III - Mataemon Tanabe and the challenges to Judo

-Mataemon Tanabe is the 4th generation of Fusen Ryu masters. The founder of the style taught his grandfather, who taught his father. At 9 years old Mataemon started training with his father. As a teenager he starts to travel with his father and participates in competitions and challenges. -The Fusen Ryu Ju-Jutsu was a style based on wrist lock techniques (“mão de vaca”). Apparently, ground fighting was not the training focus of Fusen Ryu. It was Tanabe who put an emphasis on this type of training. It is very likely that he also practiced a lot of randori (sparring), just like the members of Kodokan. -Tanabe said that his ju-jutsu was much more “a result of the challenges he participated than what he learned from his teachers”. -In 1891 Tanabe moves to Tokyo and becomes an instructor in the Police Department. There he challenges another police instructor, Takisaburo Tobari, to a fight. Tobari was a former Tenjin Shinyo Ryu Ju-Jutsu practitioner and black belt 3rd dan from Kodokan Judo. Tanabe wins by a choke. Tobari would challenge him 2 times in the next few years, losing them all. -It is not clear whether it was only Mataemon Tanabe's who fought Kodokans practitioners or if there was a challenge between Fusen Ryu and Kodokan schools. -Between 1,892 and 1,895 Tanabe challenges the Kodokan several times and wins them all. It seems that he challenged even Jigoro Kano, but there was no answer. Until the end of his career he would fight with several representatives of Judo, losing only 2 times. -During his bouts Tanabe would take the fight to the ground, using techniques unfamiliar to Kodokan fighters. Thus, he was able to win almost all of them by submission. Until then, the Kodokan Judo had little training in ground techniques. -It is said that Tanabe used a lot of sacrifice throws, like the balloon takedown (tomoe nagi). Thus, if the takedown didn't work, he was already in his comfort zone, that is, the ground fight. There are reports that sometimes he just sat on the floor as soon as the fight started. He was also famous for his heel hook. -With his earned respect, Tanabe was called to be part of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai - Great House of Martial Excellence in Japan - an organization founded in 1895, in Kyoto, to promote Japanese martial arts. He is one of the 20 masters chosen to develop ju-jutsu. Around that time Tanabe also trains at the school of Master Yataro Handa or Handa Dojo (in Osaka). There he would have training partners like Yukio Tani, Taro Miyaki, Sadakazu Uyenishi, who would later travel the world doing challenges against other fighters, teaching and spreading ju-jutsu. -At Handa dojo, it is likely that they trained a lot of ne-waza (ground fighting), as they were focused on carrying out challenges against other schools. -Yataro Handa was a master of Tenjin Shinyo Ryu and Daito Ryu, but they also trained other styles of ju-jutsu such as Sekigushi Ryu, Yoshin Ryu and Takenouchi Ryu. -Tanabe's fights against Kodokan “opened the eyes” of Judo fighters to the importance of ground fighting (ne-waza). -Jigoro Kano understood the importance of these techniques (ne-waza) and implemented them in the Kodokan Judo curriculum. He even invited fighters knowledgeable in the ground fight to teach there. It is believed that Kano tried to hire Tanabe to teach ground fighting techniques at Kodokan. But that is not all clear. -After these challenges there was a “boom” in ground fighting at Kodokan Judo. At the same time, a young man named MITSUYO MAEDA started training at Kodokan.