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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. next page