17.12.2007

Giant steps

The life of Masahiko Kimura, before, during and after the classic battle with Master Helio Gracie

The different reports don’t fit together entirely. The differences are in the details. Be that as it may, Helio Gracie’s version comes 50 years after the fight, in 2001. As for the other, the Japanese Masahiko Kimura wrote his book My Judo in which he tells of the events from that night of October 23rd, 1951, in 1984, 33 years after the encounter. It was the first and only fight between the two, who are considered, by many scholars, to be the greatest of all times in their respective arts – Jiu-Jitsu and judo.

In an interview published in issue 50 of GRACIE Magazine, the Brazilian grandmaster tells of how, shortly after putting the Japanese Kato to sleep in the Maracanã stadium, Kimura invaded the ring to challenge him. As recalled by the Japanese, the challenge would be made by the Brazilian, days later, and was first made to Yamaguchi, the third member of the delegation of judokas that traveled the country. As Yamaguchi refused to fight under Jiu-Jitsu rules, Kimura accepted the challenge.

“The stadium was silent when the sound of the bone breaking echoed. Even so, Helio Gracie did not give up”
Kimura

Thus, before over 20 thousand people, the two stepped in the ring assembled in the Maracanã stadium for the great fight. Kimura never forgot the site of the coffin he says he saw in the fighting area, even 30 years later. A coffin meant for him, according to Helio’s fans, after the Brazilian black belt would put him to sleep. Helio never mentioned a coffin. About the fight, however, Master Helio and Kimura agreed on almost everything. They remembered the fight lasted a little over ten minutes and it ended with a now famous submission hold, the kimura – or udegarami, to judokas. The version of the Japanese, who was 25 kilos heavier, is dramatic: “I applied the udegarami and thought he would give up immediately, but he didn’t tap. I had no choice but to twist the arm further.

The stadium was silent when the sound of breaking bone echoed. Even still, Helio did not give up and his corner was forced to throw in the towel. I won by technical knockout,” recounts Kimura, making a point of extolling the Jiu-Jitsu master’s bravery. Besides being valiant, Helio went into the fight prepared for the Japanese’s weapons, which surprised his adversary. “Kimura, as the great sportsman he was, showed surprise at my having the wherewithal to escape from the holds he set up. I fought to see with what hold he would beat me, but I must admit I didn’t expect him to persist so much in applying the same hold,” says Helio about the repeated attempts at applying the armbar. About his broken bone, Helio confirms that he did not tap: “Carlos [Helio’s older brother] threw in the towel and the Japanese let go of the hold. The referee wanted us to continue but I told him the victory was Kimura’s. I was very tired,” confesses the grandmaster, living today, at 94 years of age, in his ranch in Itaipava.

Battle of the brave: in 1951, Kimura dared to attack Helio Gracie in the Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro.

The fight with Helio Gracie was the high point in a story that began almost 30 years earlier, while performing cleaning duties at young Masahiko’s primary school, in the city of Kumamoto. The students participated in the cleaning, and on one of these occasions the sport entered Kimura’s life. The reason for this was not the most noble: “I was in the fourth grade and during cleaning time the teacher left. When I realized this I jumped onto a table my colleagues were carrying and started yelling ‘Banzai!’ That was when the teacher reappeared and grabbed me by the hair. I took a beating,” he tells in his book. The humiliation was too much for the naughty kid, who swore he would have his revenge: “I discovered he was a first dan black belt in judo and figured that if I were a second dan I could beat him up. So I went to the Shodokan Dojo, which was right next to my school,” he tells.

His less-than-noble reason for going to the dojo for the first time he quickly left behind him. The sport soon came to the forefront of the apprentice’s life. And he evolved quickly. Three years later, after coming second place in a sumo tournament, he was invited to join the Chinsei Junior High School and participate in the judo club at his new school. But the new training environment was not enough for the anxious youngster: “Besides at school, I also trained at the Kawakita dojo, Butokuden, and the Imperial 5th High (now the University of Kumomoto).” The training load was heavy. “At that time I trained up to five hours a day and still ended each session with 300 sit-ups.”

“If my adversaries are training 6 hours a day to beat me, I will have to train 9 hours every day”
Kimura

To achieve 3rd dan status, Kimura admits to committing an adolescent-type sin. “I had to go to Butokukai, in Kyoto, to take a practical test and a written one. I had no problem passing the practical test, but I had no idea of the answers to the written one. As time was running out, I grabbed the test sheet from the guy behind me, put my name on it and turned it in. I was always ashamed of what I did.” By 17 years of age, Masahiko was already a fourth dan, which was rare for a judoka of that age. But at 18 years of age, already a student at Takushoku University, he made history by beating eight opponents at his same level and became the first man to ever receive the fifth dan at the age of 18. Exhausted, he was defeated by Miyajima, his ninth opponent of the day.

