Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil 1856-1949 (Volume 1) (66 page)

67.
Batalha
27-4-33.

68. Jack Hillson became famous for crossing
Niagara Falls hanging on to a wire with his teeth. He also performed the act at Jardim Zoologico in Rio later in 1917, from tree to tree, passing over a enclosure for bears at a zoo
Fon-Fon
3-3-17;
O Paiz
30-3-17).

69.
Pacotilha
29-22-15.

70.
Pacotilha
3-12-15. [“
deve chegar do Pará a troupe de Japoneses, com artistas de variedade,,,
Lucta de Jiujtsiu
“][sic].

71.
Pacotilha
7-12-15. [“
O Conde Koma e qualquer homem da sua troupe desafiam a quem quizer luctar, offerecendo um premio de 5,000 francos a quem os vencer e 500 ao amador que Ihes resistir na lucta durante 15 minutos
”].

72.
Pacotilha
8-12-15.

73.
Pacotilha
7-12-15.

74.
Pacotilha
8-12-15.

75.
Pacotilha
9-12-15.
A
creoulo
(or
crioulo
) was a Brazilian born black man (Conrad 1983, p. 490).

76.
Pacotilha
10-12-15.

77.
A Noticia
16/17-1-16. According to Souza (2010, p. 58) the troupe was in Manaus on December 18, 1915.

.

Chapter 7

1916-192
7

1.
A Noite
5-9-15.

2.
O Imparcial
26-3-16.

3
.
Eu Sei Tudo
October 1917, n. 5, pp. 79-80 [“
Os systemas de luta actualmente mais conhecidos: luta livre, luta de calçao ou luta Suisse, luta Indiana, luta turco, luta na america do norte, <> ou luta japoneza, and luta francez ou Greco-romana
”].

4.
Eu Sei Tudo
November 1917, n. 6, pp. 125-126 [“
na America do norte, a luta livre foi sempre practicada, mas tendo preferencia o systema indiano, catch as catch can, agarra como puderes, Ė usada nella uma carta torção de dedos qualificada de Americana, mas que se encontra tambem na luta dos indios e cujo fim é obrigar o adversario a ceder por effeito de dôr
”].

5.
Gazeta de Noticias
20-9-18 [“
tal jogo, mixto de box, jiu-jitsu e da nossa velha capoeira
”].

6.
Revista da Semana
7-5-21.

7.
A Noticia
18-7-19. Sada Miyako was written “Shada Miako”.

8. Carlos Gracie claimed to have learned from Conde Koma. Other people doubted that he did. Oswaldo Gracie also claimed on at least one occasion that he learned from Conde Koma.

9.
Tesoura
had variable meanings. Some used it to refer to the legs around “guard position.” Aleixo meant the position known in judo as
kani-basami
.

10.
(
Revista da Semana
7-5-21). Aleixo referred to “Saga Mako”, but given how variable spelling was at the time, it is obvious that he was referring to Sada Miyako. He added that Saga-Mako made many men “kiss the floor” in two seconds [“
Em 1904, luctei em publico, durante tres noites, com o japonez Saga-Mako, que em dois segundos fez muita gente bôa beijar o pó do chão, aqui no Rio
”].

11. Some of
Rio’s most eminent jiu-jitsu and judo instructors started out as “auto-didacts”. Augusto Cordeiro was one example. The same was true of some capoeiragem instructors, including Sinhôzinho, Mario Aleixo himself, and the dubious case of Jayme Martins Ferreira (see chapter 1931).

12.
A Noite
12-8-20 [“
Ė mais uma contribuição ao desenvolvimento physico da nossa mocidade”
].

13.
Revista o Tico-Tico
9-6-20.

14. Boddy 2011, p. 432, citing Carpentier’s memoir.

15.
O Paiz
5-12-19.

16. The 2012 purchasing power of Carpentier’s purse is $1,330,000 according to
www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php.

17.
O Paiz
6-12-19.

18. Roberts 2003, chp. 6.

19. According to Gracie (2008, p. 75), “
Desde adolescente, Carlos sentia uma enorme admiração pelo boxer americano Jack Dempsey e passou a acompanhar de perto a evolução do boxe
”.

20.
Correio da Manhã
2-2-21.

21. Gracie, 2008.

22. At least part of the way. One of the keys to Rickard’s success was his willingness to risk large amounts of money, as Jack Dempsey explained (Dempsey 1934; see also Roberts 2003). Carlos was generally hard-pressed to pay his rent, sometimes failing to, until he met Oscar Santa Maria. Financing a mega-fight promotion was entirely beyond his economic means, not to mention his organizational and abilities.

23.
Correio da Manhã
24-3-22.

24. Brazilians did not want to be thought of or seen as stereotypical corrupt and violent Latin Americans (Bethell, 2010). The historian and diplomat Oliveira Lima wrote books explaining why the developed countries should understand that
Brazil was different from the former Spanish colonies in South America (
Brazilian Review
30-9-13, p. 1018).

25. There were some exceptions. Boddy, 2011; Reiss, 1985.

26.
Correio Paulistano
7-11-26.

27.
O Imparcial
19-1-24.

28.
O Imparcial
28-1-24.

29.
Correio Paulistano
2-10-23.

30.
Correio Paulistano
21-10-26; 7-11-26.

31.
Jornal do Brasil
5-4-27.

32.
O Paiz
11-3-27. Later, in 1930 the Club Carioca de Box was established on rua do Rosario, 133, 2
nd
floor, in Rio. The club played a role in the evolution of jiu-jitsu in Rio.

