Carlos Gracie. Photo: Marco Imperial

From the samurai to the UFC champions and IBJJF gold medalists

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ (also written as jujitsu or jujutsu) is a martial art of Japanese origin in which one essentially uses levers, torsions and pressure in order to take one’s opponent to the ground and dominate them. Literally, jū in Japanese means ‘gentleness,’ and jutsu means ‘art,’ ‘technique.’ Hence the literal translation by which it’s also known, the ‘gentle art.’

Its secular origin, as with almost all ancient martial arts, cannot be pinpointed precisely. Similar fighting styles have been verified in many peoples, from India to China, in the 3rd and 8th centuries. What is known is that its environment of development and refinement were the schools of the samurai, the warrior caste of feudal Japan.

Its creation derives from the fact that, in the battlefield or during any confrontation, a samurai could wind up bereft of his swords of spears, at which point he would need a weapon-less method of defense. Since traumatic strikes were not sufficient in this type of showdown, as the samurai wore armor, the takedowns and torsions began gaining ground due to their efficiency. Thus Jiu-Jitsu was born in contraposition to kenjitsu and other so-called rigid arts, wherein the combatants wielded swords and other weapons.

The martial art gained new dimensions when a celebrated instructor from the Kodokan Japanese school decided to travel the world and prove the efficiency of his choke and armlocks against opponents of all sizes and styles: Mitsuyo Maeda, a sumo fighter’s son born in Funazawa Village, located in Hirosaki City, in the Japanese prefecture of Aomori, on November 18, 1878, and deceased in Belém, capital of the Brazilian state of Pará, on November 28, 1941.

A lifelong champion of Jiu-Jitsu’s self-defense techniques, Maeda traveled to the U.S. in 1904 accompanied by other teachers from Jigoro Kano’s school. At the time, thanks to the political and economic bonds between Japan and the U.S., the Japanese techniques had many a noteworthy admirer on American soil. In 1904, for example, President Theodore Roosevelt had taken lessons from Yoshitsugu Yamashita. In the U.S., the agile Japanese man began racking up thousands of combats and fallen opponents along the way in England, Belgium and Spain, where his poise resulted in the nickname by which he became better-known, Count Koma. Back in America, the fighter did many presentations and challenges in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. In July 1914, the valiant 5-foot-5, 68kg fighter landed in Brazil to settle down and change the sport’s history.

A lifelong champion of Jiu-Jitsu’s self-defense techniques, Maeda traveled to the U.S. in 1904 accompanied by other teachers from Jigoro Kano’s school. At the time, thanks to the political and economic bonds between Japan and the U.S., the Japanese techniques had many a noteworthy admirer on American soil. In 1903, for example, President Theodore Roosevelt had taken lessons from Yoshiaki Yamashita. In the U.S., the agile Japanese man began racking up thousands of combats and fallen opponents along the way in England, Belgium and Spain, where his poise resulted in the nickname by which he became better-known, Count Koma. Back in America, the fighter did many presentations and challenges in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. In July 1914, the valiant 5-foot-5, 68kg fighter landed in Brazil to settle down and change the sport’s history.

Maeda would go on to collect delicious stories on Brazilian land. After going around the country, the Jiu-Jitsu black-belt settled in Belém. One day he took on the challenge of a capoeira artist known as Pé de Bola, towering over the master at 6-foot-3 and nearly 100kg. Maeda was not impressed and even let his rival bear a knife in the match. The Japanese disarmed, took down and finished off the Brazilian. Count Koma, as later became a tradition among Jiu-Jitsu professors, would also challenge famous boxers. American boxer Jack Johnson was called out, but never accepted the invite.

Koma and crew in Cuba, 1912. Fabio Quio collection

It was Koma, also, who promoted the first Jiu-Jitsu tournament in the country – more accurately a festival of bouts and challenges designed to give notoriety to the unknown sport.

