was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

active in the early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. Araki Mataemon was the founder of the koryū

martial art Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; and the pres ...

Yagyū Shingan-ryū , is a traditional Samurai warrior tradition of ancient Japan (''Kobudō''). There are two distinct lineages of Yagyū Shingan-ryū known as Sendai-Heihojutsu and Edo-Taijutsu. The term has its roots in Japanese Zen Buddhism, and refers to an ...

, known sometimes as Yagyū Shingan-ryū Taijutsu. Araki Mataemon studied

Yagyū Shinkage-ryū is one of the oldest Japanese schools of swordsmanship (''kenjutsu''). Its primary founder was Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, who called the school Shinkage-ryū. In 1565, Nobutsuna bequeathed the school to his greatest student, Yagyū Munetoshi, who ...

under

Yagyū Munenori was a Japanese daimyo, swordsman, and martial arts writer, founder of the Edo branch of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū, which he learned from his father Yagyū "Sekishūsai" Muneyoshi. This was one of two official sword styles patronized by the Tokugawa ...

and later received permissionSkoss, Diane (Editor). 1997. ''Koryu Bujutsu''.Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan, volume 1, p. 85. New Jersey, Koryu Books. from Yagyū Jūbei to use the Yagyū family-name in the Yagyū Shingan-ryū. Araki Mataemon was a very strong warrior, and his feud against the samurai Kawai Matagorō is one of the most famous in Japan, called

Igagoe vendetta The Igagoe vendetta was a vengeance incident in Japan in 1634, where the murder of a retainer was avenged by his older brother. The event happened in the town of Iga-Ueno near Iga Pass. The vendetta is known as one of the three major vendetta inc ...

. Matagoro killed Gendayu, the little brother of Mataemon's brother-in-law, Watanabe Kazuma. Becoming a murderer out of jealousy for a childhood friend, Matagoro fled into another domain, using friends of his father and his lineage linked to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Watanabe eventually located him in the neighborhood of Iga-Ueno. By now, Watanabe Kazuma had been joined in his revenge by Araki Mataemon. "On the seventh day of the eleventh month of 1634", Watanabe Kazuma, Araki Mataemon, and two other men waited for Kawai Matagoro at the Kagiya crossroads in Iga-Ueno. They had been informed of Matagoro's route. That morning the road was frozen, Mataemon and his followers entered a nearby shop and waited for Matagoro to arrive from Osaka. When the group arrived, Mataemon killed Matagoro's uncle, Kawai Jinzaemon, and the followers who surround Matagoro. Historian Stephen Turnbull wrote, that: Araki Mataemon died by poison in 1638. The culprit was never found.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Araki, Mataemon Swordfighters of the Edo period 1590s births 1638 deaths