Sumo Deity or Tekken Character?

So the other day I was strolling through Fukuoka (in the Hakata area) and I stumbled upon the shrine with one of the longest names I’ve ever seen:

Chikuzen-kuni Ichinomiya Sumiyoshi Shrine (fun fact: a colleague informed me that “XX-kuni” indicates location and “X-nomiya” denotes rank). The shrine itself was fairly standard fare, but then I chanced upon this statue here:

It was a recently installed statue (just a few years ago), and it depicts a sumo deity. After all, Fukuoka is one of the premier locations for Grand Sumo tournaments and Kyūshū prides itself on producing quality sumo wrestlers.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the person who designed the statue was a fan of Tekken. I mean, I’ve never seen a sumo wrestler with an eight pack and a man bun, let alone a big ol’ beard. To me, he looks way more like Heihachi Mishima than Kisenosato, but hey, who am I to judge? I’m sure the artist grew up a gamer like me, saw his/her opportunity to create a sumo avatar and just went for it.

You do you, shrine statue maker.