History of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil – Part I

The history of jiu-jitsu in Brazil is commonly said to date back to the 1910s when the Gracie family first began training with Japanese martial artists. The family would go on to modify what they learned to suit their body types and fighting styles, thus giving the world Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

As many times as this general story has been told, it leaves out several crucial details and leaves unexamined the roots of jiu-jitsu in Japan. In this three-part post, we’ll explore some of these roots and some of the factors that influenced the early evolution of jiu-jitsu in Brazil. Part one will focus on how martial arts developed in Japan through the end of the nineteenth century. Part two will take a look at how Japanese martial arts were exported to the West and eventually arrived in Brazil. Part three will follow how the Gracie family modified what was a Japanese martial art to create modern jiu-jitsu. For a companion video, see the one below.

Jujutsu and Samurai

Jujutsu (a combination of “ju”, which can be translated as yielding or gentle, and “jutsu”, which is translated as either art or technical) was a generic term for a family of martial arts that came to prominence during the feudal ages of Japan. It was a self-defense system created by samurai and was employed when a samurai warrior lost his weapon and had to defeat another person in hand-to-hand combat. Moves included throws, joint locks, chokes, strikes, and pinning. For defense, warriors would learn how to fight against opponents who were both armed and unarmed.

From the second half of the sixteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century, jujutsu was widely practiced and taught systematically. Several schools were established, and fighters would typically dedicate themselves to learning and perfecting a specific style. However, as society became more modern and individuals needed self-defense rather than a means of defeating an opposing warrior on the battlefield, the focus of these styles became notably different. Rather than training to go up against a swordsman, the focus was more about simply keeping oneself safe in a more urban environment.

With the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 after leading the country for over 250 years, many people in Japan began to adopt more Western customs. During this period, known as the Meiji Restoration, jujutsu fell out of favor. As interest in learning martial arts waned, many teachers simply abandoned teaching for lack of students.

The Challenge Match

Though there was limited interest in learning traditional martial arts during this period, people still enjoyed watching fights. As a result, many former masters began working as prizefighters, and they traveled the country trying to make a name for themselves and prove that their style was best. This involved going up against others who claimed to be masters. It was very similar to the inspiration behind the first Ultimate Fighting Championship tournaments of the 1990s.

Initially, there were no rules and the fighting was brutal. In some cases, it was even deadly. Over time, the fighters began implementing a rudimentary rule system to help prevent serious injury. Within a few years, the rules had come to resemble the modern form of mixed martial arts where certain techniques are prohibited.

The Rise of Judo

Kano Jigoro participated in these kinds of matches while within Japan after mastering two different classical jujutsu styles, as well as techniques that he learned from catch watching. Jigoro’s emphasis was on throws, but he gave them his own flavor that eventually began to seem like a totally unique style. Additionally, he eliminated certain common jujutsu techniques that were deemed inefficient.

Jigoro’s system is best expressed in the axiom: “Maximum efficiency, minimum effort.” To this day, it remains one of the foundational principles of martial arts and is perhaps the most central idea guiding modern jiu-jitsu.

Another aspect of Jigoro’s teachings that may sound familiar to jiu-jitsu fighters is that the principles of efficiency that he espoused in the martial art he was developing could also be used in many aspects of life. As a result, it became Kano’s belief that the term “jujutsu” failed to capture the philosophical underpinnings of his new technique. The “jutsu” had too technical an implication. His replacement was “do”, which refers to a philosophical path or way. The resultant combination, “judo”, is meant to indicate that his martial art was a means of self-defense and a life philosophy. He even named his dojo Kodokan, meaning “a place to teach the path.”

As the next post will show, Jigoro’s judo would eventually lay the foundation for Brazilian jiu-jitsu.