MEET TANAKA: THE ARMORED WARRIOR OF HARDCORE

Throughout the weekend, these LARP-ish fighters have combined martial arts and performance with crowd interaction and therapy. Simply put, these dudes let anyone come in and beat the shit out of them with a stick or sword, for free.

We sat down with Tanaka (his real name is Hank) and discussed the lifestyle of an armored combatant amidst an ocean of face tattoos and basketball jerseys.

Noisey: What are you doing at TIHC?
Tanaka: I’m demonstrating armored combat.

Give me some more detail. What kind of time period are we dealing with here?
Well the majority of the people that are here are mostly Eurocentric, although two of the fighters do have Japanese armor. The time period is from the end of the Dark Ages into the Industrial Era, so roughly an 800-year span of history. My armor is 11th century high-end period Japanese armor.

Is this something that you’re very particular with?
I wasn’t but the person who built it for me was, he was tired of me running around in crappy Japanese armor so he built this for me. Sometimes things happen for ya.

Is this somewhat associated with LARPing?
In the broadest sense, yes. It is live action roleplaying—we do play roles—but I’m in it for the violence. I’ve been a martial artist my entire life. Short of getting arrested by the police, where else am I going to go to hit people and have them shake my hand afterwards?

Do you integrate martial arts into your performance or is it more weapons driven?
Sure. I’ve been a lifelong martial artist. I started off boxing and studied Taekwondo, Kendo, Kinjutsu, a number of other things along the way. My biggest problem with most martial arts, at least when I was growing up, is that we’re taught that these techniques kill. But do they really? I don’t know. And if you actually go out and kill somebody, then you’re spending the rest of your life in jail. I actually get to hit people. I actually get to spar. There’s something very viscerally exciting about real combat.

How long have you been doing martial arts?
Since I was four-years-old. I’m 52 now.

What do you do for a living?
I’m a marketing rep. I’m a brown-eyed bullshit artist.