History - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Origins and Development

Jiu-Jitsu itself was developed in Japan during the Feudal period. It was originally an art designed for warfare, but after the abolition of the Feudal system in Japan, certain modifications were needed to be made to the art in order to make it suitable for practice. During Feudal times, Jiu-Jitsu was also known as Yawara, Hakuda, Kogusoko, and an assortment of other names. The earliest recorded use of the word "Jiu-Jitsu" happens in 1532 and is coined by the Takenouchi Ryu (school). The history of the art during this time is uncertain because teachers kept everything secret to give their art a feeling of importance and then would change the stories of their art to suit their own needs. After the Feudal period in Japan ended and Jiu-Jitsu was no longer needed on the battlefield, a way to practice the art realistically was needed, which is why Jigoro Kano (1860--1938), a practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu, developed his own system of Jiu-Jitsu in the late 1800's, called Judo. Judo was helpful because it allowed practitioners the ability to try the art safely and realistically at the same time. The most important contribution Judo made to the practice of "Jiu-Jitsu" was the concept of Rondori. Rondori was a form of sparing and contained a set of sportive rules that made practice safe, yet realistic. Because of the sportive outlet, students of Jiu-Jitsu from Kano's school were able to practice more frequently due to the fact that they were not always recovering from injuries. After a match-up between older styles of Jiu-Jitsu and Judo at the Tokyo police headquarters, Judo was named the national martial art in Japan. It was the official art used by law enforcement in the late 1800's, and continues to be popular to this day. During World War II, many U.S. soldiers were exposed to the art of Judo and brought it back to America with them. Jigoro Kano was the founder of Judo, however, Judo is simply a style of Jiu-Jitsu and not a separate martial art. Kano was not the first to use the name Judo, the Jiu-Jitsu schools he studied at, which would be the source of much of his Judo's techniques had used the phrase before he made it famous in the late 1800's. Kano knew that if they were going to continue challenging other Jiu-Jitsu schools, they needed a full range of ground fighting techniques. Thus with friends of other Jiu-Jitsu systems, among them being Fusen Ryu practitioners, Kano formulated the Ne Waza (ground techniques) of Kodokan Judo which included three divisions: Katame Waza (joint locking techniques), Shime Waza (choking techniques), and Osae Waza (holding techniques). This all occured shortly before Judo arriveed in Brazil, and serves as an excellent suggestion as to why Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu contains a higher percentage of techniques on the ground than most styles of Jiu-Jitsu or Judo. Thus, we find ourselves faced with the impending development of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil.

