Mitsuyo
Maeda
In 1897, a man by the name of Mitsuyo Maeda entered the Kodokan
to begin his Judo training in the time when Kodokan Judo was
beginning a great emphasis on ne-waza, or grappling techniques.
He had a natural talent for Judo and moved through the ranks
very quickly, establishing himself as the most promising young
student in the Kodokan.
| In
1904, at the age of 26 and as a 4th degree black belt,
he was given the chance to go to the U.S. with one of
his instructors, Tsunejiro Tomita. He and his instructor
were invited to demonstrate at West Point. They started
with kata, which the Americans did not understand or take
well to. Maeda was challenged by a student that was a
wrestling champion. The student thought that he had won
because he pinned Maeda, but Maeda, unfamiliar with western
wrestling continued to fight until he got his opponent
in a joint lock and made him tap out. The students then
wanted to see Tomita fight. Since he was the teacher,
they figured that he must be the better fighter. Tomita
had only come to demonstrate, not except challenge matches,
but to save face he had no choice. Tomita, however, was
in his 40's and past his prime, so when the much larger
American rushed him and tackled him, he was easily able
to pin him under his weight so that Tomita could not move.
He was forced to give up. |
Mitsuyo
Maeda |
Tomita and Maeda parted ways with Tomita going to the West
Coast and Maeda staying in New York to teach. He accepted
a few challenge matches and taught at Princeton as well as
in New York City, but Americans did not take well to Japanese
style teaching and did not stay long.
Maeda was offered to take a challenge fight for money by the
local Japanese, which was against the Kodokan rules, but he
needed money. His match was against a New York wrestler, which
he won, and his fighting career began.
Maeda persuaded some Japanese business men to back him with
$1000 in prize money and he began his travels fighting and
proving the superiority of Judo in North, Central and South
America as well as in Europe. At 5'5" and 154 pounds,
he fought all takers even if they were much larger than he
was. Out of over 2000 matches he was undefeated in Judo/Jiujitsu
type matches and only lost 2 matches in the catch-as-catch-can
world championships held in London. He entered both the middleweight
and heavyweight divisions advancing to the semi-finals and
finals respectively.
In 1908, while in Spain he adopted the name Conde Koma, or
Count Trouble. Because of his financial trouble he was in
and his other surrounding problems, he first took the Japanese
verb "komaru", or trouble, as his name. However,
he didn't think that Maeda Komaru had a good ring to it, so
he dropped the last syllable. A Spanish friend of his suggested
that he use the name Conde, or Count, so Maeda adopted this
name and later it became part of his legal name.
Count
Koma Goes to Brazil
Maeda
submits an opponent |
In
1915, Maeda ended up settling in a town called Belem,
in Brazil. He felt that Brazil was the idea place for
the Japanese to immigrate to. America, at the time,
had strong anti-Japanese sentiments and Brazil was very
open minded. The Amazon was also more promising with
it's lush vegetation. While there, he still continued
his challenge fighting and would travel abroad again
when needed, but Brazil became his home.
Maeda still taught as part of his profession. His fame
as a fighter brought to him policemen, army college
cadets, and politicians as well as ordinary citizens.
One politician, named Gastao Gracie, asked him to teach
his son Carlos Gracie.
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