Beyond this loss, Kimura suffered defeat only three more times throughout his career. Curiously, all occurred in the year 1935. Kenichiro Osawa, Keshiro Abe and Hideo Yamamoto, besides Miyajima, are the men that hold the honor of having defeated Kimura. But the tide did not turn too late. As he felt humiliated and was even considering quitting judo, Masahiko relied on the help of his friends to train even harder. The osotogari, for example, he practiced with a tree, to strengthen his legs. After six months of training, his technique became so refined that, often, his training partners only agreed to train with him if he agreed not to use the osotogari. His three nemeses were defeated before the end of that very year of 1935.

Helio teaches the udegarami: after the Japanese judoka, the hold would gain a new name in Jiu-Jitsu.

From 1937 to 1939, Kimura dominated the Japanese scene, lining up three national championship titles. On the first title conquered over Masayuki Nakajima with a kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame after 40 minutes of fighting, Kimura states that the secret was observation and youth: “After 35 minutes, I looked at his legs and saw that they held the key to my victory. When the arbiter restarted the fight, I grabbed his legs, threw him to the ground and controlled him. After winning, I saw that I won only because I was stronger, for being younger than him.”

After tasting victory, Misahiko became preoccupied with how to keep his title in the years to come. Upon looking in the mirror at his 1.69 meter and 86 kg body that was nothing out of the ordinary, Kimura decided: “My adversaries are still training six hours a day to beat me, I will have to train nine hours every day.” Thus was created the “San-bai no Do-ryoku” (triple effort), which to many is what set Kimura apart and the reason why he became one of the greatest legends of all times in the world of fighting. In practice, the impressive training load guaranteed him more national titles, in 1938 and 1939.

“The promoter gave me a form saying that even if I died, he would not be held responsible. I signed”
Kimura, before the vale-tudo against Valdemar Santana

Kimura’s judo career ended in 1950. Before that, another important title in his career path was the Ten-Ran Shiai, won in 1940, before the eyes of the Japanese emperor. Retired, Kimura taught judo classes to American soldiers that occupied Japan after the war and went around the world demonstrating the sport’s techniques. That was how, ultimately, the judo legend came to Brazil, at the invitation of the newspaper “São Paulo Shimbum,” run by the Japanese colony. The fame thus acquired from the fight in the gi against Helio guaranteed he would make further excursions in Brazilian territory, and the Japanese took up another sport: vale-tudo.

Without a doubt, one of the most notable fights of Kimura’s career was against Valdemar Santana, in 1959, in Salvador, Bahia. It was 40 minutes of bloody combat that ended in a draw. Something Kimura revealed in his book about the fight was that “The promoter gave me a form saying that, even if I died, he would not be held responsible. I nodded and signed.” Kimura returned to Japan in 1960 and started teaching judo classes at Tokushoku University. Masahiko Kimura passed away on April 18, 1993, from lung cancer. Even debilitated from the final surgery performed to battle the disease, Kimura was seen doing sit-ups on the floor of his room in hospital. At 75 years of age.

The US army against Kimura
In the hard years following the Second World War, defeated Japan was governed by the Allies, under the command of general Douglas MacArthur. Among other restrictions, the teaching and practice of judo and kendo were prohibited. But this restriction would not be the only interference from the American military in Masahiko’s life. In November of 1945, shortly after surrender, Kimura was awaiting a train at Kumamoto station, when four military police started to offend and aggress upon the people in line. “They yelled ‘Jap!’ ‘Jap!’ So a soldier took the first in line and grabbed him by the nose with his fingers.

The man fell to the ground with his nose bleeding and moaning with pain,” tells Kimura in his book, My Judo. The four military men did this repeatedly to the others in line, until it came to his turn. “When one of them tried to grab me by the collar, I slapped his hand off. The four then pulled me over to Nagaroku Bridge, near the station, and got ready to give me a beating. Luckily, they came one at a time, like in a kung fu movie. The first one tried to hit me with a right and I defended, and then I kicked him in the nuts. The second one grabbed me from behind and I threw him in the river with a seio-nage. The two remaining ones that were watching finally attacked me, also one at a time. The first one I knocked down with a head butt and the second I defeated by squeezing his balls. Since primary school, I have been a wicked ball smasher,” remembers Kimura.

One week later, the Americans came back, to deliver the punishment, by jeep, with the soldiers stopping in front of Kimura’s house. “I knew I would be arrested, but I found the cordial faces that got out of the vehicle to be odd,” he wrote. The master entered the jeep and was taken to the Allied base. Upon arrival, a great surprise. A gracious commander thanked him for punishing the bad soldiers. “Captain Shephard shook my hand and told me those were the worst four soldiers in the battalion, And that they had already sexually assaulted a woman and were being tried.” Beyond the thanks, Kimura was given a job. He became the judo instructor on the base, thanks to Captain Shephard, who one year later would become a black belt.