Researchers Luiz Otávio Laydner and Fabio Quio Takao found in the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias of March 11, 1915 the rules of the event slated for the Carlos Gomes Theater in Rio de Janeiro, then the country’s capital. In it Koma published the first rules of our Jiu-Jitsu, consisting of ten items:

“1. Every fighter must present themselves decently, with fingernails and toenails perfectly trimmed;

“2. They must wear the gi, provided by Count Koma;

“3. It is forbidden to bite, scratch, head-butt or punch;

“4. When the athlete uses their foot, they must never use its tip, but instead the curve;

“5. The fighter whose back is on the ground is not defeated, even if they were the first one to fall;

“6. The fighter who is defeated must signal their forfeit by tapping either the mat or their opponent’s body thrice;

“7. The referee will deem defeated the fighter who, due to some contingency, cannot remember to tap to signal their forfeit;

“8. The matches will be divided into rounds of five minutes with two-minute resting periods interposed between them. The referee will count the minutes aloud for the benefit of the audience;

“9. If the fighters fall off the mat without either one having forewarned of it, the referee must force them to return to the center of the mat, standing and facing one another;

“10. The jurors may replace the referee in his duties. Neither the enterprise nor the winning fighter is responsible for whatever harm may befall the loser if, due to tenacity, that fighter refuses to signal forfeit.

“* Medical doctors, members of the local press, and professors of physical education and fencing are invited to take part in the jury.”

In 1917 a teenager named Carlos Gracie (1902–1994) saw for the first time, in Belém, a display by the Japanese man who was capable of dominating and submitting the area’s giants. A friend of his father, Gastão Gracie, Maeda agreed to teach the restless boy the art of defending oneself. In his lessons, he would teach Carlos and other Brazilians – like Luiz França, future master to Oswaldo Fadda – the concepts of his art: on the feet or the ground, the opponent’s strength was supposed to be a weapon for the win; to approach the adversary, low kicks and elbow strikes were to be the stratagems before taking them down. For evolution in training, he would use the randori, a full-on sparring session with a partner.

A faithful student, Carlos Gracie embraced Jiu-Jitsu and, to the heartbreak of the mom who dreamed of seeing more diplomats in the prestigious family, he started infusing his brothers with the love for the art. One of eight siblings (Oswaldo, Gastão Jr., George, Helena, Helio, Mary and Ilka), in 1925 Carlos opened the Gracie family’s first BJJ academy. The ad in the newspaper was a marketing masterpiece: “If you want to have your arm broken, look for the Gracie Academy.”

The grandmaster would go on to spawn 21 offspring, 13 of whom became black-belts. Each member of the family began, then, strengthening the art and adding one more link to the chain created by Grandmaster Carlos, founder and guide of the clan, as well as first in the family to launch himself in a rule-less fight, which he dubbed vale-tudo. It was in 1924 in Rio de Janeiro that Carlos Gracie confronted stevedore Samuel, a renowned athlete of capoeira.

Helio quickly became the standout among the brothers due to the technical innovations he made as an instructor and the indomitable spirit that was at odds with his skinny body. In consonance with the tactics of Count Koma, the Gracies continued challenging capoeira artists in Rio, as well as stevedores and other brave men of all origins and sizes. If these muscle men looked fearsome on their feet, on the ground they became easy prey to the pounces and chokes that defeated them as if by magic.

The family’s victories in no-rules matches started becoming legends and front-page stories, and mounting. The famous pupils, also – artists, architects, state ministers, mayors, governors, surgeons and doctors from every field.

Besides the challenges, the championships featuring practitioners, with rules exclusive to Jiu-Jitsu, were gaining momentum, fueled by rivalries of dozens of different academies. In the 1960s, when Carlson Gracie had already taken his uncle Helio’s baton as the clan’s front line in vale-tudo, an important step was taken towards the consolidation of sport Jiu-Jitsu. In 1967 the Guanabara Jiu-Jitsu Federation, in Rio, was created under the authorization of the country’s National Sports Confederation. Among the still-primitive rules, moves like takedowns, frontal mounts with both knees on the ground and the back-take yielded one point. Match duration for the adults category was set at five minutes, with three minutes’ overtime. Jiu-Jitsu had gained time controls and a scoring system.

