Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (10 page)

On July 1,
O Paiz
informed readers that the troupe would be making its first appearance that day (Thursday July 1) at the Polytheama in Juiz de Fora. Conde Koma’s offer of 5,000 francs to anyone who could beat him, regardless of size or weight, was still good.
53

Conde Koma and the troupe were back in
Rio by July 15. They performed at the Circo Spinelli, at rua Figueira de Mello, n. 11. They stayed at least three days, Thursday July 15 through Saturday July 17.
54

The troupe may have been resting or engaging in private teaching. The
Rio de Janeiro chief of police, Dr. Aurelino Leal, decided officially that jiu-jitsu would be taught to the civil guards and that Conde de Koma would in charge.
55

Perhaps Koma’s role was merely
titular, a situation that was not unknown in Brazil (or many other places), such that while he was in charge of the lessons, he did not necessarily teach them, and didn’t (necessarily) even need to be in Rio, which appears to have been the case because soon after Dr. Leal’s announcement was made public, a ship (the Itapama) left Rio (on Tuesday August 3, 1915) headed for Recife and other destinations [
escalas
]. Among its passengers were five Japanese jiu-jitsu fighters (and one other Japanese person). They were identified as Okura, Satake, Raku, Sekinus, Ito, and C. Koma.
56

Koma and the troupe next appeared at Theatro Moderno in
Recife, Pernambuco. They arrived on Friday August 26, on board the paquete Pará. Given the dates of departure from Rio and arrival in Recife, they obviously stopped along the way, no doubt in Salvador and probably other coastal cities. They had barely left the ship when Koma was challenged by African luta romana champion Alfredo Bowler. Bowler’s objective was not to test himself or defend the national game or any other such thing. He had no intention of trying to beat the Japanese master at his own game. He just wanted the 500 francos that he could win by not being beaten himself.
57

The troupe made their debut that same day (Sunday August 26). The champion of
New York (Satake) met the champion of Mexico (Raku). After an intensely violent 12-minute struggle, Satake defeated Raku. The next day on the way to greet the local press corps, Koma accepted Bowler’s challenge.
58

On Sunday August 29, the troupe performed two shows. The first was an afternoon matinee, especially for children [
dedicada as creancas
]. The troupe promised a “
match de esgrima japoneza
” [Japanese fencing] the likes of which had never been seen in Recife. In the evening
soiree
show, Satake would fight “Laku” [Raku] in a “match de lucta jiu-jitsu”.
59

On Monday August 30, Akiyama, champion of
Argentina was scheduled to fight Okura, formerly professor of the naval school of Chile. The following day, Raku would fight an amateur challenger [
distincto amador
].
60

On Monday August 30, Koma was scheduled to have his encounter with Alfredo Bowser.
61

News came from
Argentina that Akiyama would leave soon for Brazil and intended to spend time in São Paulo.
62
Akiyama had been a member of the São Paulo troupe but dropped out by the time they arrived in Rio. Evidently he had gone to Argentina. It is unclear how accurate this report was since Akiyama ostensibly had already fought Okura in Chile in Recife. Perhaps a different troupe member fought Okura, using his name. Reports tended to confuse who was who and where they were champions of. Possibly the public didn’t care, as long as they were champions of somewhere. Spelling of names was even more inconsistent.

On Wednseday September 1 Satake was scheduled to meet Okura at the Theatro Moderno.
63

On Saturday
September 4, 1915 it was announced that on Monday September 6 Okura would confront a student of Conde Koma named Bianor de Oliveira. Oliveira was also the “director of the Gymnasio Brazileiro in Pernambuco. Oliveira emphasized that his role was defensive only [
limitar-se-á a fazer sua defesa pessoal
].
64

On
September 6, 1915 Satake was slated to meet Akiyama in a 5 round lucta de jiu-jitsu at Theatro Moderno. The same day, the departure of the troupe [
despedida da Troupe
] was announced.
65

It is unclear where they went next but several articles in November and December referred to Koma in Belém do Pará. He was appearing at various theaters in Belém, one being the Bar Paraense.

