Meet Tanaka: The Armored Warrior of Hardcore

All photos and video by the author

This Is Hardcore 2015 has brought some of the most intense performances Philadelphia has ever seen. From the career-encompassing and tear jerking final TIHC appearance of Bane to the utter mayhem and balcony jumps of Japan’s Sand, it’s been a non-stop and exhausting weekend.

But one group of hardcore performers, warriors rather, was somehow left off the flyer. Just a few yards beyond the wall of the Electric Factory stands a ring erected solely for armored combat champions. Their battlefield is concrete and their soundtrack is the breakdown. 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.

Does everyone at work know about your passion?
Sort of. I say I do martial arts. It’s easier to leave it at that than to really expound upon it because, frankly speaking, then you’re in a five-hour conversation, and it always ends with the same questions: “Well, aren’t you gonna get hurt?” I can get hurt driving to work. I can get hurt walking up the stairs. I really try to keep my lines of life separate.

So what’s your relationship with festival founder Joe Hardcore?
We are co-competitors; I met him on the battlefield. We became fast friends, and he said, “I promote this heavy metal fest, would you consider coming down?” And I said, “Sure!”

Are you a fan of heavy metal and hardcore?
Absolutely, I am now! This is my third year I’ve done this and it’s been fantastic.

Does this music get you pumped up to fight?
I am musically inclined when it comes to inspiration, and there are a ton of punk and metal tracks on my jump rope and speed bag tape. It’s funny because last year Joe had pressed vinyl from the 2013 show, and I’m on the label fighting with Eric on the pressed vinyl. It was pretty cool.

Is there anyone this weekend you’re excited to see?
Well I was here primarily to do the combat section of this. Later on, I’ll get in the mosh pit. We were in the mosh pit in armor last year.

Did unarmored men try to confront you?
Absolutely. There was this one chunky ass dude last year who was throwing spinning backfists at everybody and messing people up. He started dancing up on me, and he threw a spinning backfist, I just did a side-block, and he was done. He didn’t want any part of it. We cleared out the pit in five minutes.

I noticed you let people come in and kick your ass, what’s the deal with that?
It’s the little blonde ones that are evil. She just blew me up. She was ok. She said, “Say something to inspire me to hit you hard…” So I said, “Your sister kisses better.” She said, “She probably does, she’s a slut.” So I said, “Your mother kisses better!”… “She’s dead.” So I told her I fucked her dog, then she fuckin blew me up. It was crazy.

How do you go about running your fights out here?
Well, we’re doing a demo. We’re trying to show people that we’re not going to die if you hit us heinously. So, we’ll grab people and play whack-a-mole or, in keeping with the spirit of today’s event, we’re calling it “Come Out and Play Smack My Bitch Up.” So they’re smacking us around. There’s a lot of people here with issues, so they feel so much better once they hit somebody 20 times.

You use this platform as a way to practice martial arts and get out frustration without going to jail. Is there a connection there to this kind of music, the aggression that is taken out in the pit on and that stage?
In the fighting styles that we do, we do both individual styles and multiple more team style. They’re like two different heads. One is very much like boxing, one-on-one, and the other is more like a team sport. In both cases being able to focus, and metal helps with that. It gets you in the right space.

Where do you usually do this?
We have events every weekend, so I can be anywhere up or down the East Coast. Actually, there are probably events anywhere in western civilization, our group is so large. I hold a weekly practice. I also go to events on weekends. So I can do it anytime I want really.

So what’s special about doing it here?
There’s something special about it here. The people are inclined to be entertained by it. The music is pumping. They’re very receptive. It’s always more fun to play to an audience. It's beautiful out. I joke around. There’s an old advertisement saying, “If you want to sell product, get a pretty girl…” So you get a pretty girl to hit you with a stick, and then suddenly there’s a hundred guys watching you.

If you could fight any musician, who would you fight?
Henry Rollins. I like him. He’s a good guy.

Could he put up a good fight?
Ehhh, he talks a good game.

But that doesn’t necessarily translate to combat…
Not necessarily.

If someone wanted to fight you, how should they prepare?
In this game, I’d recommend that they bring their best, whatever that is. I’m skilled in all of our forms, and I’ve been doing it a long time. I’m not one prone to braggadocio, but that’s a statement of reality. So whatever they feel would best suit their physical attributes.

Derek Scancarelli didn’t fight Tanaka. He’s a coward, but he’s on Twitter.