The president of the Federation was Helio Gracie, and the president of the Consultative Council was Carlos. His first-born, Carlson, was director of the technical department. The first technical vice-director was Oswaldo Fadda, and the second was Orlando Barradas – both of them Jiu-Jitsu professors. João Alberto Barreto, a notable pupil of the Gracies’, was named director to the teaching department, whose vice-director was one of Carlson’s brothers, Robson Gracie – each of them a grandmaster of the art nowadays.

In the ’90s the art underwent a new boom. On two fronts: created by Rorion Gracie in 1993, the Ultimate Fighting Championship kick-started the sport known today as MMA. Starting with pioneer Royce Gracie and further consolidated through the sweat of a bevy of his cousins and brothers in Rickson, Renzo, Ralph, Royler, Ryan, Carley and company, Jiu-Jitsu as a method of self-defense had nothing more to prove.

On another front, Carlos Gracie Jr. picked up his father’s work organizing championships and strengthening the art as a regulated sport. Thus the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) was created in 1994, and these days it promotes tournaments overflowing with over 3,000 athletes from more than 50 countries, such as the World Championship, held annually since 1996.

One century after Count Koma disembarked in Brazil, our Jiu-Jitsu today can be practiced from Alaska to Mongolia, from Abu Dhabi to Japan.

The rest of this story continues to be written by each white-belt who steps into a Jiu-Jitsu gym for the first time.

To learn BJJ straight from Renzo Gracie, a fighter whose name is etched on the history of BJJ and MMA, visit Renzo Gracie Online Academy.

Japan’s “Count Koma” demonstrates a Jiu-Jitsu control position involving the arm. Photo: GRACIEMAG.com archives.

Grandmaster Mitsuyo Maeda (1878-1941) learned Jiu-Jitsu in Japan, was bestowed with the nickname Count Koma in Spain, won hundreds of fights in Cuba, and disseminated his knowledge to promising young students, like Carlos Gracie, in Brazil.

To bear fruit until this day, and at every corner of the planet, the master had to have firmly entrenched roots and a sound trunk.

To pay homage to Count Koma on the 70th year since his passing, GRACIEMAG.com put together a list of the main lessons the Japanese samurai left us. Reflect, learn, and—why not?—have fun.

1. START IN SUMO

Around the small town of Aomori, where he was born, the young Maeda was known as “Sumo Boy,” thanks to the fascination he had for the style of fighting taught by his father. Years later, he went to study in Tokyo, where he was introduced to Jiu-Jitsu, trained with Jigaro Kano and fell in love with the gentle art, which he would go on to teach to Carlos Gracie in Brazil.

Lesson: Expand your horizons. You’ll only fathom what techniques or styles work best for you if you open your mind and learn new things.

2. 15 OPPONENTS SEPARATING HIM FROM A BLACK BELT IN JIU-JITSU

As history has it, Mitsuyo Maeda received his black belt when he was 20 years of age, on December 25, 1898, at the revered Kodokan dojo. To receive his promotion, Maeda had to beat 15 opponents on the same day, which he did with flying colors.

Lesson: There is no glory without sacrifice. The greater the effort, the greater the reward.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0fH_8kv7ac

3. MISSION IN CALIFORNIA

In 1904, at the behest of Grandmaster Jigoro Kano, Maeda traveled to San Francisco, in the USA, to spread the word on Japanese combat techniques. The art wasn’t a complete novelty in the country, though. President Theodore Roosevelt had himself trained with a Japanese Jiu-Jitsu master, named Yamashita.

Lesson: Have faith in the mission given to you by your master, whatever and wherever it may be. It will be more important than it may at first seem.

4. HEALTHY EXTRA-ACADEMY HABITS

In the Northern Brazilian city of Belém do Pará, where he ultimately decided to put down roots, Count Koma influenced Carlos Gracie in many things that did not have to do with training in the academy. Healthy dietary habits, good cheer, patience and others of the Japanese master’s traits were mimicked by the disciple Carlos.

Lesson: A master doesn’t just teach Jiu-Jitsu. He is a positive influence off the mat, as well.

5. COUNT KOMA’S DOJO IN BRAZIL

Koma never did return to Japan to stay, ending his days in Brazil. It remains unknown whether Jigoro Kano, who was more interested in spreading judo, was proud of the hundreds upon hundreds of victories his student achieved by way of submission. In any case, Koma lived by his own book and Jiu-Jitsu is alive and well thanks to his boldness.

