Newly retired yokozuna Hakuho and Miyagino stablemaster sat side by side at a news conference at Ryogoku Kokugikan on Friday, reflecting on two decades spent together in sumo.
Twenty years is a long time in Japan’s physically demanding national sport, but 6,000 kilometers away in Hawaii lives a retired high-school teacher whose links to both Miyagino and Hakuho stretch back significantly further.
John Jacques, 77, has led an adventurous life filled with escapades such as sneaking into the athlete’s village at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and spending several months living and training in Miyagino stable in the 1970s.