A Brief History of the Gentle Art

5/27/2018 A Brief History of the Gentle Art

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A brief history of the gentle art, from the samurai to the UFC champions and

IBJJF gold medalists

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ(also written as jujitsu or jujutsu) is a martial art of Japanese origin

in which one essentially uses levers, torsions and pressure in order to take ones opponent to the

ground and dominate them. Literally,jin Japanese means gentleness, andjutsu means art,

technique. Hence the literal translation by which its also known, the gentle art.

Its secular origin, as with almost all ancient martial arts, cannot be pinpointed precisely. Similar

fighting styles have been verified in many peoples, from India to China, in the 3rd and 8thcenturies. What is known is that its environment of development and refinement were the

schools of the samurai, the warrior caste of feudal Japan.

Its creation derives from the fact that, in the battlefield or during any confrontation, a samuraicould wind up bereft of his swords of spears, at which point he would need a weapon-less

method of defense. Since traumatic strikes were not sufficient in this type of showdown, as the

samurai wore armor, the takedowns and torsions began gaining ground due to their efficiency.

Thus Jiu-Jitsu was born in contraposition to kenjitsuand other so-called rigid arts, wherein the

combatants wielded swords and other weapons.


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Mitsuyo Maeda, a.k.a. Count Koma, sowed Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil at the start of last century. Sincethen the gentle art has grown vertiginously and born many fruits. Photo: Fabio Quio Archives

The martial art gained new dimensions when a celebrated instructor from the Kodokan Japanese

school decided to travel the world and prove the efficiency of his choke and armlocks againstopponents of all sizes and styles: Mitsuyo Maeda, a sumo fighters son born in Funazawa

Village, located in Hirosaki City, in the Japanese prefecture of Aomori, on November 18, 1878,

and deceased in Belm, capital of the Brazilian state of Par, on November 28, 1941.

A lifelong champion of Jiu-Jitsus self-defense techniques, Maeda traveled to the U.S. in 1904

accompanied by other teachers from Jigoro Kanos school. At the time, thanks to the politicaland economic bonds between Japan and the U.S., the Japanese techniques had many a

noteworthy admirer on American soil. In 1903, for example, President Theodore Roosevelt hadtaken lessons from Yoshiaki Yamashita. In the U.S., the agile Japanese man began racking up

thousands of combats and fallen opponents along the way in England, Belgium and Spain, where

his poise resulted in the nickname by which he became better-known, Count Koma. Back inAmerica, the fighter did many presentations and challenges in El Salvador, Costa Rica,

Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. In July 1914, the valiant 5-

foot-5, 68kg fighter landed in Brazil to settle down and change the sports history.


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1906 Brazilian Newspaper.

A lifelong champion of Jiu-Jitsus self-defense techniques, Maeda traveled to the U.S. in 1904

accompanied by other teachers from Jigoro Kanos school. At the time, thanks to the political

and economic bonds between Japan and the U.S., the Japanese techniques had many anoteworthy admirer on American soil. In 1903, for example, President Theodore Roosevelt had

taken lessons from Yoshiaki Yamashita. In the U.S., the agile Japanese man began racking up

thousands of combats and fallen opponents along the way in England, Belgium and Spain, where

his poise resulted in the nickname by which he became better-known, Count Koma. Back inAmerica, the fighter did many presentations and challenges in El Salvador, Costa Rica,

Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. In July 1914, the valiant 5-foot-5, 68kg fighter landed in Brazil to settle down and change the sports history.

Maeda would go on to collect delicious stories on Brazilian land. After going around the country,

the Jiu-Jitsu black-belt settled in Belm. One day he took on the challenge of a capoeira artist

known as P de Bola, towering over the master at 6-foot-3 and nearly 100kg. Maeda was notimpressed and even let his rival bear a knife in the match. The Japanese disarmed, took down

and finished off the Brazilian. Count Koma, as later became a tradition among Jiu-Jitsu

professors, would also challenge famous boxers. American boxer Jack Johnson was called out,

but never accepted the invite.

It was Koma, also, who promoted the first Jiu-Jitsu tournament in the country more accuratelya festival of bouts and challenges designed to give notoriety to the unknown sport.

Researchers Luiz Otvio Laydner and Fabio Quio Takao found in the newspaper Gazeta deNotcias of March 11, 1915 the rules of the event slated for the Carlos Gomes Theater in Rio de

Janeiro, then the countrys capital. In it Koma published the first rules of our Jiu-Jitsu, consisting

of ten items:


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1. Every fighter must present themselves decently, with fingernails and toenails perfectly

trimmed;

2. They must wear the gi, provided by Count Koma;

3. It is forbidden to bite, scratch, head-butt or punch;

4. When the athlete uses their foot, they must never use its tip, but instead the curve;

5. The fighter whose back is on the ground is not defeated, even if they were the first one to fall;

6. The fighter who is defeated must signal their forfeit by tapping either the mat or their

opponents body thrice;

7. The referee will deem defeated the fighter who, due to some contingency, cannot rememberto tap to signal their forfeit;

8. The matches will be divided into rounds of five minutes with two-minute resting periodsinterposed between them. The referee will count the minutes aloud for the benefit of the

audience;

9. If the fighters fall off the mat without either one having forewarned of it, the referee must

force them to return to the center of the mat, standing and facing one another;

10. The jurors may replace the referee in his duties. Neither the enterprise nor the winning

fighter is responsible for whatever harm may befall the loser if, due to tenacity, that fighterrefuses to signal forfeit.

