Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (24 page)

Jiu-jitsu according to Irving Hancock was again in the news.
Diario de Noticias
published a two-part article by Fernando de Azevedo explaining the meaning and history of jiu-jitsu, Sunday, June 5, 1932, and Sunday June 12, 1932. It was replete with misconceptions, such as, to mention two, that all Japanese people, even geishas, trained jiu-jitsu, and that jiu-jitsu training was the reason Japan’s military defeated Czarist Russia
.
The article featured a picture of Geo Omori. Brazilians seemed to be learning about jiu-jitsu through the interpretations of (mostly) North American popularizers. Perhaps for this reason, a short time later, Geo Omori himself decided to write his own series of articles explaining what jiu-jitsu was.

In theory, the fight business in
Rio was regulated by the Boxing Commission [
Comissão de Box
; also referred to as
Comissão de Pugilismo
). The function of the commission, according to Chief of Police João Alberto, was to control all
espectaculos
[shows] of boxing, luta romana, luta livre, jiu-jitsu, and capoeiragem in “
terra carioca
” [Rio]. The effectiveness of the regulation depended on the qualities of the people who were appointed to the commission. The previous commission had been dissolved due the incompetence and dishonesty of its members, who brought ridicule into the sport which became populated by individuals with fictitious records [“
classe de individuous exploradores que aqui aportam com carteis verdadeiramente ficticios
”]. A new Boxing Commission was appointed, consisting of Ataliba Correa Dutra (president); Silvio Neto Machado (secretary); Leopoldo del Vale (treasurer); Inacio Loyola Daher (technical director); and Alberto Farini and Hugo Viana Marques (doctors). Tenorio de Albuquerque was also appointed due to his qualifications as director of the boxing section of the Fluminense F. Clube.
61

In July Club Policial organized a rematch between Brazilan middleweight champion Tobias Bianna and Virgolino de Oliveira in Nictheroy. In addition to three other 10
- round boxing fights, and one 5-round bout, there would be jiu-jitsu: A demonstration by the Gracie brothers, and an “academic match” [
match academico
] between Geo Omori and Namiki.
62

Jiu-Jitsu versus
Luta Romana

Former luta romana wrestler Youssuf had challenged Omori in March. Preparations had proceded smoothly and the two men were scheduled to meet July 9 at Colyseu Internacional. In addition, Mineyoshi Fukushima (the jiu-jitsu man who also trained capoeiragem) would fight Saburo Senda in a 5
-round jiu-jitsu match.
63
However, Omori suffered a serious accident while training with Namiki, it was reported.
64
The injury was not so serious after all, because the fight was re-scheduled for Saturday July 16.
65

The main event, Omori versus Youssuf, was a no time limit luta livre contest, to be decided, like most fights, by “
desistencia ou perda dos sentidos
” [give up or KO]. In addition to Mineyoshi versus Saburo, Dudú (88 kilos) faced Adam Meyer (93 kilos), Tavares Crespo (62 kilos) met Alvaro da Cunha (66.2 kilos), and Mauricio Levy of France (68 kilos) confronted Brazilian Roberto Coelho (66 kilos) in luta livre matches.
66

Despite a 39 kilo weight advantage (105 kilos to 66 kilos), Youssouf was out of his league with the Japanese jiu-jitsu master. After three rounds of total domination, Omori put Yossouf away in the 3
rd
round by “
gravata americana
”.
67
In the supporting fights, Crespo won in the 3
rd
round with a “spine press”[
pressão da espinha
], Dudú won by “trachea choke” [
chave de estrangulamento na trachea
] in 20 seconds, and Mauricio Levy defeated Roberto Coelho by “kidney scissors” [
thezouras de rin
s]. Mineyoshi and Saburo, drew after five rounds of exciting action [
apos 5 rounds bem movimentados e empolgantes empataram
].
68

