Friday, November 12, 2010

TATAME 177


Almost 100 years after Mitsuyo Maeda, Earl Koma, step in Brazilians lands, the story of the origin of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil still is a subject of discussions all around the world. Until today, the most precise information was told by Gracie family. On the book of Carlos Gracie, the Creator of a Dynasty, written by his daughter Reila, the version that Earl Koma has taught Jiu-Jitsu to Carlos, and that he had taught Hélio – despite Hélio guarantees that he learned just by watching his brother’s training – was once presented. But little by little some historians started a research the origin of the gentle art in Brazil and to unveil its mysteries. On the following pages, you can check what some of the researches believe to be the truth of the origin of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

“The recent globalization process of the hybrid of the martial art known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sharpened the curiosity of practitioners and non-practitioners about its origin, development and history. Obviously there are many repetitive versions that are mechanically published through time via internet and, more recently, even published in books. The mysteries and controversies were fed by fragmental versions that, on the absence of scientific research, ignorance and emotional manipulation were replaced…”, explains José Tufy Cairus, researcher of the history of Jiu-Jitsu and Judo in Brazil and expert about the trajectory of Earl Koma