Some people were impressed. Others, apparently capoeiragem adepts, were skeptical. They felt that the Japanese fighters were only taking on naïve “hillbillies” [
caipiras
], and unskilled dock-workers [
ingenuos estivedores
], but avoiding real capoeiras. If the Japanese dared to confront a real capoeira [
capoeira de verdade
], they believed, everyone would see that jiu-jitsu was clearly inferior to Brazilian capoeira [
o jiu-jitsu é manifestamente inferior á capoeira nacional
].
66

Maybe Koma need a break. Twenty years at the same game is a long time. Hillbillies and stevedores may not have been skilled at capoeiragem (or capoeira, as it was increasingly called), but they were, obviously, big, strong, and agile. That could take a toll on an aging jiu-jitsu fighter (he was born in 1878). But he was not idle. He fought and defeated the luta livre expert Alfredo Leconte in Pará in 1915, by 14
th
round disqualification, according to later reports.
67

North American cowboy Hercules Jack Hillson
68
had been performing with his colleagues at the Theatro Cinema Palace in São Luiz, in the state of Maranhão, since at least Monday November 29.
69
On December 3, 1915 it was announced that the following Monday a troupe of Japanese was expected to arrive in Pará with variety artists, offering jiu-jitsu matches.
70
The troupe debuted Tuesday December 7, 1915 at Theatro Cinema Palace.
As usual, Koma and his troupe offered 5,000 francs to anyone who could beat any one of them and 500 francs to any amateur who could last 15 minutes.
71

The troupe was one segment of a full night of entertainment. They followed strongman Jack Hillson, North American comedian Tony Wine, comic acrobats Les Wenhells, and North American song and dance duet, Dany & May. Orchestra performances were interspersed between acts.

They appeared the next day as well.
72
There were two shows per day, the first starting at 7:30 [
Havea duas sessões, sendo a primeria as 7 1/2 horas
]. First-class admission was 1,000, second class was 300 (unit of currency was not specified but the
milreis
was used at the time). Obviously well-rehearsed, the show was structured as shown below.

1. Conde Koma and the troupe are introduced [
Apresentação da conde Koma e sua troupe
].

2. Conde Koma invites spectators to challenge him [
Conde Koma convida os espectadores que com elle quizerem luctar
].

3. Demonstration of self-defense techniques [
Demonstração dos Golpes para defesa pessoal
].

Specifically,

*Defense against punch [
agressão a socco
]

*Defense against a knife [
agressão a faca
]

*Defense against a stick [
agressão a pao
]

*Defense against choke with hands [
estraugulamento
[sic]
prisão das mãos
]

*Defense against being grabbed around the waist [
colhido pela cintura
]

*Defense against [
agressão dos apaches
]

*Defense against being punched by surprise from behind [
ataque a box, surpreendido pela retaguarda
]

*Defense against various knife attacks [
diversas agressões a faca
]

4. Demonstration of techniques for winning a jiu-jitsu match [
Demonstração dos golpes para se ser vencedor de uma luta do jiu-jitsu
].

5. Prohibited techniques in a jiu-jitsu match [
Golpes prohibidos na lucta do jiu-jitsu
].

After the above presentation, sample jiu-jitsu matches were performed. In the first match in the first show, Raku faced Satake. In the second session,
Shimizu squared off with Okura.
73

On Wednesday December 8, Shimizu faced Okura in the first session, and Conde Koma faced Raku in the second.
74
Between the first and second sessions, a
creoulo
named Leonel Silva challenged Raku, who accepted.
75

The result of Raku versus Silva was not revealed in the next day’s news. But Conde Koma was slated to face the champion of
Argentina, Schmitz [Shimuzu] that day (December 10). “As these are the two greatest Japanese jiu-jitsu men, it is expected to be a close contest”, it was predicted.
76
Clearly, it was more urgent to inform people about the match before rather than after it happened.

