Playback ’94] WAKANOHANA & MIEKO KURITA – A Treasured First Date on the West Coast

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were popular at the time. This time, we will look back at the “FRIDAY” article from the February 11, 1994 issue, 30 years ago, entitled “There it is! Waka and Mieko’s first date on the West Coast.

Waka changed his name from Waka Hanada in 1993, and was steadily promoted to sekiwake and ozeki. However, the reason he was the center of attention in Japan at that time was that a sports paper reported at the beginning of the year that he and Mieko Kurio (then 24, now Mieko), a CA, were “engaged on January 29? The sports newspaper reported that they were engaged to be married on January 29. Their relationship was discovered at the end of the previous year. About six months earlier, this magazine had obtained a rare “two-shot” image of the two at the time of their meeting.

Their “first date” at an amusement park in San Jose, California, U.S.A.

Mieko has been active as a reader model for the teen fashion magazine “Olive” since she was in junior high school. After graduating from college, she worked for Japan Airlines as a CA, which had been her dream since she was a child. The article at the time described their meeting as follows.

The two met last June when they boarded a JAL airplane during a tour of San Jose and Hawaii in the United States. After the welcoming ceremony, Waka and Takashi invited Mieko and four other stewardesses of the plane to dinner. It was, so to speak, a “blind date. After going to a local Japanese restaurant that day, they enjoyed drinking and playing games in a hotel room. That was on June 3.

On the following day, June 4, Wakanohana, some other rikishi, and Mieko went to Great America, an amusement park in the suburbs of San Jose.

The first shot of their “first date,” so to speak, was taken there. This was taken by a tourist who happened to be there and was rolling the video. When he replayed the video later, he found Wakanohana and Mieko in the shadow of Shoyo Wakanohana in the foreground.

“The weather wasn’t very nice that day, and it started raining halfway through, but they seemed to be having a good time talking. I never imagined that she would be such a fuss-worthy woman, but she was cute and stood out a lot. Wakanohana Seki was a celebrity, so she was getting a lot of attention from the Japanese people at the amusement park, but they didn’t seem to mind.

In an article at the time, the videographer described the situation as follows.

Their relationship progressed hotly and deeply until they were found to be dating about six months later.

After the “engagement report,” the media fever was incredible. The media came to Mieko’s house every day, and she had to take refuge in the Futakoyama-room. Not only were the stablemaster and his wife tight-lipped about the incident, but the supporters’ association was also under a strict “gag order. Even Wakanohana herself rushed to her room after the Chishu-raku to avoid the media, hiding behind the younger members of the crowd.

Eventually, on February 10, 2004, Wakanohana and Mieko announced their engagement in front of a folding screen, and were married in June. They later had one son and three daughters, but their married life was not always peaceful. The couple was besieged by the media for a while even after their divorce in 2007, due to the bashing of Mieko immediately after their engagement, the numerous problems surrounding the Hanada family, such as the disagreements between the Wakaki brothers, and Wakanohana’s problems with women.

The happy couple in this image could not have imagined such a hard future at all.