Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (81 page)

.

Epilog
ue

1. North Americans were aware that jiu-jitsu had essentially died out, and had been revived, reformed, and renamed by Jigaro Kano (
The Times Dispatch
[Richmond, VA], April 2, 1905.

2. The “diploma” was actually a farewell letter [
sobetsunokotoba
,
送別の
詞
] written or signed by Masunaga Yokichi, the Nagasaki prefecture chief of police [Nagasaki-ken
keibuchou
,
長崎県警部
長
]. It was not a diploma of any kind, much less a jiu-jitsu diploma, and did not qualify him as a “professor”. It also was not awarded by the Japanese government. However, O’Brien really had learned jiu-jitsu for a period of about two years, between 1898 and 1900, according to the
sobetsunokotoba,
which was date
d
明治三十三年一月二十日 (January 20, 1900). To be fair to O’Brien, it was not he himself who claimed to have the diploma, but rather John F. McDonald who did. McDonald was associated with something called American College of Physical Culture and Jiu-jitsu. McDonald wrote the introduction to John J. O’Brien’s book
A Complete Course of Jiu-Jitsu and Physical Culture
. The
sobetsunokotoba
was reproduced on the title page, untranslated. Americans who were unable to read Japanese (i.e., almost everyone) undoubtedly assumed that it was what it was claimed to be, a “Jiu-Jitsu Diploma, received from the Governor of Nagasaki, Japan”. Coincidentally, American College of Physical Culture and Jiu-jitsu held the copyright to the book. There is also the possibility that O’Brien and John F. McDonald were the same individual.

3. O'Brien, J. (1902, March 10).
Letter from John J. O'Brien to George B. Cortelyou
. Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Manuscripts division. Library of Congress (www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org).

4.
Roosevelt began his lessons sometime between March 10 and March 19, 1902. On March 20, an article appeared in
The Evening World
titled “How the President is taught Jiu-Jitsu” featuring John. O’Brien.

5. Yamashita was accompanied by Tsunejiro Tomita and
Mitsuyo Maeda. All three had been teaching at Harvard University (
The San Francisco Call,
January 23, 1905, p. 6).

6. According to
The Evening Star
, September 16, 1904, p. 14, “The war between Japan and Russia has brought to notice what promises to be a most interesting and popular amusement all over the United States this coming winter, the wonderful art of jiu-jitsu, literally interpreted “the gentle art”, which until the present war brought it to general notice, has been jealously guarded as a national secret in Japan for more than two thousand years….before the war, by an imperial edict, the masters of jiu-jitsu were not allowed to teach it outside of Japan, and no foreigner has ever before received official instruction from one who has taken the highest degree in the science”.

7.
The Evening Star
, January 14, 1905, p. 8.

8. Advertisements for the Yabe School of Jiu-Jitsu, based in
Rochester, New York, and articles about and interviews with Yabe were written in a prose style that was remarkably similar to that of John. F. McDonald (see note 2 above).

9.
Black Belt
, July, 1998, p. 60.

10. This is not a new phenomenon. See Heather 2009, and Norris 1990, for many and varied examples.

.

Appendix 1

Fighters

1. Conde Koma and his troupes sometimes appeared on stage the same day they arrived in the location. Other times they were in town for as long as a month before their stage debut. Koma and the first troupe were in
São Paulo no later than Friday September 25, 1914, until at least October 20. Their precise movements are uncertain after that. They may have stayed in town or they may have ventured to nearby locations, together or separately, to perform or to attend to personal matters. They had already been in Ribeiro Preto, in São Paulo State, for at least several days by December 29, 1914. They were in Rio no later than Saturday April 3, 1915 until at least May 21. They were reported in Bello Horizonte in Minas, on June 6, and Juiz da Fóra in São Paulo State, on June 24. They were back in Rio by July 15. They left for Recife on August 3, traveling by ship, stopping off along the way, arriving on August 26. They closed out their show in Recife on September 6. They were in Belém do Pará from November 18, 1915 or earlier, until possibly as late as December 2, 1915. They were in São Luiz (in Maranhão) on December 7, and in Manaus by January 16, 1916. (According to Souza (2010, p. 58) the troupe was in Manaus on December 18, 1915.)

2. The types of fights the jiu-jitsu representatives participated in included exhibition matches, stage shows, circus acts, officially sanctioned amateur tournaments, professional matches, and preliminary amateur matches in professional shows. Some fights were straight jiu-jitsu, some were straight luta livre, some were mixed grappling styles, some were mixed grappling versus striking, and some were vale tudo (everything permitted). On a few occasions the jiu-jitsu representative confronted a representative of a second style, in a match according to rules of a third style, for example a jiu-jitsu man and a luta romana man in a boxing match, or a jiu-jitsu man and a capoeira in a catch match. Non-jiu-jitsu representatives occasionally took part in straight jiu-jitsu matches (they are listed in the “Rivals” section). Consult appropriate chapter and appendices for additional information.

3.
Rivals, on any given occasion (with a few exceptions), represented either grappling (luta romana, luta livre, catch) or striking (capoeiragem, boxing), or both (vale tudo). The exceptions were those who had no training or ring experience. Refer to main text for details.
Dates are years during which the individual worked/fought with a jiu-jitsu representative, not his overall career.

4. Toon was scheduled to meet George Gracie
January 5, 1930.

5. Gabriel (possibly Gabriel Pena) was scheduled to meet George Gracie
January 19, 1930.

6. Many fighters also refereed fights.

7.
A jiu-jitsu academy was any place where people taught, learned, and trained jiu-jitsu. The difference between a club and an academy was one of degree. Clubs sometimes had highly qualified instructors, sometimes not. The primary difference was the extensiveness of the schedule as permitted by having access to a definite and suitably equipped facility for a fixed period of time. Some academies were located within sports clubs, some in military installations, some in hotels, theaters, and office buildings, some in private residences. The names below are not necessarily the official names of any club or academy. Most were simply “Academia de Jiu-Jitsu”, or in the case of clubs, were simply options in the club’s schedule of activities. In case the academy was announced as a “new school of jiu-jitsu” [
nova escola de jiu-jitsu
] without a name, it is listed below simply as “Escola de Jiu-Jitsu”.