As far as we know, these were the last jiu-jitsu matches of 1915. Conde Koma, Schimtsu [
Shimizu], and Lakut [Raku] were next seen in the middle of January, 1916, at the Polytheama, in Manáos [Manaus], working alongside Alfredo Albuquerque and Annita Manfield.
77

.

Chapter 6 Notes

Chapter 7

1916-1927

Conde Koma was not in
São Paulo or Rio in 1916 or after, but Paulistas and especially Cariocas were interested in the Japanese game independently of Conde Koma or any particular individual fighter, teacher, or performer.

With Conde Koma out of the picture, Mario Aleixo filled the void. Aleixo had been teaching jiu-jitsu even before Koma arrived, but seemed to have little or no interest in stage fighting or challenges however, at least not until 1931. He devoted his efforts to disseminating the game as a sport and form of physical culture and self-defense.

On Sunday September 5, 1915, Aleixo and five of his students, members of the civil guard [
guarda civis
], gave a jiu-jitsu demonstration in a Sports Festival sponsored by Centro de Cultura Physica Eneas Campello. The event was held at Jardim do Passeio Publico, starting at 2:00 p..m.
1

In 1916 he
and two of his students, Ernesto Gaeth and Jorge Moulin, gave demonstrations of jiu-jitsu throws at the new school of gymnastics established by the União Empregedos no Commercio. They demonstrated throws [
quedas
], defenses against knives [
defesa de golpes de faca
], and
golpes mortaes
[deadly techniques].

Future capoeiragem master Agenor Sampaio Sinhôzinho demonstrated luta romana, and future Gracie nemesis Manoel Rufino dos
Santos demonstrated various gymnastics skills.
2

Magazines

Eu Sei Tudo
and
Revista da Semana
were general interest illustrated magazines, covering literature, science, travel, world politics, history, nature and almost anything else that literate Brazilians were curious about. Self defense and “fights” of all kinds were regular topics. Exotic, “foreign” styles were apparently particularly interesting. When someone wanted to promote their art or possibly even a style that they made up, they needed to explain how it differed from the one style that everyone knew best, namely luta romana, and to show or at least to assert that it was superior to other styles. Jiu-jitsu had been successfully marketed as the ultimate system of self-defense and had taken on the role of comparison target against which others were assessed. Jiu-jitsu was talked about even when not many people were training it.

In 1917
Eu Sei Tudo
carried a story “
A Luta Greco-Romana
” in which it was mentioned that the systems of fighting that were currently best known were luta livre,
luta de calçao ou luta Suisse
[Swiss foot fighting], Indian wrestling, Turkish wrestling, North American wrestling, jiu-jitsu or Japanese wrestling, and French wrestling or Greco-romana.
3

The article was continued in the next issue a month later. “Catch wrestling” or “catch as catch can” was defined as “
agarra como puderes
” [grab as possible]. According to the author, luta livre was always practiced in North America, but with a tendency toward Indian wrestling [implying North American native Indians], which was “catch as catch can”. The object of the game was to make the opponent give up due to unbearable pain. Fingers could be twisted to achieve that end.

Jiu-jitsu, the article emphasized, is a variety of luta livre
[“
A luta japoneza é uma variedade da luta livre
”].
4

Brazilian Savate

By 1918 Mario Aleixo had created his own system of self-defense, an early version of “Jeet Kune Do.” He called it “
Escola de Defesa Pessoal
” [
escola
in this context meant style, or system]. He described it as “
savata nacional
” [Brazilian savate]. His system was a originally a combination of capoeiragem and jiu-jitsu.
5
Later he added boxing.
6
Aleixo hoped that it would become the national “school” (style, game, fight, system) in the same way that jiu-jitsu was Japanese and boxing was North American.