Final lesson: If upon reflection you realize it’s time to part ways with your master, at least don’t open an academy in the same neighborhood!

Count Koma and Maeda family in Brazil / Publicity photo

What do you think, dear reader, what’s the main lesson Count Koma’s life story left as his legacy? Is there any tale from the Japanese grandmaster’s career that you find most striking? Share it with us below.

O japonês Conde Koma mostra uma imobilização do Jiu-Jitsu no braço. Foto: Arquivos GRACIEMAG.com.

Grande mestre Mitsuyo Maeda (1878-1941) aprendeu Jiu-Jitsu no Japão, ganhou o apelido de Conde Koma na Espanha, venceu centenas de lutas em Cuba e disseminou seus conhecimentos no Brasil, para alunos promissores como o pequeno Carlos Gracie.

Para gerar frutos até hoje, e em todos os cantos do planeta, é preciso que o mestre tenha raízes firmes e um tronco forte.

Em homenagem aos 70 anos da morte de Conde Koma, o GRACIEMAG.com lista as principais lições que o samurai japonês nos deixou. Reflita, aprenda e por que não, divirta-se.

1. Início no sumô

Nascido na pequena Aomori, o pequeno Maeda era conhecido como “Menino Sumô”, graças ao seu fascínio pela modalidade ensinada por seu pai. Anos depois, foi estudar em Tóquio, conheceu o Jiu-Jitsu, treinou com Jigoro Kano e se apaixonou pela arte suave, que passaria a Carlos Gracie no Brasil.

Lição: Expanda seus horizontes. Você só vai saber que técnicas ou que modalidades servem para você se abrir a mente e conhecer coisas novas.

2. 15 oponentes entre ele e a faixa-preta de Jiu-Jitsu

Segundo consta, Mitsuyo Maeda recebeu sua faixa-preta aos 20 anos, no dia 25 de dezembro de 1898, na respeitada escola Kodokan. Para ser graduado, Maeda precisou vencer 15 oponentes no mesmo dia, no que recebeu sua nova faixa com louvor.

Lição: Glória sem sacrifício não existe. Quanto maior o esforço, maior a compensação.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0fH_8kv7ac

3. Missão na Califórnia

Em 1904, a pedido do grande mestre Jigoro Kano, Maeda foi para San Francisco, nos EUA, disseminar a boa técnica de luta japonesa. A arte não era uma total novidade no país, no entanto. O presidente Theodore Roosevelt mesmo já havia treinado com um mestre de Jiu-Jitsu japonês, chamado Yamashita.

Lição: Confie na missão dada por seu mestre, seja qual for, e onde for. Ela será mais importante do que parece, a princípio.

4. Hábitos saudáveis fora da academia

Em Belém do Pará, onde decidiu se estabelecer enfim, Conde Koma influenciou Carlos Gracie em muitos outros aspectos além dos treinos na academia. Hábitos alimentares saudáveis, bom-humor, paciência e outras qualidades do mestre japonês foram imitadas pelo pupilo Carlos.

Lição: Um mestre não ensina somente Jiu-Jitsu. Passe para os seus alunos só coisas boas fora dos tatames.

5. A academia Conde Koma no Brasil

Koma nunca mais retornou ao Japão para valer e faleceu no Brasil. Não se sabe se Jigoro Kano, mais interessado na propagação do judô, ficou orgulhoso das centenas e centenas de vitórias do pupilo por finalização. Seja como for, Koma seguiu seus próprios ideais e o Jiu-Jitsu está vivo e ativo graças à sua ousadia.

Lição final: Se você refletir e perceber que é hora de se separar de seu mestre, ao menos não abra uma academia na vizinhança!

Conde Koma com a familia Maeda no Brasil. Foto: Divulgação.

E para você, amigo leitor, qual a principal lição que a história de vida de Conde Koma deixou como legado? Alguma passagem marcante da carreira do japonês que você lembre? Divida com a gente abaixo.

