Castello

  In a recent interview, while answering a question [1], Maestro Ramon Martinez has mentioned the following encounter between a kendoka and an European fencer: „...another person using katana I don't know. I do know that in 1911 in Havana (Cuba) Maestro Julio Martinez Castello faced kendo master named Conde Cano (Kano?), I believe. And he used his saber against master's shinai, and I believe that Castello was victorious in that encounter. However Castello was so fascinated by the Japanese swordsman that he asked him to teach him it. In fact I remember that [...] he used to sell kendo equipment.” [2]

Ramon Martinez

 It might happen that Maestro Martinez just identified another person in an old photo, showing the encounter between Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Count Combat or Conde Koma in Spanish) and a European fencer. The exact location, where this picture was taken, isn't known yet, also we don't know when that encounter took place. (More about it.)

Maeda vs ??

Julio Martinez Castello in 1933 

  In a photo from the 1933 edition of his book -- The Theory and Practice of Fencing -- we see the fencing master at the age of 51. Without being too speculative, I think we can say that the following is true or highly plausible:

• Martinez mentioned the name of Castello's opponent: Conde Kano;
• It could be a corrupted or misremembered name of Conde Koma;
• Castello was born in 1882. He learned to fence at the Royal Academy in Madrid and taught in Spain, Argentina and Cuba before coming to the United States in 1914;
• Conde Koma was in Cuba between the end of 1908 and 1913;
• The characteristic baldness of Castello (1933) and the very similar baldness of the person in the middle could indicate that indeed that European fencer is Castello, photographed in 1911. 

  Just to summarize the whole thing.

 It is rather plausible that the person who stands between Maeda and the another fencer can be Julio M. Castello. And the encounter indeed happened in 1911 in Havana, where Castello taught fencing before 1914, also we do know, that Maeda visited the Cuban capital between 1908 and 1913, during his American tour. Naturally only a good article from a Cuban newspaper of that period could resolve this uncertainty.

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1. „Did a duel ever happen in which one man used a katana & the other a sabre?”
2. R. Martinez answers questions about Fencing & Fencing History (2020) [24:16]
3. „The United States has been fortunate over the years to attract many notable fencing masters. One of these was Maestro Julio Martinez Castello (1882-1973), a highly successful Spanish fencing master who was born in 1882. He learned to fence at the Royal Academy in Madrid and taught in Spain, Argentina and Cuba before coming to the United States in 1914. He taught at the New York Athletic Club, Yale and Columbia and coached the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team in 1924. Castello accepted the post of fencing master at New York University in 1927 where he stayed until the late 1940s. He produced numerous champions while he was there. While retiring in 1947, he continued to teach on an unofficial basis until his eighties. Furthermore, Castello wrote two books, "Theory of Fencing" (1931) and "The Theory and Practice of Fencing" (1933). His two sons, Hugo and James, were also respected fencing masters.” (Source)