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The Creation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu    

                               

  By Fabio Latini

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The first historical record of the arrival of a Japanese Jiu Jitsu professor in Brazil dates back to December 15, 1908. Sada Miyako, a Japanese Ju Jutsu fighter, was hired by Brazilian Navy to teach self defense to brazilian mariners. He reportedly taught the first jiu jitsu lessons to Brazilian sailors on the deck of the training ship Benjamin Constant.

In 1909, he was already teaching in Rio de Janeiro to his disciple Mario Aleixo, a pioneer of Jiu Jitsu in Brazil.

On November 14th, 1914 Mitsuyo Maeda - a Japanese fighter - arrived in Brazil.

There are rumors about the reason for Maeda's trip to Brazil. Some believe he was sent by Japan's main judo school, the Kodokan, to spread Japanese culture and Judo, which had been created in 1882 by Jigoro Kano, a JuJutsu master at the Kano Jujutsu School and Maeda's teacher.

Maeda was a professional fighter, who made his living in fights and exhibitions around the world. He has traveled trough Europe, North and Central America, and then Brazil.

After a short time in Rio de Janeiro, in 1915, he settled in Belém in 1916. Soon after, he met Gastão Gracie and his family, also of immigrants, originally from Scotland.

Carlos Gracie was born in 1902 and was very interested in learning Jiu Jitsu. Carlos started practicing around 1918, when he was 16 years old. His brother Hélio, despite being extremely motivated, was very young and for this reason, Hélio started effectively training and learning with brother Carlos only in Rio de Janeiro from 1930 onwards.

In early 1922, the Gracie family moved to Rio de Janeiro. Carlos began teaching JiuJitsu officialy only in 1928, at the Minas Gerais Police, at the invitation of Donato Pires dos Reis and, later, in São Paulo, where he opened an  JiuJitsu academy in 1929. Back in Rio, he joined Donato Pires dos Reis in a historic undertaking: the JIU JITSU ACADEMY was inaugurated on September, 7th, 1930, at Rua Marques de Abranches 106, in the Flamengo district. Classes were initially taught by Donato, Carlos and George Gracie.

In 1932, the academy was definitely left to Carlos and Helio Gracie, thus the Gracie Academy was established.

In the following years, the development of Brazilian JiuJitsu, as an effective method of personal defense, naturally absorbed elements of wrestling, boxing and savate, and especially Capoeira, creating a peculiar and very efficient fighting style.

Helio Gracie perfected his martial art and became the main family name. To prove its effectiveness, he has challenged all known masters, as well as many other world-class fighters, for over 20 years. He won several challenges until he retired in 1955, at age 42.

He passed on his knowledge of Jiu Jitsu to his sons, nephews, grandsons and fortunate students, who continued the family's legacy

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The Gracie Family

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The Gracie family is a family of Brazilian fighters, of Scottish descent, from Belém do Pará. They are largely responsible for the development of the Brazilian martial art style known today as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ.

Carlos Gracie and Hélio Gracie are considered the fathers of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil.

They developed a technique for a “weak” fighter to be able to defeat a stronger opponent using their techniques in the form of chokes, levers, immobilizations and twists.

At the age of 16, in 1930, Helio Gracie started learning from Carlos, his older brother, the traditional Japanese techniques of Jiu-Jitsu. After years of perfecting, he has proven the effectiveness of his art by routinely defeating larger and stronger opponents. The result: Helio's techniques quickly became the new expression of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil and paved the way for a revolution in martial arts around the world.

Helio retired in 1955, aged 42, after a historic fight of 3h 45min (world record), where he was defeated by Waldemar Santana, 16 years younger and 20 kg heavier than Helio.

The baton was passed on to the next generation - the most prepared Gracie at the time, inheriting the responsibility, was Carlos' eldest son, Carlson Gracie, aged 22! Carlson avenged his uncle Helio in 1956, beating Waldemar Santana.

In 1967, under the guidance of Grand Master Helio Gracie, the Jiu-Jitsu Federation of Rio de Janeiro was created, the first and oldest Jiujitsu Federation in the world, still in operation today. It is currently under the direction of Robson Gracie.

The original Gracie Academy moved, in 1984, to Humaitá, adopting the neighborhood's name.

Thus was born Gracie Humaitá, currently under the direction of Royler Gracie, Helio's fifth son. Rorion, Relson, Rickson and Royce set up their own gyms in the USA. Robin Gracie, the seventh son of Helio, settled and opened a gym in Barcelona, ​​Spain

 

From Brazil to the world

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In 1978, Rorion Gracie, Helio's eldest son, moved to the United States to share his father's techniques with the rest of the world. Rorion spent many years teaching in his garage, while conducting a solitary campaign to show American martial arts practitioners the simplicity and effectiveness of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. He came to the conclusion that, despite his tireless and constant efforts, he would need a more powerful and visible means to prove the superiority of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu over all other martial arts. To achieve this, he created the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, in 1993. The Gracie family then shocked the martial arts world when his brother Royce Gracie used the simple techniques of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to repeatedly defeat larger, more athletic, armed opponents. of a wide variety of martial arts skills.

Relson Gracie, Helio's second son, also took up residence in the US, in Hawaii, in 1984. Relson still teaches the authentic jiu jitsu developed by his father.

In the 80s and 90s, Rickson Gracie was the biggest name in the family. Considered by many to be the best Jiu Jitsu fighter of all times, he followed in his brothers' footsteps and moved to Los Angeles in 1988.

Brothers Rorion, Relson, Rickson, Royce and Royler and cousin Renzo Gracie, son of Robson Gracie, currently live in the US and have trained several police forces in that country, where they have dozens of affiliated academies.