Sixty years ago, on October 23, 1951, arguably the most important fight in Jiu-Jitsu history took place in Rio de Janeiro. The fight was held at Maracanã Stadium, the largest in the world at the time, built to host the 1950 soccer World Cup and with a capacity of over two hundred thousand people.Understanding the magnitude of Gracie vs. Kimura requires a look back at Helio Gracie’s victories against Japanese champions and the Gracie brothers’ resistance to the imposition of judo practiced as a sport in place of training Jiu-Jitsu as martial art.

Helio and Kimura

At the end of the 19th century, Japanese immigrants began to travel the world and spread the ancient fighting system denominated Jiu-Jitsu. This initial dissemination was done in a disorganized fashion, as Japanese practitioners took part in exhibitions and taught their own style to international students throughout the world. As the Japanese government realized the tremendous international interest in their national martial art, they appointed the founder of the Kodokan Institute, Jigoro Kano, to organize Jiu-Jitsu as a sport and take control of the international dissemination of Jiu-Jitsu, which had recently been renamed “judo” by Jigoro Kano.

Brazil represented one of the greatest centers for Jiu-Jitsu dissemination since a vast number of Japanese citizens migrated from Japan to Brazil. This exodus of Japanese immigrants occurred after a treaty was signed by the Japanese and Brazilian governments to bring Japanese workers to help at Brazilian coffee plantations in the state of São Paulo. Today, Brazil has the highest number of Japanese people outside of Japan. In order for the Japanese Jiu-Jitsu fighters to maintain their supremacy abroad, they needed to dominate local practitioners on the mat. In Brazil, this was made very difficult by a young and skinny Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter named Helio Gracie. Between 1932 and 1936, Helio fought the best Japanese fighters to visit Brazil and remained undefeated. For instance, he defeated Masagoishi by armlock and famous Japanese champion Taro Miyake by choke.

These victories caused a delegation of Japanese masters including Sumiyaki Kotani, one of the highest authorities in Japan, to come to Brazil and promote Helio Gracie to fourth-degree black belt in judo and attempt to convince him and his brothers to follow the Japanese modern sportive system – judo. They also invited Helio to participate in a judo tournament in São Paulo in order to introduce him to the modern rules, which included a point system. This represented a substantial alteration of the original system they had learned from Mitsuyo Maeda, which predicated that a match could only be decided by submission or loss of consciousness. The new judo rules kept the matches standing and minimized the importance of ground fighting.

In addition, the new Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, which they called judo, de-emphasized self-defense techniques and favored the practice of Jiu-Jitsu only as a sport. The Gracie brothers did not feel that the Japanese were technically superior to them, given their observations and Helio’s victories, and were very successful teaching their own modernized and efficient method of street self-defense. Consequently, they decided to maintain their independence from the Japanese and continue to teach their own method of Jiu-Jitsu. As the Japanese colony in Brazil tried to promote the sport of judo, they ran into resistance from the Gracie brothers, who accused them of hiding the martial secrets of Jiu-Jitsu from international students. The Japanese felt that the only way to quiet the annoying opposition by the Gracies was to find someone who could challenge and defeat Helio Gracie, who had retired in 1938 due to a lack of competent opponents.

So in November of 1950, Helio Gracie was asked by a Japanese emissary if he would accept an offer to face a Japanese champion from Japan. When he responded, “It would be a pleasure,” he suspected that soon he would be surprised by the visit of a Japanese champion. This occurred on July 18, 1951, when local Japenese-language newspaper “São Paulo Shimbum” announced that the World Champion, Masahiko Kimura, who is still considered by many to be the best judo fighter of all time, was coming to Brazil to fight. The newspaper invested the equivalent of more than US$ 100,000 to bring the Japanese team over. One week later, on October 25, Kimura arrived in Rio accompanied by sixth-degree black belt Yamaguchi and fifth-degree black belt Yukio Kato, who he described as being the second and third best judokas in Japan. On that Wednesday afternoon, Helio Gracie was teaching class and received a phone call from the largest Brazilian newspaper, inviting him to come meet the Japanese champions who were on their way from the airport for an interview. Helio Gracie rushed to the headquarters of “Diario da Noite” and arrived in time to meet Kimura. Both fighters accepted the idea of a match as proposed by the journalists. Kimura was supposed to go to São Paulo the next day for a series of demonstrations and Helio promised to go there with his brother Carlos Gracie in order to discuss the details for their match. On Friday, August 10, the Gracie brothers met with the Japanese delegation and were told that instead of Kimura, Helio would first have to face Yukio Kato, a 22-year-old weighing 154lbs. They argued that in the case of a defeat against Kimura, Helio would use the weight difference of more than 70 lbs as an excuse. Against Kato, who was only 15 lbs heavier, the Japanese fighter would be able to establish the superiority of their method beyond any doubt. In light of the Japanese demands, Helio accepted the challenge and a match was scheduled for September 6 in Rio de Janeiro.