* Medical doctors, members of the local press, and professors of physical education and fencing

are invited to take part in the jury.

In 1917 a teenager named Carlos Gracie (19021994) saw for the first time, in Belm, a displayby the Japanese man who was capable of dominating and submitting the areas giants. A friend

of his father, Gasto Gracie, Maeda agreed to teach the restless boy the art of defending oneself.

In his lessons, he would teach Carlos and other Brazilians like Luiz Frana, future master toOswaldo Fadda the concepts of his art: on the feet or the ground, the opponents strength was

supposed to be a weapon for the win; to approach the adversary, low kicks and elbow strikes

were to be the stratagems before taking them down. For evolution in training, he would use the

randori, a full-on sparring session with a partner.


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Carlos and Helio Gracie spread Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, developing a powerful network of academiesand even promoting the gentle art through vale-tudo challenges. Photo: Jos Medeiros/O

Cruzeiro

A faithful student, Carlos Gracie embraced Jiu-Jitsu and, to the heartbreak of the mom whodreamed of seeing more diplomats in the prestigious family, he started infusing his brothers with

the love for the art. One of eight siblings (Oswaldo, Gasto Jr., George, Helena, Helio, Mary and

Ilka), in 1925 Carlos opened the Gracie familys first BJJ academy. The ad in the newspaper was

a marketing masterpiece: If you want to have your arm broken, look for the Gracie Academy.

The grandmaster would go on to spawn 21 offspring, 13 of whom became black-belts. Eachmember of the family began, then, strengthening the art and adding one more link to the chain

created by Grandmaster Carlos, founder and guide of the clan, as well as first in the family tolaunch himself in a rule-less fight, which he dubbed vale-tudo. It was in 1924 in Rio de Janeiro

that Carlos Gracie confronted stevedore Samuel, a renowned athlete of capoeira.

Helioquickly became the standout among the brothers due to the technical innovations he madeas an instructor and the indomitable spirit that dissonated from the skinny body. In consonance

with the tactics of Count Koma, the Gracies continued challenging capoeira artists in Rio, as well

as stevedores and other brave men of all origins and sizes. If these muscle men looked fearsome

on their feet, on the ground they became easy prey to the pounces and chokes that defeated them

as if by magic.


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In the UFC, Royce transmitted his ancestors legacy to millions of people via cable television.Vale-tudo was on its way to reach fever pitch worldwide. Photo: Donald Miralle / Zuffa LLC via

Getty Images

The familys victories in no-rules matches started becoming legends and front-page stories, andmounting. The famous pupils, also artists, architects, state ministers, mayors, governors,

surgeons and doctors from every field.

Besides the challenges, the championships featuring practitioners, with rules exclusive to Jiu-

Jitsu, were gaining momentum, fueled by rivalries of dozens of different academies. In the

1960s, when Carlson Graciehad already taken his uncle Helios baton as the clans front line invale-tudo, an important step was taken towards the consolidation of sport Jiu-Jitsu. In 1967 the

Guanabara Jiu-Jitsu Federation, in Rio, was created under the authorization of the countrysNational Sports Confederation. Among the still-primitive rules, moves like takedowns, frontal

mounts with both knees on the ground and the back-take yielded one point. Match duration for

the adults category was set at five minutes, with three minutes overtime. Jiu-Jitsu had gained

time controls and a scoring system.

The president of the Federation was Helio Gracie, and the president of the Consultative Council

was Carlos. His first-born, Carlson, was director of the technical department. The first technical

vice-director was Oswaldo Fadda, and the second was Orlando Barradas both of them Jiu-Jitsu

professors. Joo Alberto Barreto, a notable pupil of the Gracies, was named director to theteaching department, whose vice-director was one of Carlsons brothers, Robson Gracie each

of them a grandmaster of the art nowadays.


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Progressively better-organized, today Jiu-Jitsu competitions host around 3,000 athletes. Thegentle art is a hit even in the Arab world. Photo: Gustavo Arago

In the 90s the art underwent a new boom. On two fronts: created by Rorion Gracie in 1993, the

Ultimate Fighting Championshipkick-started the sport known today as MMA. Starting withpioneer Royce Gracie and further consolidated through the sweat of a bevy of his cousins and

brothers in Rickson, Renzo, Ralph, Royler, Ryan, Carley and company, Jiu-Jitsu as a method of

self-defense had nothing more to prove.

On another front, Carlos Gracie Jr. picked up his fathers work organizing championships and

strengthening the art as a regulated sport. Thus the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation(IBJJF) was created in 1994, and these days it promotes tournaments overflowing with over

3,000 athletes from more than 50 countries, such as the World Championship, held annually

since 1996.

One century after Count Koma disembarked in Brazil, our Jiu-Jitsu today can be practiced from

Alaska to Mongolia, from Abu Dhabi to Japan.

The rest of this story continues to be written by each white-belt who steps into a Jiu-Jitsu gym

for the first time.

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A Brief History of the Gentle Art