawn from a regional sumo tour claiming injury. After a career filled with a multitude of other controversies, both on and off the dohyō, his career was cut short when he retired from sumo in February 2010 after allegations that he assaulted a man outside a Tokyo nightclub.
Asashōryū Akinori
Hiroshi Matsumoto
for Hiroshi Matsumoto in Sumotori / The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
Suggested by elmacho
It is Tokyo in 1939. On the Street of a Thousand Blossoms, two orphaned brothers are growing up with their loving grandparents, who inspire them to dream of a future firmly rooted in tradition. The older boy, Hiroshi, shows unusual skill at the national obsession of sumo wrestling, while Kenji is fascinated by the art of creating hard-carved masks for actors in the Noh theater. Across town, a renowned sumo master, Sho Tanaka, lives with his wife and their two young daughters: the delicate, daydreaming Aki and her independent sister, Haru. Life seems full of promise as Kenji begins an informal apprenticeship with the most famous mask-maker in Japan and Hiroshi receives a coveted invitation to train with Tanaka. But then Pearl Harbor changes everything. As the ripples of war spread to both families' quiet neighborhoods, all of the generations must put their dreams on hold---and then find their way in a new Japan. In an exquisitely moving story that spans almost thirty years, Gail Tsukiyama draws us irresistibly into the world of the brothers and the women who love them. It is a world of tradition and change, of heartbreaking loss and surprising hope, and of the impact of events beyond their control on ordinary, decent men and women. Above all, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is a masterpiece about love and family from a glorious storyteller at the height of her powers. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ ESPAÑOL Dos hermanos que pierden a sus padres son acogidos en cas de sus abuelos. Los cuatro llevan una vida apacible y feliz hasta que Estados Unidos declara la guerra a Japón, que separa a los hermanos y trunca sus sueños: el de Hiroshi, que aspira a ser maestro de sumo (sumotori), y el de Kenji, que despunta como artesano de máscaras de teatro. Sus vidas se cruzan con Haru y Aki, dos hermanas huérfanas de madre, cuyo padre tiene la escuela de luchadores de sumo más prestigiosa de Japón.
