Sumo Wrestler

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment:  2014

Sculptor: Alfredo Llorens

Size (cm): 61x26

Porcelain Story

To the right of the entrance to the "Eastern" hall of our museum is a work of rare beauty, which arouses interest in everyone who sees it for the first time. It is dedicated to one of the most famous wrestlers in the history of sumo, Taiho Koki. And many do not even realize that the great Japanese sumo wrestler originally had a Ukrainian name and surname - Ivan Boryshko. The father of the future champion Markiyan Boryshko, together with his parents, moved to Sakhalin Island back in 1900 from the Ukrainian village of Runovshchina, located a hundred miles from Kharkov. Then the settlers on the island, which was part of the Russian Empire, were given free land. True, after the Russo-Japanese War, Sakhalin passed to Japan. And already in 1940, a son was born in the family of Ukrainian Markiyan Boryshko and Japanese Kie Naya, who was 18 years younger than her husband. His father named him Ivan. Mom called Koki. This name was written in two hieroglyphs and translated from Japanese meant "happiness and joy." Happiness and joy in this friendly family, engaged in farming and breeding silver foxes, unfortunately, was short-lived. When the island was transferred to the Soviet Union in 1945, the father was repressed, and Koki's mother and children were deported to the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Starting his professional career as a sumo wrestler in 1956, Koki moved to the top division of the Japanese professional sumo league (makuuchi) after 4 years and then won his first Imperial Cup. Over time, the Japanese champion with Ukrainian roots, thanks to his hard work and natural talent, managed to achieve all imaginable and unimaginable achievements in the most prestigious sport in the Land of the Rising Sun.

A series of 45 victories in a row is still the second in the history of sumo. And the most prestigious Cup of the Emperor of Japan, our Ivan won as many as 32 times in his career! Another great champion left the world in 2013, having managed to visit his historical homeland before his death and brought a handful of his native Ukrainian land and a vessel with water drawn from a rural well in an embroidered scarf ...