All history is political history. Anybody who tells you different is selling something. That applies to martial arts history, too: There are facts that are objective, but — especially when you’re dealing with events that happened years ago — truth is a negotiated matter.
This isn’t to say we shouldn’t always try to get at the whole truth — we absolutely should! — but to explain why we’re so excited for Robert Drysdale’s “Closed Guard” film. Currently, there simply aren’t any indispensable one-stop resources for a credible history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Watching Drysdale take his historian’s approach to the project gives us hope that this is what “Closed Guard” will be: A place you can send people for an entry point into BJJ history, the way you’d send a person interested in the American Revolution to a book like David McCullough’s “1776.”
Let’s extend that analogy: You won’t know all there is to know about Brazilian jiu-jitsu history after you see “Closed Guard,” just like you won’t know all there is about the American Revolution after reading “1776.” But like a good fundamentals curriculum, it’ll give you an accurate framework. You can branch out from there, beyond the origin myth.
When I say “myth” here, it’s not meant to be a pejorative: Whenever hugely significant things happen, they have to be simplified. When events are simplified, the people involved tend to tell those simple stories their way — in the way that best fits their own interests and perceptions.
Again, the founding of America is a great example. We’re taught in school that the American Revolution was a reaction to oppression, where scrappy colonists rose up in opposition to monarchy and taxes. As you grow up and learn more, you find that it was more complex than that. Whether that simple statement sounds mostly right or mostly wrong to you, these events that shaped our history were more complicated than the simple statement allows. Good historians sift through the complexity and come up with work that navigates the multiple accounts, most of which have some form of bias or another.
So it is with Brazilian jiu-jitsu history. There is a founding myth of BJJ, too: That the Japanese immigrant Mitsuyo Maeda traveled to Brazil and taught the art of jiu-jitsu to Carlos Gracie, who in turn taught his brother Helio, and Helio — a sickly young man — modified the techniques to maximize the advantages of leverage, so a smaller person might defeat a larger one in a self defense situation. The truth, as it always is, is more complex.
But “more complex” also means “more interesting,” because in investigating history, you learn more about the figures that are not central in the initial, simpler narrative. In American history we benefit from learning about Sybil Ludington, the Marquis de Lafayette and James Armistead. In jiu-jitsu history we benefit from learning about Geo Omori, Luiz Franca, Jacinto Ferro, Oswaldo Fadda and more.
No one does anything important alone. Jiu-jitsu is no different.
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While we’re waiting for that one-stop definitive text on BJJ history, there are tons of resources out there — all worthwhile for their own reasons, and all with their own points of view (and biases).
These are some of the resources I recommend for newer people who are getting into Brazilian jiu-jitsu history, with my explanatory notes and perspective on these sources.
My position: Read everything, and read everything with a view to who the source is. This is not an exhaustive list of resources, but I’ll keep updating it.
BOOKS
“The Way of Judo: A Portrait of Jigoro Kano and His Students,” by John Stevens. Of all the books I’m listing, this is the top-to-bottom best one for most people in my eyes. It’s a well-written, approachable text by a legitimate scholar, and its subject is a towering giant of a martial artist. Yes, it’s not about jiu-jitsu per se … although, remember, what we know as judo was often called “Kano Jiu-Jitsu” at first, and it’s not arguable that BJJ has its roots in Kodokan judo. Kano is a fascinating figure in his own right, even if you aren’t interested in martial arts, and Stevens does an outstanding job portraying him here.
“The Gracie Clan and the Making of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: National Identity, Culture and Performance, 1905 – 2003,” by Jose Tufy Cairus. If I had to pick one source for everyone to read about jiu-jitsu history, it’d be this one. Cairus is an academic historian, and his work is credible, rigorously sourced and comprehensive, with a broad perspective on how societies influence their martial arts (and vice versa). But this is a doctoral dissertation, so if you prefer not to read scholarly papers, this is probably not the best starting point.
