During his career he won the top division championship on three occasions and came very close to becoming the first foreign-born grand champion, or yokozuna, prompting a social debate in Japan as to whether a foreigner could have the necessary cultural understanding to be deemed acceptable in sumo's ultimate rank.

At a peak weight of 287 kg (633 lb) he was also at the time the heaviest wrestler ever in sumo, earning him the nicknames "Meat Bomb" and, most famously, "The Dump Truck".

[2][3][4] Born in 1963 in Hawai'i to Vaa Atisanoe and Fala of Tula, American Sāmoa, Yasokichi became the first foreigner to earn the prestigious title of sumo wrestling champion in Japan.

[5] Playing truant from school one day, Yasokichi, already 170kg at the age of 18, was spotted on the beach in Hawaii by a sumo talent scout and was offered the chance to go to Japan to train.

Yasokichi regarded Takamiyama as a local hero and found the opportunity to travel to Japan too good to resist, although his parents were reluctant for him to do so.

In July 1984, he made his debut in the top makuuchi division, and in the following tournament in September he defeated two yokozuna, Chiyonofuji and Takanosato, and was runner-up with a 12–3 record.

[8] The chairman of the Yokozuna Deliberation Committee, Hideo Ueda, announced, "We wanted to make doubly sure that Konishiki is worthy to be a grand champion.

"[8] Another member of the committee, Noboru Kojima, said in an interview in the April issue of Bungei Shunjū that Konishiki did not possess hinkaku (品格), a word derived from hin, meaning "grace, elegance and refinement".

[8] A controversy arose when The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Konishiki in an interview had alleged racial discrimination was the reason for his being denied promotion.

He insisted that The Nihon Keizai Shimbun had misinterpreted his remark, and that he had not spoken to The New York Times, and instead a Hawaiian apprentice Koryu had impersonated him on the telephone.

Now weighing over 600 pounds (270 kg), his knee injury and mobility issues meant he was susceptible to belt throws and slap downs by lighter and more agile opponents.

Even though he enjoyed less success, he became progressively more popular with Japanese fans due to his continuous fighting spirit, distinctive bulk and warm, amiable personality.

Early in his career, under the instruction of his first stablemaster, Konishiki was primarily an oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques such as oshi-dashi and tsuki-dashi that would win the bout as quickly as possible.

By 1992 he was winning virtually all his matches by yori-kiri (force out), and his lack of ability to change tack once he had been sidestepped was one of the concerns raised by the Yokozuna Deliberation Committee when he was up for promotion.

[15] Although he continued to DJ for his FM Yokohama show Kony Island, he took a hiatus from Japanese celebrity life for a year in 2007, returning to Hawaii to prepare for gastric bypass surgery.

After sumo, he began to turn his talents to music, most notably with his collaboration with Rimi Natsukawa as well as L-Burna on the song "Livin Like Kings".