Coach’s Corner - Ernie Hunt

If any one man could be called the Grandfather of American Sumo, it's Ernie Hunt.

With a career that started in 1965 on a Navy base in Japan, he has more than earned that title. I got the opportunity to speak with Ernie about his expansive sumo career, some of the well known sumotori he wrestled with, and his thoughts on how we keep pushing American Sumo forward.

Taken around 1970 and is from the Hawaii Sumo Association (at the time). Those formal kesho-mawashi were not borrowed from professional wrestlers, but were actually the assets of the club.

Asked how he got into sumo, Ernie said he was like every American, “I thought it was just two big fat guys, but I went to Japan [while on duty] in 1957. Wakanohana (I) was an ozeki at the time and he weighed 237 lbs and he’s 5 '11 and that was exactly what I weighed…They posted the lifetime records. Wakanohana’s [record] against the current grand champion was 15 to 17. It got me thinking about sumo in a different light… I didn't know that much about it but I could read about the tournaments in Stars and Stripes [a military newspaper] the next day. So I got interested in it. I thought in the back of my mind, I could become that...In 1963 I wanted to play softball [on base in Japan] but I didn't have a glove. I took my wife to a little mom and pops sporting goods shop…When I was looking around I found this piece of canvas and I asked the guy what it was. He answered in Japanese to my wife and she told me it was a sumo belt. And my eyes lit up…He said it was roughly 10$. Had no idea when I was gonna wear it but I wanted to have it.”

Ernie was 28 at the time and decided he needed to find people doing sumo.

“I went on a pilgrimage to I don’t know how many high schools in Sasebo but it was at least three of them. All the high schools had sumo rings, but nobody was practicing. So the following year I went to the Japanese Navy base, but there wasn’t anyone doing sumo there, either… In 1965, we were in the shipyards, we were in drydock so they shut down the dining facility so we had to eat on base. One of my shipmates had gone over to the mess hall on base and said “hey, Ernie, your buddies are out there. They’re playing sumo…”

 Ernie with a neighborhood “club” in Sasebo, Kyushu, Japan.

So I ran and there was about seven guys practicing sumo… I was sitting there ogling and they saw my fascination and asked me in their broken English if I would like to try. And told him, “Hai!” They had a little shack to dress in and they helped get me into a sumo belt and that was in 1965…I thought I was made for this sport. For a whole week I was there everyday. I went to a couple of parties with them and got to meet all the wrestlers…

August of ‘66 one of them came to my house and asked if I wanted to be on a sumo team. I thought I was gonna be king. I went over and they dressed me. They knew from before that I didn't know what to do with my left hand, so they would block my right hand from the belt and I would have to do it all with my left…There was one guy who was 5’ 9” and weighed about 175 lbs. He was the champion… The champion would fight me ten times and I would be lucky if I could get my hands on his belt once or twice…I had a ball. I went to a couple of tournaments and did okay. I didn’t set the world on fire, but I really loved it.”

His first time meeting one of the greats was at a Basho in Fukuoka. “In November for Kyushu, I saw Wakanohana (I). He was dressed. I don’t know why he wasn't participating, but I was leaving the bathroom and he was heading to the bathroom and he must have thought that I was some kind of pervert, because I stopped and tried asking him questions and letting him know I was a big fan, but he didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Japanese. So that was my big claim to fame–I met Wakanohana.”

Ernie and Takamiyama in Hawaii, during the Professional vs. Amateur exhibition they would do before the “real” tournament began.

His initial encounter with the first Hawaiian legend, Takamiyama, was actually during a different sporting event on base. “I was playing football for the base team. It was 8 man football. That night we were watching the Airforce team play and it came across after the game that Jesse was there. He was in juryo at the time. He and two other wrestlers walked across the field and I was in the stands and yelled at him, so he came over and talked to me. I transferred back over to the states in late 1966, then to Hawaii in 1968…while in Hawaii sumo came for one of those jungyo tours and I crashed the press conference. I mean I had big balls and wasn’t takin’ no for an answer. I snuck into this giant theater with all my heroes, Wakanohana, Taiho, Takamiyama, Kashiwado and I was elbow to elbow with them…that was Spring of 1968.” One of Ernie’s connections actually hosted garden parties at this time and hosted several big name wrestlers that would hold exhibition matches several nights a week and Ernie built relationships with them from there.

Ernie was stationed in the Bay Area in 1969. In 1971 he took his family to Hawaii due to professional sumo having a jungyo–one of the few family vacations they ever took.  After being stationed for a few years in California, Ernie headed back to Hawaii. “I came back in ‘72 and there was another jungyo event and I wrestled. John [Jacques] came up and asked me how I did it. I asked him if he needed a belt. He was a collegiate wrestler and he was playing rugby at the time. I told him who to talk to and see. And he didn't follow up. The professional wrestlers came back in 1974 and held another jungyo. I was part of the amateur wrestling exhibition and John saw me again. He told me he wanted to be a sumo wrestler so I told him to come down and we will fix you up with a belt. In Hawaii we did everything like they do in Japan as far as the mawashi goes and John was a little shy. There were kids from a local high school and they were in swimming trunks and John was like ‘can I do that?’ and we told him yea so he ran out to his car and got some swim trunks. So he put ‘em on, we put a belt on him and he became a sumo wrestler.”