“Gracie Jiu-Jitsu: The Master Text,” by Helio Gracie. This book is mostly known for being the comprehensive catalog of Helio Gracie’s jiu-jitsu techniques, but it also includes first-person accounts of history at the beginning. It’s useful to hear it right from the source.
“The Gracie Way: An Illustrated History of the World’s Greatest Martial Arts Family,” by Kid Peligro. This is a work that covers the orthodox version of jiu-jitsu history, the Gracie side of things. It’s an enjoyable, if not rigorous, story with amazing photos.
“Choque,” volumes 1-3, by Roberto Pedreira. Roberto Pedreira is a pen name for one of the most prolific jiu-jitsu researchers. It’s important to note that Pedreira is openly hostile to the Gracies — sometimes in ways that are supported by research, but often in ways that do not pretend to be. I actually appreciate open bias (as opposed to disguised bias), because it allows you to take what is valuable in the work but also be open-eyed and skeptical about the work’s conclusions. And there is a lot of value here: contemporary news reports, for example, that show the reality of jiu-jitsu and vale tudo fighting in Brazil at the time.
“Craze,” volumes 1-2, by Roberto Pedreira. In these successors to “Choque,” Pedreira covers the history of jiu-jitsu starting in Japan. They are not easy reads, but for scholars and researchers, the original research contained here is invaluable. As someone who lived in Japan, these books are fascinating to me.
“Carlos Gracie: The Creator of a Fighting Dynasty,” by Reila Gracie. Translated into English starting in 2015, but not widely available, this biography from Carlos’ daughter is an interesting first person account. It’s sold out most places, so try this summary from Fightland.
ONLINE RESOURCES
“100 Years of Arm Bars” on Grantland by ESPN. If you only have time to read one article, this is the one. Subtitled “A family epic spanning the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu dynasty’s generations of combat and betrayal, from the Amazon to Hollywood to the UFC,” David Samuels does a terrific job of summarizing the high points of Gracie history, and some of the other points as well. If you want a more direct and controversial text, there’s always Helio Gracie’s interview with Playboy.
Slideyfoot’s History of BJJ: Long and comprehensive, this is an in-depth treatment that should appeal to true nerds for this stuff. Like me.
BJJ Heroes. Useful for a variety of reasons, among them as an encyclopedia of figures you’ve heard of but want to know more about.
Global Training Report. This is Roberto Pedreira’s site. Lots of fascinating articles and original research: It gets very deep in the weeds and has, as I mentioned a particularly anti-Gracie bent. Start with “What is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu?” and that will give you the tenor of the site.
PODCASTS
Robert Drysdale on the Grappling Central Podcast (ep. 268). A long, detailed interview on a variety of topics, from the film to the history to the problem of finding sources.
Robert Drysdale on Dirty White Belt Radio. We talked at the Walter Pyramid during the 2018 World Championship, as film production was ramping up in earnest.
Jose Tufy Cairus on Dirty White Belt Radio. If you don’t want to read a dissertation, listen to me and Tufy talk about fascinating topics in BJJ history, such as the first Japanese person to teach Kodokan Judo in Brazil; who the first woman to train was; the importance of Brazil’s Navy in promoting jiu-jitsu, and how Maeda taught to the Brazilian Navy in the Amazon, including Luis Soto; Geo Omori and Takeo Yano’s contributions to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; how Brazil’s history, including the transition from the monarchy to the Old Republic to the dictatorship to the authoritarian estado novo affected jiu-jitsu.
FILMS
Renzo Gracie: Legacy: Follows one of the lions of the family on his own fighting journey. Compelling and remarkable, with some first-person accounts of historical events — such as how Renzo’s father, Robson, was arrested and tortured by the Brazilian military government, and how hegot out with the help of Helio Gracie & Helio Vigio. With appearances by BJ Penn, Dave Camarillo, Ralph Gracie and more.
Choke: A Rickson Gracie Documentary. Follows Rickson, famously the best fighter of the Gracies, through an MMA tournament in Japan. Features an all-too-often-ignored legend of fighting history, Yuki Nakai, as well.
ROLL: Jiu-jitsu in Southern California. A period piece that covers a specific geographic area.