In July of 1919, Aleixo was teaching jiu-jitsu to a 15 man team of police officers [
guardas
] under the command of General Laurentino Pinto. Classes were held Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays. Aleixo claimed that he had been a student [
discipulo
] of Sada Miyako.
7

Mario Aleixo was an all-around “sportsman”
. He coached football and taught gymnastics as well as the fighting arts. He maintained his interest in capoeiragem. At some point he began calling it “capoeira”, rather than “capoeiragem”, specifically to dissociate it from the negative connotations that the latter had picked up with “
maltas
” [gangs] from the “
classe baixa
” [lower class] that “infested” the city. Aleixo claimed that it was based on the original, authentic capoeiragem but had been revised, augmented and improved [“
revista, augmentada e melhorada
”]. We don’t know where he learned his capoeiragem and it isn’t clear how he revised and improved it, but clearly the Gracie brothers were not the first to take an older art and “improve” it. Aleixo had been doing it before they arrived in Rio and before they began learning jiu-jitsu.
8

Aleixo regarded capoeira as a non-grappling art. Like everyone else, he viewed capoeira as the art of kicking (Brazilian savate). For the purpose of his mixed system of self-defense, he incorporated jiu-jitsu to take care of situations where striking was not appropriate or not possible.

Photographs of specific techniques of Aleixo’s system suggest that they had been inspired (or copied) from one or more of the popular instructional books available in Rio at the time, such as those of Irving Hancock and others. Aleixo claimed that his system was superior to any other system of unarmed self-defense [
superior a qualquer outro systema de luta de defesa á ataque a mãos livre
]. He pointed out that jiu-jitsu had some similar techniques. But the jiu-jitsu versions were “less efficient”, he said. One example, was the “
tesoura
” [leg scissors].
9
The difference was that Aleixo’s
tesoura
was applied with the hands on the ground, like the
rabo de arraia
kick that the capoeira Cyriaco used to destroy jiu-jitsu professor Sada Miyako in 1909 (and adopted by pro wrestlers like Antonio Rocca in the late 1940’s).

This modification of the technique might have been what Aleixo meant when he said that his style was a mixture. The system also included defenses against weapons and ground techniques. They obviously did not come from boxing or capoeiragem. Either he invented them, or learned them from Sada Miyako, if he studied with him as he claimed. Unfortunately, that is open to question. Aleixo claimed that he had engaged in three matches with Sada Miyako in 1904.
10
However, Sada did not arrive until December 1908. Either Aleixo’s memory let him down, or he was indulging in some of the type of exaggeration that was not unusual in the marketing of martial arts and wrestling at the time, or before or after, in Brazil.

In addition, Aleixo clearly had an obvious interest in jiu-jitsu, and jiu-jitsu instructional books were available in
Rio. It is unlikely that he didn’t read some of them. He wasn’t the only Brazilian who learned from books.
11

In 1920, Aleixo and a certain professor of jiu-jitsu named Sr. Okura established a school of national gymnastics and jiu-jitsu in
Rio. Okura offered three lessons per week, in the evenings. Rapheal Lothus assisted. The lessons were intended as a contribution toward the physical development of the Rio’s young people.
12
It is uncertain who Okura was, who he taught, what he taught, or for how long he taught. Jiu-jitsu was apparently just one sport among many, lacking the sort of public event or marketing campaign that is usually needed to instigate a fad or sustain interest.

Raphael Lothus, incidentally was probably the capoeira Raphael Golthus who had been challenged by and agreed to fight Conde Koma in May of 1915. Spelling of names was extremely idiosyncratic at that time. Word usage also was highly flexible. “National gymnastics” referred to capoeiragem, or “capoeira”
, as it was increasingly written. Technically capoeira referred to a practitioner of capoeiragem. After a while, capoeira began to be used interchangeably with capoeiragem and “
Capoeirista
” referred to a practitioner. As with “jiu-jitsu” and “judo” later, usage tended to be confusing. One needed to see the context to understand what was meant.