Short Memory

The public had a short memory. In July columnist Jose Brigado felt that it was necessary to remind readers that the Gracies did not introduce jiu-jitsu to Brazil. Long before them, he wrote, there were Conde Koma and Sada Miako [
sic
] and others, among whom he cited Omori, Namiki, Saburo, Mineyoshi, and Fukushima. He specifically also mentioned Donato Pires dos Reis. Donato was the man, (he wrote) who some people swore was the teacher of the Gracie brothers.
69

Brigado neglected to mention Mario Aleixo. Although Aleixo had
verifiably been teaching jiu-jitsu in Rio, even before Conde Koma, his reputation didn’t survive his demolition at the hands of George Gracie the year before. Aleixo continued to teach physical education, but he was never mentioned again as an authority on either jiu-jitsu or capoeiragem.

Café Mouisco

In July an incident allegedly took place at Café Mouisco involving Carlos Gracie and Manoel Rufino dos Santos. Carlos was at the café and had put his hat on a chair. Rufino Santos came in later and without noticing the hat, sat on it. The following conversation between a by-stander and Rufino was overheard:

Bystander: “
Acho conveniente que o senhor assigne immediamente esta apolice de seguro contra accidentes
” [I think you should immediately take out accident insurance].

Rufino Santos: “
Por que
?” [Why?].

Bystander: “
Porque o senhor está sentado sobre o chapéo do campeão de jiu-jitsu, Carlos Gracie
” [Because you are sitting on the hat of the jiu-jitsu champion Carlos Gracie].

Rufino Santos: “
Não se impressione. Offerecá a apolice ao dono do chapéo, que esta menos seguro do que eu
…” [I don’t care. The owner of the hat should take out a policy. He needs it more than me].
70

Rufino Santos must have been baffled by the description of Carlos’ as a jiu-jitsu “champion”. Carlos’ only documented public fight was the 1931 debacle with Rufino Santos, which Gracie lost. It was a luta livre fight. There is no record of him participating in a jiu-jitsu fight other than the 1929 and 1930 exhibitions with Geo Omori, which he also did not win.
71
The only man that Carlos Gracie faced in a fight, a submission grappling contest, defeated him, and that man was Maneol Rufino dos Santos himself.

It might have seemed mysterious to
Rufino Santos why he would need accident insurance for having accidently sat on Carlos’ hat (if it was an accident). Future events revealed that the advice was probably sound. Rufino Santos would have done well to take out a policy.

The fact that Rufino continually reminded him of his weak competit
ion record must have annoyed Carlos―apparently enough to plan and conduct a criminal assault on him that earned him (Carlos) and two of his brothers sizeable prison terms (although they were eventually pardoned).

Omori was not merely the king of the hill who everyone wanted a piece of. He issued his own challenges and no doubt for the same publicity-seeking reasons. For example, he challenged Rufino Santos, who, although already retired, returned the challenge. Both were apparently ready to “measures forces”
. It was typical of most challenges in that nothing came of it.
72

Beginning in July and continuing in August, Omori, or a ghost-writer, contributed a series of newspaper articles explaining to his legions of fans exactly what jiu-jitsu really was, from the point of view of an authentic master and native of the land of its origin. Omori also had
his new academy to advertise, at rua Conde de Irajá, n 142 in Botafogo.
73

A Short History of
“Jiu-Jitsu”

The four
-part series was called “A Short History of Jiu-jitsu” [“
Um Pouco de Historia do ‘Jiu-Jitsu
’”] and appeared in
Diario de Noticias
Sunday July 24, Wednesday August 3, Tuesday August 23, and Wednesday August 31, 1932.

