Mitsuyo Maeda, also known as Conde Koma, was a Japanese judoka who helped establish Jiu Jitsu in Brazil and was a significant figure in the development of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Maeda was born in Funazawa Village, Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture and began his training in martial arts early on. At 17, he went to Tokyo to study and practice judo. The founder of Judo, Kano Jigoro, noticed Maeda and assigned him to his teacher, Tsunejiro Tomita.
Maeda partnered up with Soishiro Satake and together they became the first to introduce and teach judo in Brazil. For a number of years, Maeda participated in contests and competitions internationally. With Tomita, Maeda gave public demonstrations, incorporating jiu-jitsu techniques. Maeda continued to build a reputation in South America including El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. He also travelled to Brazil where he made a public demonstration showing fundamental jiu-jitsu techniques along with other self-defense mechanisms. In Brazil, Maeda and Satake had an exciting jiu-jitsu match and after being a team for 15 years, the two martial arts masters split up.
In 1917, Maeda went back to Brazil alone where he would occasionally fight. In that same year, Maeda became the instructor of Carlos Gracie, son of Gastao Gracie, and taught him and his brother, Helio Gracie jiu-jitsu. Helio and Carlos became the founders of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, which is now considered Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
After a few years, Maeda founded his first judo academy in Brazil and later began helping Japanese immigrants who wanted to settle in Brazil. Mitsuyo Maeda played an important role in shaping the art and philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu and has been considered the father of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.