Not only literate adults, but children too were interested in jiu-jitsu. After writing about “football” in his regular magazine column “
As Liccões de Vôvô”
[“Grandfather’s Lessons”],
the writer, Vôvô [Grandfather] was deluged with requests from his “grandchildren [
netinhos
] to explain other sports. Four readers wanted to know about luta romana, seven wanted to know about “box francez”, and 12 wanted to learn about “jiu-jitsu”.

In
June 1920, responding to his readers’ wishes, Vôvô
wrote a half-page article with three illustrations explaining the principles of jiu-jitsu, exemplifying them with three self-defense techniques. One was “
O cutelo ou golpe de talho”
[a chop or slice]. This could be aimed at the assailant’s neck [
pescoço
], arm [
braço
], shoulder [
hombro
], fore-arm [
ante-braço
] wrist [
pulso
], thigh [
coxa
], shin [
canella
], jaw [
maxilla
]
,
or chin
[
queixo
]. The second technique was “
Defesa contra a prisão de garganta
” [defense against someone trying to throttle you from the front]. The defense consisted of bringing the elbow down on the assailant’s arm, then kicking him in the shin. The third was a technique for releasing a grab [
desviandio o golpe
].

Vôvô explained that in jiu-jitsu, one uses the open hand, either the palm, or the side of the hand, as the situation requires. Vôvô emphasized that jiu-jitsu should only be used for self-defense [
“
precisem de saber o jiu-jitsu somente como recurso de defesa
”].
13

Tex
Rickard

Despite not actually being a heavyweight, George Carpentier was the heavyweight boxing champion of
France in 1919 (
campeão de box, peso maximo
).

On Thursday December 4, in
London, Carpentier become the heavyweight champion of Europe with a single right hand to the face of English champion Joe Beckett. It was shock for the British fans. Beckett was the betting favorite at 6 to 4, but many believed that the slick boxing skills of Carpentier (an ex-savateur)
14
could defeat Beckett. They didn’t imagine that it would be so easy.
15

Carpentier’s purse was estimated at not less than $100,000, a substantial amount of money in 1919 for the 30 seconds it took to dispose of Beckett.
16

Immediately after Carpentier’s surprisingly easy victory, pressure began building for a show-down with American Jack Dempsey for the world heavyweight boxing title.
17

There was a problem. Carpentier was small. He had trounced the larger Beckett. But Jack Dempsey was another matter altogether. Promoting such a fight could be financially ruinous. There was only one man capable of handling it, Tex Rickard. But Rickard wasn’t interested. Dempsey’s manager Doc Kearns, bamboozled Rickard into taking the challenge on. Rickard transformed the gross mismatch into the “
Battle of the Century” and incidentally, boxing into a socially acceptable form of high-brow entertainment. He did it by repackaging boxing, not as an athletic contest or display of controlled violence, but rather as a form of drama pitting hero (Carpentier) against a villain (Dempsey).
18

Rickard’s gamble and inspired promotion paid off. Dempsey versus Carpentier on
July 4, 1921 was the first “million dollar gate”. It was also world news.

It was as extensively covered in
Rio as in other world capitals. One of the Brazilians who were engrossed in the fight was a young man named Carlos Gracie.
19
Carlos couldn’t have avoided reading about Rickard. Every article of any length about the fight had a column or sidebar on Rickard, who was almost as prominently featured as the champion and Carpentier themselves. The vast sums of money involved were as much part of the story as the fight.
20

Rickard was the mastermind behind Jack Dempsey’s subsequent “million dollar gates,” all of which were news in
Brazil. In addition to his interest in Jack Dempsey and boxing, Carlos Gracie was also interested in finding a way to make money without working hard at a conventional job.
21
Tex Rickard showed him the way.
22