33.
O Imparcial
19-1-21.

34.
O Paiz
7-11-26 . Scherer’s article was titled “
Importante estudo da maneira de desviar as golpes directos ao rosto
”.

35. Also Brazilians were generally physically unhealthy by European and North American standards; see McCann 1995. It was not coincidental that most boxers were foreigners.

36. January 1922, No. 56-8
o
pp. 22-23 and 79.

37.
Eu Sei Tudo
, December 1922, n. 67, pp. 55-58.

38.
Correio da Manhã
and
O Imparcial
, 5-10-23 [“
Alias é desnecessario dizer-se que Sessue Hayakawa é bom patriota, como japonez legitimito, cultiva com ardor os jogos da sua terra. Elle é mesmo um eximo jogador de jiu-jitsu e tem prostrado ao solo concorrentes muito superiores em força e corpulencia
”].

39. Nogueira 2000, Reichl 1995, Tsuda 2001.

40. Cairus 2010, citing
Folha da Norte
3-7-20.

41.
Jornal de Recife
17-7-24 [“
O campeão mundial do jiu-jitsu, conde Koma, reside ha alguns annos no Pará, onde tem numerosos discipulos, de que o mais notavel é o athleta regional, Jacintho Ferro
”].
Ferro died on either December 31, 1928 or January 1, 1929 (
O Imparcial
2-1-29;
Gazeta de Noticias
3-1-29.
O Paiz
2/3-1-29). Ferro fought and defeated the luta romana champion Victorio Segato in July of 1920, according to sources cited by Cairus 2010.

42. Masuda 2011, p. 102.

43.
A Capital
6-8-17. Both fighters were black―”
ambos de cor preto”
. This gives us some idea what the word “race” [
raça
] meant to Brazilians at that time. Also, “playing by the rules” was a very English concept, and in a way revolutionary. The concept of
not
using every possible advantage to win but rather creating a “level playing field” was uniquely British. Undeveloped, backward countries felt themselves to be on the modernizing track when they adopted this particular British custom in the form of another British invention, that of “sport” (Mandell 1984 for insightful discussion).

44.
A Capital
9-8-17.

45.
A Capital
12-5-18.

46. Masuda 2011, p. 102.

47. Masuda 2011, p. 335.

.

Chapter 8

1928

1.
Correio Paulistano
21-6-21.

2.
Correio Paulistano
9-10-26.

3.
Correio Paulistano
13-6-26.

4.
Diario Nacional
11-9-28. Omori probably joined in August, as earlier would have been months and later would have been days.

5.
Diario Nacional
9-10-28.

6.
Diario Nacional
19-10-28 [“
emocionante luta ‘capoeira contra jiu-jitsu
’”].

7.
O Imparcial
4-7-35; 5-1-35; 12-2-38. In Japanese the family name comes first;
Jyoji
was not an unusual Japanese male name at that time. Omori’s first name was written as “Geo” and “Géo” (with diacritic over the letter “e”) in the press.

8. Unger 1987, pp. 83-108.

9. Omori’s story is based on his own four-part series of articles in 1932, interviews conducted between 1928 and 1938, and especially obituary notices (see chapter 1938 for references).

10. Kohyama 1997.

11. Cetuko was also spelled Kotuko, Kotuke, and Kimika as Kimiko, and Kinka, among other variants.

12.
Diario Nacional
12-9-28 [“
o publico que frequenta a nossa casa não tem prazer em apreciar muitas vezes a mesma luta
”].

13. Information about Jack Marin comes from
O Paiz
20-1-22;
Correio Paulistano
11-7-28;
A Noite
25-5-28.

14.
Diario Carioca
18-9-28.

15.
Diario Nacional
18-9-28.

16.
Diario Nacional
23-9-28.

17.
September 24, 1928, Vol. 12, issue 13, page 26.

18.
Diario Nacional
19-10 1928.

19. A general vocabulary of fight techniques was lacking. Reporters made up their own terminology.
Rabo de arraio
referred to a spinning back kick supported by the hands,
rastiera
meant crawling, but also was used to refer to crouching positions or foot sweeps, trips, and leg kicks. A
rabo de frente
may have been a spin kick aimed at Omori’s front. A
pulo de passarinho
seems from context to be a ground position, most likely hopping from a crouching position rather than lying or sitting (as suggested by the avian metaphor). In short, the only way to know what was meant by a term for a technique would be to see a picture. Fortunately, there were many (confirming that usage was inconsistent).

20.
Diario Nacional
21-10-28.

21.
Diario Nacional
23-10-28.

22.
Diario Nacional
25-10-28.

23.
Diario Nacional
18-10-28.

24
.
Pacotilha
5-1-28. On Tuesday January 10, Letone lost in a luta romana contest to Manoel Stringhuiny, of the Circo Stringhuiny, then appearing in São Luis.

25.
A Manhã
16-11-28.

26.
Diario Nacional
11-11-28.

27.
Diario Nacional
14-12-28 [“
Acceitam qualquer desafio de qualquer amador ou professional para fazeram uma luta livre de Jiu-Jitsu contra luta livre. Dando um premio de 500$000 ao vencedor
”].