When former professional sumo wrestler Ryuichi Yamamoto recently arrived to teach his first class at a Jefferson County jiu jitsu and martial arts studio, one of his prospective students could not contain her excitement.
“He’s here! He’s here,” the young girl cried as she ran into the training space and then back to the door at the Arnold Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Martial Arts Studio, 2116 Tenbrook Road, Suite 100.
Yamamoto, who goes by the name Yama, taught that first sumo class on Jan. 28. He plans to hold more classes at the studio from 5-6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Students get to take the first class for free and then pay $10 for every class after that.
“I want them to learn about sumo,” said Yama, 40, who lives in House Springs with his wife, Megan O’Donnell, 43. “They can use what they learn in class in other sports. I want to help people even if they don’t do sumo.”
Yama also will teach classes from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays at the jiu jitsu studio.
“Sundays will make him available for his out-of-state students to travel and for adults who can’t make the weeknight schedule,” O’Donnell said.
Ron Porter, 36, of Pacific was one of eight people who attended the first Sumo with Yama class. He said he learned about the classes from a message Yama’s wife posted on Facebook.
“I thought it was neat that one of the best sumo wrestlers in the world is teaching where I grew up,” said Porter, adding that he was a member of wrestling teams at Northwest High School and St. Louis Community College at Meramec.
During his class, Yama, who is 6-foot-4 and weighs 530 pounds, often demonstrated stretches and exercises and helped students perform them.
Ryuichi Yamamoto goes over sumo techniques and rituals with attendees at Arnold Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Martial Arts Studio.
Vince Nguyen, 29, of Arnold said the class was humbling.
“For a basic class, I was definitely humbled by how inflexible I am,” said Nguyen, who attends jiu jitsu classes at the studio two to three times a week. “I was surprised how flexible you had to be.”
Porter said he plans to continue taking the classes and hopes to learn enough to compete in the U.S. Sumo Open that has been held annually in California since 2001.
“I hope to be good enough to go there one day and place,” he said. “I am no stranger to wrestling, but sumo wrestling, I know nothing about it.”
Yama said he would like to find people he can help mold into sumo champions, like he did with Kellyann Ball, who trained with him for five years in Los Angeles. Ball, a heavyweight, won silver at the International Sumo Federation tournament last year in Krotoszyn, Poland, after capturing bronze the year before in Tokyo.
“I want to make champions,” Yama said. “Ron looked good. He has potential.”
Yama said the class also may help people who do not want to compete in sumo matches.
“People will become more flexible and improve their balance,” he said. “It also improves lower body strength.”
For more information about classes, email sumoyamamotoyama@gmail.com.
Coming to America
Yama said he began sumo wrestling when he was 7 years old in Ina, Saitama, Japan.
“I was just big,” he said. “My teacher talked to my parents and said, ‘Your kid is so big and has power. There is a danger for children using that power.’”
Yama, who weighed close to 600 pounds when he competed in Japan, said he won seven national titles while competing as an amateur at Nihon University, and he turned professional when he was 23.
O’Donnell said Yama reached the highest of the seven professional levels in two years.
“It usually takes 10 years, and he did it in two,” she said. “He is tied for the second fastest wrestler to rise to top of rank.”
Yama said he wrestled professionally for six years, but his career ended after he sustained injuries and was implicated in a match-fixing scandal, along with 18 other wrestlers.
He said the practice that resulted in the scandal had been part of sumo for years and involved wrestlers who were in danger of being demoted to a lower professional level paying their opponents to let them win and avoid demotion.
Yama said the deals were made in order to help the families of the wrestlers who paid to win and not be demoted.
He said he never paid to win a match but did receive payment to let others win.
“If I lost, I would still be safe, but if he lost, he would go down. I would only do it once, and next time, no deals,” Yama said.
O’Donnell said Yama is banned from competing in the sport and is not allowed to coach or train wrestlers in Japan.
In 2012, Yama’s manager encouraged him to go to Los Angeles and begin working in the entertainment industry.
“I needed to make money, just to live,” he said.
Ryuichi Yamamoto, who goes by the name Yama, with Keanu Reeves. Yamamoto played the role of an assassin in “John Wick: Chapter 2.”
Yama appeared in numerous commercials, in movies, like “Zoolander 2” and “John Wick: Chapter 2,” and in music videos with One Direction and Ed Sheeran.
Yama said his favorite role was in Sheeran’s music video for “Overpass Graffiti,” appearing at the end of the video, which has him traveling on a tour bus and stopping to pick up the singer.
“They had a big A-lister actor for a part who cancelled,” O’Donnell said. “They had Yama scheduled to come in for another part, and they switched him to the A-list actor’s role. We sat there and hung out with Ed Sheeran all day.”
“I was so lucky,” Yama said.
Also while in Los Angeles, Yama toured the country holding sumo clinics.
Coming to Jefferson County
O’Donnell, who grew up in Byrnes Mill, said she met Yama in 2018 when he was holding a sumo event at the Helium Comedy Club in Richmond Heights.
She said they had been matched on a dating website, and she moved to Los Angeles in 2020. The two got married in 2021.
O’Donnell said the couple moved to St. Louis because Yama was no longer being booked in 2023 due to the actors strike, and they later moved to Jefferson County to be closer to her parents, who still live in Byrnes Mill.
“He wasn’t working,” said O’Donnell, who is an optician and sells glasses to patients at an area eye doctor’s office. “You can’t afford to live in L.A. if you are not working.”
Yama said he has enjoyed living in St. Louis and Jefferson County.
“The people are so good here and nice,” he said. “They are warmer and nicer than in Los Angeles. The weather here is very close to Japan (with the rain and humidity).”