Another death discovered by randomly searching on a remembered
name...
A longstanding master of Shotokan Karate,he died on November
27th,2020 at age 77.

https://kazumitabata.com/ is not surprisingly about Tabata.

Years back,through a connection made in a figure skating newsgroup,
I corresponded with a former student of Tabata who later moved on
to study with Hidetaka Nishiyama.

She recalled the time that Tabata and some students had to
restrain their ridicule of John "Count Dante" Keehan
(1939-1975),whose ads appeared in 1970s comic books
calling him "World's Deadliest Fighting Arts Champion and
Master" and selling his book "World's Deadliest Fighting
Secrets"...he wanted to challenge Tabata to a fight but
came across as an utter joke.

Sources seem to differ on whether Tabata accepted a 9th Degree
black belt,or stopped at 8th...Shotokan's founder Gichin
Funakoshi never gave out higher than 5th,but some of his
students,such as Tabata's master Isao Obata (1904-76),
Masatoshi Nakayama(1913-87),and Nishiyama(1928-2008) took
higher ranks as most karate systems go up theoretically
to 10th.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

In article <sabupu$8co$1@reader1.panix.com>, Louis Epstein
<le@top.put.com> wrote:

> She recalled the time that Tabata and some students had to
> restrain their ridicule of John "Count Dante" Keehan
> (1939-1975),whose ads appeared in 1970s comic books
> calling him "World's Deadliest Fighting Arts Champion and
> Master" and selling his book "World's Deadliest Fighting
> Secrets"

https://miro.medium.com/max/2400/1*LUGbKSVYjnfMTJH9AotJ8g.jpeg

A Friend <nope@noway.com> wrote:
> In article <sabupu$8co$1@reader1.panix.com>, Louis Epstein
> <le@top.put.com> wrote:
>
>> She recalled the time that Tabata and some students had to
>> restrain their ridicule of John "Count Dante" Keehan
>> (1939-1975),whose ads appeared in 1970s comic books
>> calling him "World's Deadliest Fighting Arts Champion and
>> Master" and selling his book "World's Deadliest Fighting
>> Secrets"
>
>
> https://miro.medium.com/max/2400/1*LUGbKSVYjnfMTJH9AotJ8g.jpeg

If you want to go to that site,
https://medium.com/catchesbulletswithhisteeth/count-dante-john-keehan-the-deadliest-man-alive-dim-mak-black-dragon-fighting-society-ad40ea0e1aa3
which ends with a link to
https://medium.com/crownsontop/forgottenfurymastersoftheredglow-blackmartialarts-goldeneramartialarts-52531d6386a
which he calls a followup article on "Count Dante",but which
has significant mention of Peter Urban and Frank Ruiz of Goju-ryu,
who I've known of for years as well (both dead now)...the Kanzen
Goju whose founder's death I noted here was a division from Nisei Goju
which is mentioned (cofounded by Ruiz and the Kanzen founder Harry
Rosenstein,who then split up...Nisei is now led by Wilfredo Roldan,
also mentioned,while Rosenstein's successors are at
http://www.kanzengojoryu.net/).
This second article also mentions the JKA/Shotokan tradition that
Tabata came from..."Dante" is not mentioned until maybe 3/4 through
but the coverage is eventually substantial...involving voodoo.

See also
https://sportsstories.substack.com/p/count-dante-the-worlds-deadliest

But be that as it may,I'd bet on Tabata.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.