A History of Jiu Jitsu: Part Three

Part Three: Brazilain Jiu Jitsu

The Samurai battlefield art known as Jujitsu developed over hundreds of years of warfare was in just a few short years it was transformed into the more precise art of Judo by the great master Kanō Jigorō. (see previous article)

Judo replaced Jujitsu as Japan’s preferred martial art in the end of the 1800s, and as Japan reopened its borders, Japanese people began to explore the world. Kanō Jigorō’s school of Judo, also known as Kano Jiu Jitsu, selected its best students and sent them aboard to share their new martial art with the world.

One of those students was Mitsuyo Maeda, who traveled across Europe demonstrating Judo before he arrived in Brazil in November of 1914. Maeda was looking to establish a school in Brazil and when he arrived he met a local businessman, Gastão Gracie, who helped Maeda get established in Brazil.

Gastao’s son’s Carlos and Helio Gracie became acutely interested in Maeda and his teachings and began studying under him. Carlos and Helio were both small and physically weak as teenagers, Helio was often too sick to actually practice and learned most of his techniques in his early days by watching his brother.

Together the two brothers adjusted what they learned to suit their somewhat inferior physical skills. They preferred to get any fight or sparring match to the ground quickly, where they felt they could more easily compensate for their lack of size and strength. On the ground they focused on using their agility to gain positions of superior leverage, to over come opponents with greater size and strength.

As Helio matured, he began to test their new style against other styles of fighting, and during the early 1930s Helio submitted or drew with opponents of vastly superior physical abilities. But it was the 1955 match with legendary Judoka Masahiko Kimura that made Helio a celebrity.

Kimura held a significant weight advantage over Helio and boasted before hand that if Helio last three minutes, Kimura himself would declare Helio the victor. In the 13th minute of the match, Kimura secured a reverse ude garami (or Kimura) shoulder lock and when Helio refused to tap, Kimura broke his arm. Carlos Gracie stepped in and forfeited the match on behalf of Helio, but Kimura left extremely impressed with Helio and his style of Jiu Jitsu.

Papers all around Brazil declared the match a moral victory of Helio and held him up as a national icon. Together with his brother Carlos, the Brazilian style of Kano Jiu-Jitsu was growing in popularity. It was also trending in a very different direction than the Japanese Judo.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as it being called, was favored ground work and submissions, where as Judo favored standing grappling and throws. As sport Brazilian Jiu Jitsu began to emerge, the rules emerged as very different from those of sport judo.

In sport, Judo fighters are award points for throws and pins and fights can only remain on the ground for so long before the referee will stand the Judoka’s back up. In competitive Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the match is often standing for only a few seconds and there are no pins in Jiu Jitsu, so the focus is on gaining superior positions and submissions. The result was a total divergence of the two arts. Judokas are experts at standing grappling and throws while Jiu Jitsu players are masters of ground fighting and submissions.

Helio’s match with Kimura brought Jiu Jitsu to the main stream in Brazil and the competitive aspect of the sport exploded and it was the next generation of Gracies that would dominate.

Names Carlos Gracie Jr, Rolls, Royce, Renzo, and Royler Gracie would become house hold names of any family with a Jiu Jitsu player in them. Rival schools emerged all over Brazil founded either by a Gracie or students of a Gracie.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was growing rapidly, but to make it a truly global martial art, the Gracie family had to find away to bring it to the attention of the American public...

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