“In 1976, Oahu won its first state championship. They had stopped [having state tournaments] when the war started [WWII]. They buried all their sponsored belts, a lot of decorations, like pro stuff, they buried it all until after the war. So after, Oahu sucked…We had 5 brothers in Hilo–the Arrudas. Marvin was the most active when I was wrestling. Marvin was like my nemesis. We would wrestle ten times and I would win three. So I would go to Hilo and he had brothers that still wrestled and he had two nephews who wrestle…In 1975 with John on the team we won for the first time since World War II. So I was proud of that.”

Shimeko (Ernie’s wife), Ernie, then Sekiwake Tokiyama, and family friends, Mr. and Ms. Harold Kanakuri. Around 1976.

“In ‘76 I was on a tour in Japan to wrestle. I pissed John off. We were wrestling at a high school in Tokyo for a TV show (like the Today Show in America). So John and I wrestled and he beat me, but a cameraman wasn't ready or something and they didn’t get the shot, so they wanted us to do it again. So we did it again and I got John with an Utchari and he fell. A week and a half, two weeks later, we were down by Kyoto or somewhere, we were playing tourist… There was a group of people that spotted me and said ‘hey it’s the guy from TV.’ They kept getting excited about me and not about John because he lost. I ragged on him about it for quite a while.” Speaking with John about it he says it comes up almost every time they get together.

Ernie’s Navy career took his family back to Japan in February of 1978. While there, Ernie got to train at Keio and Nihon University. “I tell’em I’ll take on all Freshmen and Sophomores. I can’t handle those Juniors or Seniors, they’ll kick my butt…I went to Keio and I was Yokozuna of Keio. I was the heaviest guy at 245 and I was playing football at the time too. I would lead tours from the base to the Sumo stables. Mostly Jesse’s stable. I knew Asashio (III) who was the stable master of Takasago beya. They had a present Ozeki Asashio (IV). He had wrestled me and John when they had come over to Hawaii for collegiate wrestling. I went to Takanohana and Wakanohana’s stable and wrestled those guys, too”

“I enjoyed winning. I enjoyed sumo. I felt like if you went out and did your best, you’ll win some, you'll lose some. That’s what I did. I was never the greatest at it…I got to associate with alot of people in sumo. I had a ball. The Hawaiian team came back over in ‘80 and I joined them for about two weeks and we just wrestled all around Japan.” Ernie still entered local tournaments up to the mid 80’s. 

Former Yokozuna (then Ozeki) Chiyonofuji taking a cut off Ernie’s “chonmage wig” for his “danpatsu” (retirement) ceremony held at the Sanno Hotel in Tokyo in June of 1981.

Upon leaving Japan in ‘81, Ernie got a distinct privilege that few outside of the sumo world receive: his own retirement ceremony, or danpatsushiki. “My buddy, Toshiharu Kyosu, had gotten together with a couple of the college guys and pros and decided to throw a danpatsu party…We had it at the military hotel ballroom and Kokonoe Oyakata (former yokozuna Kitanofuji), then-Ozeki Chiyonofuji, Takamiyama, and Takasago Oyakata were all there. The Meiji University coach was there, and some high school coaches. The Keio University sumo team was also there. Between sumo wrestlers and coaches there was about 35 or 40 people there… They lent me a Hakama kimono and they gave me a chonmage wig and everybody cut a portion of my top knot. One of my daughters was a big Chiyonofuji fan. Kyosu worked for Kyodo News and had a friend taking pictures during my danpatsu…When I returned to the States, I had a whole album of pictures that I was very proud to show off to anyone who would listen. One of the times I was showing off my pictures, I got a bit carried away and gave away some. Turns out later, I had given away the picture of Chiyonofuji with my daughter—she has never let me forget that I gave away her picture.

Group photo taken in Tokyo in the late 70s, early 80s. This was a sumo tour Ernie would lead for military people and their families to go up to Tokyo and visit Takasago beya while Jesse (Takamiyama) was still wrestling.

And Ernie's favorite thing about sumo? The glow. “I would go down and go stable to stable. I would lead at least two tours a day of people from the Naval base to sumo and tell them all about it, answering all the questions. So I was in my glory then. I would go to a stable and put on a belt and show ‘em that I could wrestle sumo. And wrestle the younger guys and sometimes we would sit down and eat chanko nabe with the wrestlers. So I had a ball.”

As far as this next generation, Ernie says we need more sponsorships. “I was spoiled. When we were in Hawaii, these Japanese businessmen would sponsor these tournaments and gave us a little wedge of the pie…We had about five or six different sponsors. So when we flew from Hawaii to Japan we didn't pay for nothin’. When we got to Tokyo the hotels were paid for by the Japanese Sumo Association… For 15 days we would have eight days of tournaments. All in different parts of Japan… So we need more PR and more sponsorship to be able to go to the World Championships. I think we would get more participation from people seeing it.”

“I never regretted one day of sumo. I didn’t set any records. I didn't win any state championships, but I had fun.” Ernie is now 89 years old and still has a passion for sumo. He will tell you everything you need to know, you only need to listen. We want to thank Ernie for his time, his talent, and for passing down his knowledge to us. I want to thank his daughters Linda and Lori for making this interview happen. To the next generation, keep pushing forward.

Ganbette!

Written by K. Pierce