[1] Over the years, he devised a personal strategy of enduring his enemies' holds long enough to get them tired, and then coming back and making them submit with chokes and joint locks.

[2] It would be in January 1891, however, when he became famous due to a challenge fight against a fellow police instructor, 3rd dan Kodokan Judoka and Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū exponent Takisaburo Tobari.

Although the judoka came with improved skills and managed to block Tanabe's first tomoe nage attempt, he made the mistake to try to engage him voluntarily on the ground.

Thanks to Tanabe's defense and patience, Tobari exhausted himself trying to submit him, allowing Mataemon to place him lying flat on the mat and choke him again by juji-jime.

[3][4] After those bouts, Tanabe appeared in the Osaka branch of the Kodokan at the kagami-biraki annual event and challenged Jigoro Kano personally, without receiving an answer.

He would face more judokas after this bout, among them Yoshitsugu Yamashita, Kunisaburo Iizuka, Norimasu Iwasaki, Yuji Hirooka and Shichigoro Baba, defeating them all.

[3] The match started the same way as the previous one, but this time Tanabe countered a throw attempt and scored fully his tomoe nage, following up by pinning Tobari and applying ebi-jime for the victory.

[3][6] After those fights, Tanabe's renown was such that he was one of the twenty representing masters chosen in 1895 to open up the jujutsu division at the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, an idea promoted by Kodokan founder Jigoro Kano.

[1][5][6] At the next reunion at the Butoku Kai in May, Kano proposed to forbid the technique from regular jujutsu/judo competition due to the possibility of lasting damage.

The match stalled, with Isogai showing signs of fatigue first, but eventually the referee called for a draw on the basis that both opponents were tired and not making advances.

[7] Tanabe always declined to officially join the Kodokan school, even although his own acquitances pressed him into such, but it's known that he was friends and usual training partners with judokas Yuji Hirooka and Soji Kimotsuki.

[1] Years after his death, his career was praised by judo historian Takeshi Kuroda, who called him "the last great jujutsuka" and a figure of utmost importance for the history of Kodokan.