U.S.A.
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
March 3, 2014
Sumo legend Kuhaulua: My heart is on Maui
KAHULUI, Hawaii (AP) — Sumo legend
Jesse Kuhaulua went from speaking
pidgin English to fluent Japanese when he
left Maui for a career in sumo and life in
Japan 50 years ago.
He broke cultural barriers, reached the
third-highest rank in the centuries-old
national sport, and became a coach to
up-and-coming wrestlers. But Kuhaulua
still remembers his roots fondly and holds
the Valley Isle close.
“Still my heart is on Maui. I will never
forget,” a white-bearded Kuhaulua told
The Maui News during a visit home last
month.
Kuhaulua was a 19-year-old recent
Baldwin High School graduate when he
left for Japan in 1964. He has never lived
anywhere else since.
Although he was treated graciously,
even having American food cooked for him
when he first arrived in Japan, the
training was tough. He endured hours of
exercise, the food was different, and
teachers whacked students when they
behaved badly or performed sumo
techniques incorrectly.
“They would hit a rikishi (sumo
wrestler) with a broomstick,” Kuhaulua
said. “You call it encouragement.”
Adjusting to a foreign culture and the
endless physical training was gruelling for
Kuhaulua, who fought under the name
Takamiyama.
The “first three years [were] hard,” he
said, but “something just kept me there,”
he remembered.
He recalled receiving letters of
encouragement from Hawaii. “(It) made
me feel I got to try harder,” he said.
Kuhaulua reached sumo’s third-highest
rank, sekiwake, in 1972. That was the
highest by a foreigner until fellow Hawaii
HAWAIIAN HEART. Sumo wrestler Jesse
Kuhaulua (wearing dark shirt) talks with friend
Mitsuyuki Tamae of Nagoya, Japan as the two and
others were having lunch at a restaurant in Kahului,
Hawaii. Sumo legend Kuhaulua went from speaking
pidgin English to fluent Japanese when he left Maui
for a career in sumo and life in Japan 50 years ago.
He broke cultural barriers, reached the third-highest
rank in the centuries-old national sport, and became a
coach to up-and-coming wrestlers. But Kuhaulua still
remembers his roots fondly and holds the Valley Isle
close. (AP Photo/The News, Melissa Tanji)
wrestlers Salevaa Atisanoe, or Konishiki,
reached the next highest rank of ozeki, or
champion, and Chad Rowan, who wrestled
as Akebono, and Fiamalu Penitani, who
wrestled as Musashimaru, attained the
highest rank, yokozuna, or grand
champion.
Kuhaulua also was the first foreigner to
win sumo’s coveted Emperor’s Cup for
winning a tournament in 1972.
He stopped wrestling at 39 after an
injury, but he went on to coach up-and-
coming wrestlers at his own sumo stable
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for 25 more years until the mandatory
retirement age of 65.
Sumo is a sport where bigger is often
better, but Kuhaulua now sticks to a
specific diet most days. Though on
vacation in Hawaii, he had an orange,
oatmeal, and milk for breakfast.
Kuhaulua said he’s lost around 115
pounds after dieting for about a year. He’s
now down to about 300 pounds.
Attending the 50th reunion for his
Baldwin High School class last year
prompted him to eat healthier. He also
wants to be alive for the 2020 Olympic
games in Tokyo.
Kuhaulua said he did not face prejudice
or animosity as a gaijin, or foreigner, from
America. But as a gaijin, he had to push
himself to do better than others.
“You got to work hard,” he said.
While his life is comfortable in his
adopted homeland, Kuhaulua says that at
times he still longs for Maui.
“The weather, the people, and the
warm aloha” are what he misses most, he
said.
Florida artist smashes $1M
vase in Miami museum
By Curt Anderson
AP Legal Affairs Writer
IAMI — An artist is facing a
criminal charge after police say
he smashed a $1 million vase at
Miami’s new art museum to protest what
he called its favoritism for international
rather than local art.
Maximo Caminero, 51, was charged
with criminal mischief after the incident at
the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).
According to a Miami Police Department
arrest affidavit, a security guard told offi-
cers that Caminero picked up a colored
vase by Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei-
wei. When told to put it down, the security
guard said Caminero smashed it on the
floor.
A police affidavit says Caminero told
officers he broke the vase to protest the
museum’s lack of local artist displays and
because “the museum only displayed
international artists’ art.”
The police affidavit lists the value of the
vase as $1 million, quoting the museum’s
security officials. Criminal mischief can be
a third-degree felony punishable by up to
five years in prison when the property
damaged is worth more than $1,000.
Caminero had a recent showing at the
JF Gallery in West Palm Beach that
offered patrons a chance to meet him and
“view a sampling of the work from his
30-year career as an artist.”
The urn, dating back about 2,000 years
to China’s Han Dynasty, was one of 16 on
display that Ai had dipped in bright
industrial paint, making them look like
much more recently produced pots. The
installation aims to “trigger questions
about authenticity and the value and
meaning of original artwork,” according to
the museum’s website.
On a wall behind the vases are a series of
large photographs of Ai dropping a Han
Dynasty ceramic urn that smashed on the
floor at his feet, one of his best-known
works.
Ai said he was miffed about another
artist destroying one of his vases in Florida
and did not agree with Caminero’s tactic.
“Damaging other people’s property or
disturbing a public program doesn’t really
M
PRICY PROTEST. Artist Ai Weiwei speaks to
journalists at his studio in Beijing in this file photo. Ai,
who helped make his name smashing a valuable vase
in the name of art, said he was miffed about another
artist destroying one of his vases in Florida. Maximo
Caminero was charged with criminal mischief after
destroying a vase valued at $1 million that was part
of Ai’s exhibit at the Perez Art Museum Miami. The
Florida artist said he smashed the vase to protest
the institution’s lack of displays by local artists. (AP
Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)
support his cause,” Ai said in an interview
in Beijing. Ai said the artist’s apparent
inspiration was “misleading.”
“You cannot stand in front of a classical
painting and kill somebody and say that
you are inspired by” the artist, Ai said,
adding that “this doesn’t make any sense.”
Caminero later apologized to The Miami
Herald, saying he had no right to destroy
someone else’s art.
The “Ai Weiwei: According to What?”
exhibit runs through March 16 at the
museum. Museum officials confirmed the
incident in an e-mail, and noted that an
upcoming show will feature a local artist,
Miami’s Edouard Duval-Carrié. The
Haiti-born artist’s show, beginning March
13, is titled “Imagined Landscapes.”
A sculptor, designer, and documentary
filmmaker, Ai has irked Beijing by using
his art and online profile to draw attention
to injustices in China and the need for
greater transparency and rule of law. He
was detained for 81 days in 2011 during a
crackdown on dissent.
AP writer Louise Watt contributed to this report.
