Araki Mataemon (荒木 又右衛門, 1598 / 1599 – October 5, 1638)[1] was a Japanese samurai active in the early Edo period.

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.

[2] "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.

That morning the road was frozen, Mataemon and his followers entered a nearby shop and waited for Matagoro to arrive from Osaka.

[2] Historian Stephen Turnbull wrote, that: The story was eventually to grow to put the number slain by Mataemon at 36, but this is certainly exaggerated.

If Matagoro behaved properly, he might receive a pardon and regain the daimyo authority following a victory.