Modern Jiu Jitsu Worldwide

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, in Japan, many different variations of the original Jui-Jitsu took shape, including Karate, Aikido, and Judo. But these arts were missing essential pieces of what the complete art of Jui-Jitsu originally held. Soon the day of the Samurai came to an end, the gun replaced the sword, and new sportive ways to practice martial arts were developed.
This lack of reality created years of confusion in the martial arts community, a confusion that the legendary Bruce Lee would later refer to as the 'classical mess'. The 'sport arts', such as Judo and Kendo were wonderful in the way of offering their practitioners a safe way to realistically train the techniques of their system, but often limited their practitioners with too many rules to maintain effectiveness as a combative style. The more traditional combat schools were simply practicing techniques no longer suitable for modern day combat, and with no way to safely test them, practicing these arts became like "swimming without water".
It wasn't until the sport art of Judo and the combat art of Jui-Jitsu were introduced to the Gracie family in Brazil that the art of Jiu-Jitsu would be brought to life again. Japanese Jiu-Jitsu was introduced to the Gracie family in Brazil (c 1915) by Esai Maeda, who is also known as Conde Koma. This name came about when Maeda was in Spain (1908). Having some financial troubles, Maeda used the Japanese verb "komaru", meaning to be in trouble, to describe himself. Maeda decided this didn't sound right, so he dropped the last syllable and changed it to "koma." The word "conde" comes from the Spanish language, meaning "Count." Later in his life, Maeda would be given the Brazilian title of "Conte Comte," or Count Combat. Maeda was a champion of Judo and a direct student of its founder, Jigoro Kano, at the Kodokan in Japan. He was born in 1878, and became a student of Judo in 1897. In 1904 Maeda was given the opportunity to travel to the United States with one of his teachers, Tsunejiro Tomita. While in the U.S. they demonstrated the art of Judo for Theodore Roosevelt at the White House, and for cadets at the West Point Military Academy Maeda eventually parted ways with Tomita, and settled in Brazil. Maeda was staying in Sao Palo City to help establish a Japanese Immigration colony. At this time Brazil held the largest population of Japanese people outside Japan. He was aided in Brazil by Gastao Gracie, a Brazilian of Scottish decent, who's first experience with Jui-Jitsu was most likely through managing an Italian boxer named Alfredi Leconti, who fought a friend of Maeda in November of 1916. For some time in Japan, Judo and Jui-Jitsu were almost synonymous. Judo was known as Kano's Jui-Jitsu. Regardless, this answers the question, "why do they call it Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and not Brazilian Judo?" Because they were essentially the same thing at the time, remember, the Gracie family was learning Jui-Jitsu and Judo while Kano was still struggling to show the difference between the two and popularize his art. In the early 1900's there was very little difference between the two. In fact, Judo was merely a collection of Jui-Jitsu styles, whose strongest points were put together to make what then became Judo. The Gracie family was introduced to Judo at a time when the Kodokan had recently suffered a great defeat to the grappling style of the Fusen Ryu. This can be compared to the Ultimate Fighting Championship of the early 1990's, when most martial artists were attempting to fight Royce Gracie standing. They would all eventually find themselves on the ground, where they were at a loss as to what to do. Consequently, grappling became very popular over the next ten years and many styles began to incorporate grappling techniques into their curriculum. Royce Gracie was simply doing what had already been done in the early 1900's by the Fusen Ryu to Judo practitioners of the Kodokan, so we can easily draw the conclusion from the experience in our own time that when Meada arrived in Brazil, he was a student of a Kodokan that was adding "new" grappling techniques to its system. To show gratitude to Gracie for his help in the colonization, Maeda taught Gastao's son Carlos the basic techniques of Jui-Jitsu. Carlos Gracie then taught his brothers Oswaldo, Jorge, Gastao, and Helio. In 1925 the brothers opened their first school, and Jui-Jitsu was cultivated into an effective sport known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. What made this version of Jui-Jitsu more alive was the constant exposure of its practitioners to Rondori. Between their own schools, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players would compete in a sportive way to keep the techniques of their art sharp. The Gracie family would issue a challenge to all others to fight without rules. In these no rules or 'vale tudo' fights, the Gracie family and their students would evaluate the techniques of their fighting art. Through the last fifty years, many Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools have opened and broken away from the original members of the Gracie family, making subtle differences in styles within Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Machado Jiu-Jitsu, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are all different schools of the same art.. The formal teaching of Jiu-Jitsu to Brazilians by the Gracie family began in 1940 when Helio opened an academy in Rio. Over the next 18 years, if you wanted to learn Jiu-Jitsu from the Gracie family in Brazil, you had a choice of four academies, all of which were located in Rio. After this time the Gracie Family began the spread the word of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu through northern America and this leads us to the present day. By November of 1993, most of the world would get their first look at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ... it wasn't pretty. For years the world had been plagued by the mystique and misconception created by Hollywood. To make a long and over-told story short, Royce Grace, a thin Brazilian, was pitted against champions of Kung Fu, Karate, Boxing, Kickboxing, Wrestling and a variety of other martial arts in a contest called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Unlike the American No Holes Barred contests of today, Royce had to fight up to 4 times in each tournament. There were no weight classes and Royce was usually the lightest, sometimes being outweighed by 80 lbs. or more. There were very few rules: no eye gouging, no biting, and no time limits. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu had entered the world stage. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a progressive style of Jui-Jitsu; once a technique is developed and used in competition, other Jiu-Jitsu players begin to design counters to that technique, and counters to those counters, which allows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to evolve freely. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players do not prepare for the untrained opponent; they assume that their opponent may be more technical.