In
Part 1 Omori explained that jiu-jitsu evolved from
yawara
and
taijutsu
over a 500 year period. A jiu-jitsu stylist named Kano Jigaro adapted techniques primarily from the schools or styles (
ryu
) of Hansuke Nakamura (
Shibukawa ryu
), Hikosuke Tozuka (
Youshin ryu
), Mataemon Isso (
Shinyou ryu
), and Tsunehei Iikubo (
Kitou ryu
). Kano molded them into what became known as “judo” (specifically Kodokan judo).
74

In
Part 2 Omori emphasized that judo was the new name for Kano’s system of jiu-jitsu [
Noutras éras, o “jiu-jitsu” chamava-se “jiu-dou”….O jiu-jitsu passou a chamar ‘ju do
’] and elaborated Kano’s role in shaping jiu-jitsu into a “way” [
caminho
]. He explained the history of the Kodokwan, the “sacred temple of jiu-jitsu” [
templo sagrado do jiu-jitsu
]. He described “Maeda de Koma” [Conde Koma] as a “
grande mestre de jiu-jitsu
.” He described other great fighters and teachers such as Maeda’s own teacher Sakujiro Yokoyama (aka
O Diabo Yokoyama
), Yoshiake Yamashita, Tsunejiro Tomita, Shigoro Baba, Hajime Issogai, Hideiti Nagaoka, and Shirou Saigo.

To the right of this article were two others, promoting Omori’s upcoming luta livre match with Manoel Fernandes, Saturday August 6. Fernandes had just come off a victory over Dudú, and was confident that he would beat Omori. Omori was equally confident that he would prevail. One thing was certain, the article said, was that the fight would extremely violent and one of the closest in recent history [“
uma das pelejas mais renhidas dos nossos annaes sportivos
”].
75

In Part 3 Om
ori described the rank system invented by Kano (or rather borrowed from Japanese chess as way of handicapping practitioners for contests of skill). The belts, in particular the black belt (
faixa negra
, or
faixa preta
) was always mentioned in fight publicity as a way to legitimize a fighter who might otherwise be unknown. The public wanted to know the significance of these mysterious items of clothing.

Jiu-jItsu is divided into ten categories with ten belts, Omori explained. He described the colors of the belts, and named the people who held each of the higher “
categorias
“ [
dan
ranks]. The 10
th
rank was Kano. At 9
th
rank were Yamashita, Isogai, and Nagaoka. At 8
th
rank were Iidzuka, Samura,
76
and Mifune. At 7
th
rank
were
Tomita, Miyakawa, and Tabata. One-hundred and fifty-five people held the 6
th
rank. In the 7
th
through 9
th
ranks professors used belts of white and red, but almost all of them prefer to wear simple black belts. In the ranks 1-5, it suffices to say there there were 30,000 people (in 1932, according to Omori).

Omori discussed 8
-
dan
Sakujiro Yokoyama in more detail. He was one of the the most complete of Kano’s students, he was the “master of masters.” He died far from home in 1912. He had four outstanding students known as
shi-teunou
” [
Quatro Reis,
or “The Four Kings
”
]. They were Ito [Ito Tokugoro], Ono [Ono Akitaro] Tatake [
sic
, Satake], and Maeda de Koma [Maeda Mitsuyo]. The best known in Brazil is Maeda. Anyone who knows him can get an idea how great Sakujiro was. Ito taught American president Theodore Roosevelt, Omori added.

Many people asked Omori who was the best fighter in
Japan? [
o melhor lutador de jiu-jitsu do Japão
]. The best was, according to Omori, Toku Sampou, 6-
dan
. He was the “star of stars” [
o astro dos astros
]. Sampou and Omori were both students of Ito, and trained together many times.
77

In January of 1931, in
Hibia Park, in Tokyo, Toku Sampou agreed to fight seven opponents, three 3-
dan
s, two 4-
dan
s, and two 5-
dan
s, all of them strong fighters. His friends did not doubt his capability to beat seven men, but feared that he might be betrayed by age, because he was around 50 years old. They advised him to take on just one opponent, rather than seven. But he insisted. He easily defeated all of them.

The articles were at least partly intended to promote interest in jiu-jitsu fights and lessons, but were notable for the omission of the sort of hyperbole that marked the writings of Western popularizers such as John O’Brien and Irving Hancock. Looking at them from the perspective of 201
4, they were remarkably accurate and even-handed, very much in keeping with the Kodokan philosophy and in that sense quite distinct from the marketing messages of Carlos Gracie and other local martial arts entrepeneurs.