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Appendix 2

Fights

1. With a few exceptions, the matches listed were public fights with pre-set rules in front of a paying audience.Some matches were scheduled as preliminaries to main events, and the main event was reported but preliminaries were not. Demonstrations of self-defense techniques are not included. Fighters’ names are written as they were reported (so a few appear with multiple spellings of their names. In a few cases, it is not certain who the individual was. Refer to main text for detail.

2. Koma and Satake had at least one meeting prior to this, between September 25 and October 2.

3. Probably May 11.

4. Date was either May 17 or May 18.

5. One ad said Shimuzu vs. Okura, another said Shimizu vs. Conde Koma.

6. Oliveira was limited to self-defense only. (See text for discussion).

7. According to Cairus 2010, p. 34, citing
O Tempo
28-12-15, a fight was scheduled for December at the Polytheama in Manaus.

8. According to
A Batalha
23-3-33.

9. Both 1916 fights with Leconte, according to Cairus 2011, citing
O Tempo
, and
Folha do Norte
.

10. According to Cairus 2010, citing
Folha do Norte
9-7-29;

11. According to Cairus 2010, citing
Folha do Norte
12-7-20.

12. Francisco and Ritter were probably the same individual, namely Francisco Ritter.

13. This was rematch of a previous Omori vs Dudú meeting that ended in a draw after 3 hours. Other information is lacking.

14. This was a rematch of a fight that ended in a draw.

15. Possibly Eberle Haubert.

16. Possibly Antonio Maia.

17. Lutador Lusitano refers to an unspecified Portuguese fighter.

18 . Stack was probably Luiz Stock.

19. This was a return match, meaning they had met at least once previously.

20. Jin Assahira
was probably Jun Assahama.

21. According to
Mundo Esportivo
(14-3-47), Yano fought and defeated Gattoni, some time just previous to March 12.

22. Probable date.

23. No professional jiu-jitsu fights were reported in 1949.

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Appendix 3

Lineages

1. [“
Seu estilo ao lutar era agressivo―usava chutes e soccos para lever o adversario ao solo, onde rapidamente o finalizava com uma chave ou um estrangulamento
”] (Gracie 2008, p. 37).

2
. According to Nunes (2011, p. 62) Yano died in Belo Horizonte sometime in the 1980’s. Regrettably the sources Nunes cites do not seem to provide the relevant information about Yano.

3
. In addition to the above, Carlos Gracie claimed to have learned from Conde Koma. He claim was doubted by journalists who cared enough to have an opinion, and was denied by Koma’s student Donato Pires dos Reis. Oswaldo Gracie also claimed, although not often, to have learned directly from Conde Koma. Koma taught for many years in Belém. There is at least one photograph of him with seven students wearing modern judo
gi
s. A fact easily forgotten is that a Conde Koma lineage was not of any particular value until Rorion Gracie made it the starting point of his story in 1988. Before that, it is likely that anyone descending from Conde Koma would have sought affiliation within the judo community.

4
. Takeo Yano spent some time with Conde Koma in Belém and was described as a “
discipulo
” implying that he was student of sorts. Yano had already graduated at the 3-dan level (after only one year) from the Kodokan before coming to Brazil [“
gradou-se, em doze mezes, com a titulo de faixa preta, 3.
0
grau
”] (
Correio Paulistano
6-10-39).

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Appendix 4

Glossary

1. “A few years ago luta livre became increasingly rare and the number of fans shrank. But just when it seemed that the sport was about to completely disappear, something new suddenly happened and the sport achieved a surprising level of popularity. “Catch-as-catch-can” in
North America, where this report was filed, became for a time as successful at the box-office as boxing. Why? Because the fans, consciously or not, responded to the theatrical aspects of the shows more than the sports aspects.” [“
A poucos annos atrás de raro em raro se realizava um espectaculo de luta livre. E era diminuta a frequencia, pois tae, encontros contavem, tambem, com um reduzido numero de aficionados. Mas de repente, quando se previa o seu complete desappraecimento, esse sport tomou um impulse desconcertante, ganhando uma surprehendente popularidade. Na America do Norte, donde procede a presente reportagem, a renda de bilheteria apurada nas exhibições de “catch-as-catch-can” igualava-se, durante algum tempo, com os espectaculos de box. E por que? Ė que a assistencia, parte conscientemente e outra não, passou a applaudir uma representação theatral, ao invés de competição sportiva
.”] (
O Globo Sportiva
26-8-39, p. 10).

2.
Esporte Illustrado
8-12-49, p. 18; 15-12-49, pp. 17-18.

3. On Thursday April 7, 1949, the semi-finals of the Campeonato Carioca de Luta Livre Olimpica were held (
seven matches), as the preliminary segment in a “mixed show” [
Espectaculo Misto
] at Estadio Carioca on avenida Passos that featured a catch match between Peruano and Az de Ouro, a “catch versus capoeira” match between Lobo and Garrido, and a capoeira match between Perez and Rudolph Hermanny [who later became a well-known judoka]. The capoeiristas represented different regional styles, Perez the Bahia style of mestre Bimba, Hermanny the Carioca style of Sinhôzinho (
Diario Carioca
7-4-49). The Campeonato Carioca de Luta Livre Olimpica was intended as a prelude to the Campeonato Brasileiro de Luta Livre Olimpica, to take place between July and December, 1949.