Mataemon Tanabe

Mataemon Tanabe (田辺又右衛門, Tanabe Mataemon, 1869-1942) was a Japanese jiu-jitsu practitioner and master of the Fusen-ryū school. He was famous for defeating multiple members of the Kodokan in challenge matches.

Tanabe was born in Okayama to Torajiro Tanabe, head of the Fusen-ryū founded by Motsuge Takeda. He started training in jujutsu at 9 years old, and at 14 he started accompanying his father to competitions and challenges, often fighting grown-up men and much heavier opponents. Over the years, he devised a personal strategy composed of enduring his enemies's holds for enough time to get them tired, and then coming back and submitting them with chokes and joint locks. His main field of strength was ne-waza, being nicknamed "Newaza Tanabe" for his mastery of ground techniques. He defined his style as devised "practicing catching eels in his bare hands and watching snakes swallow frogs." At 17 he received his menkyo kaiden, and he and his father became teachers of their art around the country.

In 1890, Tanabe travelled to Tokyo, where he was appointed hand-to-hand instructor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. It would be in January 1891, however, when he became famous due to a challenge fight against a fellow police instructor, 3º dan Kodokan judoka and former Tenji Shinyo-ryū exponent Takisaburo Tobari. The fight happened at the Hisamatsu police station and was refereed by Senjuro Kanaya of the Takenouchi-ryū school. During the match, Tanabe pulled Tobari to the ground, where he was the better man, and after pinning him with kami-shiho-gatame he submitted him by juji-jime choke. The match was the hardest defeat suffered by the Kodokan school against a jujutsu challenger, and it was soon made public that Tanabe had found the style's weak point thanks to his dexterity at groundfighting. In spring 1892, Tanabe was challenged to a rematch by Tobari in an event hosted by the Tokyo police department, again with Kanaya as the referee. Although the judoka came with improved ground skills, he was thrown via tomoe nage and choked out again by juji-jime by Mataemon. He would face more judokas after this bout, among them Yoshiaki Yamashita, Kunisaburo Iizuka, Norimasu Iwasaki, Yuji Hirooka and Shichigoro Baba, coming undisputed from them in win or draws. He also challenged Shiro Saigo to a match, but never received an answer.

The rivalry with Tobari didn't end without a third match, celebrated in an event on December by the police department of Izumi. Before the match, Tobari would have an altercation with another man who came to challenge Tobari as well, Senjuro Kanaya himself, ending up with both worn and battered. Still, Tanabe proceeded to defeat Tobari for third and last time, countering a throw attempt with a tomoe nage and then applying ebi-jime for the victory. At the same event, Tanabe accepted having another match against Kanaya which ended in a 30-minute draw. The Takenouchi-ryū fighter protested the outcome and demanded more time, but Tobari entered the tatami while he was pleading with the referee and threw him with deashi barai. As half of the audience aplauded the reaction, Kanaya accepted the result.

After those fights, Tanabe's renown was such that he was one of the twenty representing masters chosen in 1895 to open up the jujutsu division at the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, an idea promoved by Kodokan founder Jigoro Kano. Tanabe taught at the Butokukai for a long time, and also competed against martial artists from other styles. His favourite place, however, was the dojo of Yataro Handa in Dojima, Osaka, which he visited for the first time in 1898, a year after it was opened. Handa was a master of Daito-ryū (actually a filial of Sekiguchi-ryū; not to be confused with the late style Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu), as well as Tenji Shinyo-ryū. Knowing Tanabe's reputation, Handa introduced him to Soji Kimotsuki, a student of his who had joined Kodokan after, and the two fought a match. It would the be the first and only time Tanabe lost a bout against a judoka, as Kimotsuki threw him on his head and knocked him out. The Fusen-ryū master got his retribution the next day by sitting on the mat and goading Kimotsuki to meet him on the ground, where he choked him out (according to other version, Tanabe reversed an uchi mata with a kuchiki taoshi to pull Kimotsuki to the mat). After those matches, Tanabe and Kimotsuki became friends and training partners, and Mataemon became also an usual teacher in Handa's dojo.

Also in 1898, Tanabe was involved in an exhibition fight in front of Emperor Taishō in Kyoto, going against Kasumi Shin-ryū jujutsuka and 3º dan judoka Yuji Hirooka in a rematch of a past challenge fight. After half an hour of fighting on the tatami, Tanabe scored a morote gari and won by submission via ashi hishigi, which broke Hirooka's leg and caused a gruesome spectacle. Due to this, techniques risking the leg joints were voted in the Butokukai to be forbidden, although Tanabe pressed to include at least the ashi garami in the Kodokan katame-no-kata. This ban would cost Tanabe a victory over 3º dan judoka Hajime Isogai, whom he fought in Tokio in 1899 under referee Masaaki Samura from Takeuchi Santo-ryū. Tanabe attempted his signature tomoe nage, but Isogai blocked it. At that moment Mataemon would have followed with ashi garami, but under the new rules he couldn't do it, so he was forced to allow Isogai to crouch down. Isogai defended until the end of the time, ending the bout as a draw. Shortly after, he would fight another Kodokan judoka, the regarded Hidekazu Nagaoka, ending in another draw despite dominating the affair. Tanabe then rematched Isogai in Fukuoka, but this time Tanabe was unable to take the fight to the ground, and he was repeatedly threatened by Isogai's mastery with the hane goshi, being declared in a draw.

In May 1900, Tanabe had his third and last match against Hajime Isogai, challenging him to an event which was going to take place in Okayama, Mataemon's land. The bout would be refereed by Kotaro Imai, Takenouchi-ryū exponent and Isogai's personal enemy. However, this time Isogai had trained with Kaichiro Samura, a ground expert judoka come originally from Takenouchi Santo-ryū (as well as the elder son of the aforementioned Masaaki Samura), and had improved greatly his ne-waza skills. After a lengthy ground battle, in which Isogai managed to neutralize all of Tanabe's movements, Mataemon reportedly tried to drag them both out the tatami zone in order to force a restart, but Isogai dragged them back while the crowd cried for a tie. At the end, Imai stopped the fight and declared a draw.

Tanabe always declined to join officially the Kodokan school, but it's known that he taught its members in his ne-waza style. He was appointed judo kyoshi in 1906, teaching at the Butoku Kai until his retirement in 1922, and was promoted to hanshi in 1927. He died in 1942 in Osaka.