Dialogue "Tarzan Yamamoto ×Toudoukan Director" 1. Self-introduction in the 20th year

May 19, 2025

Toudoukan 20th Anniversary Special Dialogue

Director ×Toudoukan Tarzan Yamamoto Table of Contents

1. Self-introduction in the 20th year

Toudoukan Director Takashi Izumi (hereinafter referred to as "Director"): Thank you very much for your time today.
Toudoukan is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, so I wanted to look back on the history of Tarzan and Toudoukan.
As the chief advisor of Toudoukan , I have been working with him since 20 years before its establishment, with him, and I have seen his Toudoukan . In addition, we have held many memorable events at key points.

Tarzan Yamamoto: Crackling. Was I the chief adviser? Well, you could say that he is an honorary advisor.
But yes, a lot has happened in the last 20 years.

Director: So, when I thought about what I was going to talk about with you again last night, I thought that I would like to take this opportunity to dig deeper and look back on my own life, as has been the case with Toudoukan for the past 20 years.

I founded Toudoukan at the age of 25 and have been the director for 20 years, so just as Akira Maeda said, "No matter where you cut UWF, my blood is flowing," so too did I say, "Toudoukan No matter where you cut it, your blood is flowing (laughs).

That's why I think that first reflecting on yourself can convey the origin of Toudoukan more deeply.

Tarzan Yamamoto: Exactly! It's a very good thing.

Director: Why did I come to Tokyo from Osaka in the first place? Why did you get a job? And how did you start Toudoukan?
It's been 20 years since I, Takashi Izumi, have come to terms with who I am, but I wanted to take a moment to look back and introduce myself.
Until now, I had never talked about the details of my private life in public, but I thought that if I didn't take this opportunity to talk about it, I would die without leaving it behind for the rest of my life.
Humans, you really don't know when you're going to die.

Tarzan Yamamoto: That's a very important thing, a great importance!
It's important to reflect on yourself, and it's good to be able to express yourself to the outside world, because it's a form of expression, and you can be more aware of your relationship with the world. I can reflect on what I did as I was, and it becomes clear what I need to do in the future.
Above all, it is very important to leave your hometown or your parents.

Director: That's what you always say.

Tarzan Yamamoto: I always say that. To put it harshly, if you don't abandon your family, your parents, and your hometown, your ego won't wake up. Life has to begin. My parents' gravitational pull is strong. My life is curtailed. I have to leave the space.
In my case, I started with Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. Then I went to Tokyo. It's like a hop step.

Director: That's right. In my case, it was a major change in my life to go to Tokyo. It's a great personal luxury to have a teacher listen to it and look back on it together.

Tarzan Yamamoto: Why me?

Director: The first Pro Wrestling person I met was Tarzan Yamamoto, and I have been with him for the past 20 years.

Tarzan Yamamoto: When we first met, the director was handing out leaflets at the foot of the bridge leading to Korakuen Hall .

Director: Wow, it's Tarzan Yamamoto! When I handed him a leaflet, he said, "Toudoukan ? I'll come up with a better name."
Oh, I thought he was an amazing person when I met him and suddenly became his godfather (laughs).

Tarzan Yamamoto: That's what I thought at the time. Isn't Toudoukan three kanji? At that time, it had to be a fashionable foreign word. I thought this was tough.

Director: Yes. You said, "It has to be in katakana."

Tarzan Yamamoto: But now, "Demon Slayer" and the world aren't all about kanji. So, now that I think about it, the director was ahead of his time.

Director: No, no (wry smile), in my mind, Toudoukan was the name of a confident work that I was particular about.
At first, I thought that it would be a "fighting book" because I read books at a coffee shop, but it was kind of hard to read, and it sounded like a four-character idiom, so I didn't feel comfortable with it.
I thought about it every day for more than a month, and one day I Toudoukan on the royal road "road" to the "fight" of the fighting spirit!　Moreover, if the name looks as strong as "Kyokushin Kan" or "Kodokan" (laughs), it is Pro Wrestling , martial arts, and the best.

I was self-conscious that I had come up with a really good name, but after all, if you look at it from a professional (Tarzan Yamamoto), you can't do something that isn't good. Regardless of my commitment, I was interested in the fact that I didn't hesitate to slash it. "This kind of thing is not popular!" Well, I'm a person who grew up in the world of martial arts (Daido Juku), so my ideas are basic.

Tarzan Yamamoto: It's crazy. But I realized it later.

Back to blog