Matt the jap (1 Viewer)

[MDR]

Matt the Jap died recently. Police broke down the door of his flat after some food that was delivered to him was left outside his door for a while. Died of natural causes. The full story is on the front page of saturday's Irish Times.

Some sort of ceremony/service is being organised in his honour for this Thursday.

In a bad weekend for nostalgia, Evel Knivel died also.

 

[sugar_referee]

RIP Matt . What a man he was.

 

[oh shit]

 

[krystal]

I'd never heard of him before I read about him in the paper yesterday - a Trinity thing?

 

[oh shit]

guess so. my sister's in that photo somewhere... "i'll never forget the time he swore at me"

 

[Goff]

Poor Matt. A Legend.

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

..

 

[sarah]

poor guy i'm glad he had a home at least, figured as much when he took all the supernoodles out of freshers packs. Is it true he used to be a student there way way way back?

 

[Wobbler]

I was sad to hear that. Seemed like a bit of a character. There were loadsb of rumours flying about about him when I was there.

 

[Unicron]

poor guy i'm glad he had a home at least, figured as much when he took all the supernoodles out of freshers packs. Is it true he used to be a student there way way way back?

Apparently, but all sorts of stories were floating around about him when I was there. Stuff about having studied celtic history at top Japanese and French (apparently his newspaper of choice was Le Monde) universities before arriving at Trinity.

He was part of the furniture of the place.

 

[La La]

he was an absolute legend. used to come into the SU shop every day and we'd have to give him the paper and stuff. sad circumstances under which he died -the irish times was right about trinity having that 'not-the-sameness' about it now. rip matteo!!!!

 

[oh shit]

trinity's not been the same since they let the fenians in

 

[broken arm]

trinity is not the same as the rest of ireland

 

[Unclealo]

Trinners for Winners.

 

[CitySickness]

There were loads of rumours flying about about him when I was there.

Apparently, but all sorts of stories were floating around about him when I was there.

Just to clarify: were rumours flying, or stories floating?

 

[therealjohnny]

I remember being at a showing of A Fistful of Dollars in the screen. Matt he Jap- (or that old guy you see everywhere-as he was known to me) was in the front row, fast asleep and snoring really loudly

The Times was really depressing on Saturday. Along with that story there was a report on the death of Omagh busker Artie G who was also a well known "character" I remember from my youth, and of course the report on Evel Knievels' death

bah-death

 

[MDR]

Trinity remembers eternal student 'Matt the Jap'


Gardaí are liaising with Interpol and the Japanese embassy to contact relatives of Matteo (Masahiso) Matubara, one of central Dublin's most familiar characters, following his death last month. Paul Cullen reports.
Matubara (73), known affectionately to generations of Trinity College students as "Matt the Jap", died of natural causes in his home off Mount Street almost two weeks ago. Gardaí broke into the flat after food which had been left at his door remained untouched for days.
His body remains in the morgue while efforts continue to make contact with his brother, who is believed to live in Tokyo. College friends are planning to hold a gathering in his honour next Thursday.
His passing was marked in the classified section of yesterday's Irish Times with this tribute from the college's Central Societies Committee: "Known to generations of Trinity College graduates and students as a 'college character', Matteo was a seemingly constant and eternal fixture at student events and meetings, and his passing conjures up a sentiment of not-quite-the-sameness."
Raised in Tokyo, he studied in Norway and Paris before coming to Ireland in the early 1980s. In Trinity, with financial assistance from Saudi Arabia, he wrote a thesis on Islamic journeys in the Middle Ages. After receiving an M Litt in 1987, he stayed on in Ireland, and appeared to live on very little.
He was extremely deaf and communicated with people by sign language or, more often, by exchange of written notes. He could write in English, Irish, Japanese, Norwegian, German, French, Russian and, it is reputed, several other languages.
He was an inveterate correspondent; Prince Charles, Prince Michael of Kent and Prince Albert of Monaco were among those who replied to his letters.
He was on the Christmas card lists of President Mary McAleese and Jacques Chirac.
"He knew half the crowned heads of Europe," recalls Joseph O'Gorman, assistant junior dean in Trinity. "There was even a photo of him with Tito.
"Matteo was the last of a number of eccentrics who pottered about college over the years and whose only real link to the place is the most important: they were known by generations of students for whom, in many ways, they formed a nostalgic link with their time in college. People who can't remember what they read for the whole of second year have a clear memory of Matteo."
Mystery surrounded his background, much of it encouraged by Matubara himself. He claimed not to have any family in Japan, until friends discovered he was sending cards to a brother in Tokyo. His library card was removed as he was found to have written on old textbooks, though friends claimed he was correcting typos.

 

[Wobbler]

Just to clarify: were rumours flying, or stories floating?

I'm not certain. A flying rumour looks very similiar to a floating story.

 

[MDR]

I think the rumours were actually 'abounding'.

 

[Scientician 0.8]

I remember being at a showing of A Fistful of Dollars in the screen. Matt he Jap- (or that old guy you see everywhere-as he was known to me) was in the front row, fast asleep and snoring really loudly

The Times was really depressing on Saturday. Along with that story there was a report on the death of Omagh busker Artie G who was also a well known "character" I remember from my youth, and of course the report on Evel Knievels' death

bah-death

Yeah, shit innit. I was in Omagh at the weekend. I think we need to put preservation orders out on all remaining characters. Precious few left.