On Thursday, September 6, 1951, Helio Gracie and Yukio Kato met at Maracana stadium, and the match was declared a draw after three 10-minute rounds. Kato was more aggressive in the first round and attempted to knock out Gracie with powerful throwing techniques. Helio demonstrated great defense and started to take the offensive in the second round by bringing the fight to the ground. Although Helio had sustained a broken rib two weeks before the fight, he dominated the third round and only narrowly missed victory (instead of the draw that the match was declared) because Kato escaped off the mat three times to avoid Helio’s chokes. Kato became so impressed with Helio’s techniques that he said after the fight that Helio could consider himself a world champion in groundfighting since he felt that even at the Kodokan he wouldn’t find a fighter of his weight who could defeat him on the ground.

Not satisfied with the result, Kato challenged Helio to a remach in São Paulo. This time the match would take place in a ring with ropes to avoid any escapes. On Saturday, October 29 Kato and Gracie fought for the second time, at Pacaembu Gymnasium. Fighting in a ring, Kato could not escape and, after a couple of spectacular throws, attempted to finish the fight on the ground with a choke while passing the guard. Gracie felt the pressure, as he admitted after the match, but managed to roll out of it. Using his flexibility, Gracie recovered the guard and applied a front choke from his back that rendered Kato unconscious eight minutes into the first round. The result of this fight repeesented a glorious moment in Helio Gracie’s career, as he proved that his Jiu-Jitsu could not be considered inferior to the Japanese.

To restore the tarnished reputation of judo, Kimura finally challenged Helio Gracie to a match and promised to win “on the first grip” with a devastating throw. Helio responded that he could resist any throw and promised not to pull guard in order to prove his point. Kimura then said that if Gracie lasted more than three minutes he could consider himself the winner. And so on Tuesday, October 23, 1951, Helio Gracie stepped onto the canvas tarp covering part of the Maracana Stadium soccer pitch, to face the best heavyweight in the history of judo, Masahiko Kimura. Helio weighed in at 139 lbs against Kimura’s 210lbs. Kimura was four years younger and 71 lbs havier than Helio Gracie. Kimura immediately threw Gracie with an osotogari and did not encounter much difficulty in passing Gracie’s open guard. However, once he landed in side-control he could not find an opening through which to finish the fight. In an interview before the fight, Helio Gracie demonstrated Kimura’s favorite armlock, which is known today as the Kimura lock, and said that he was training rigorously to defend it. And indeed he stopped it several times. But Kimura was very experienced and knew that if he kept using his strength advantage to force the lock on Gracie’s left arm, eventually he would fatigue and give in. This process only worked in the third minute of the second round, when Kimura was able to establish his grip from the North-South position. Kimura then positioned himself to finish the lock and slowly applied pressure. Helio’s amazing flexibility created a scary scene that made it seem that his arm could break at any moment. Thinking that his brother would not tap out, Carlos Gracie ran onto the mat and pushed Kimura, interrupting the fight. Carlos was restrained by an athletic commission official, and the referee indicated that the fight should continue since Helio didn’t tap. Helio, however, asked the referee to raise Kimura’s arm, since he would not contradict his brother’s decision to stop the fight. As one can see by examining all the newspapers of the time, Helio Gracie’s arm was not broken as Kimura would claim many years later in his autobiography. In fact, there is a picture of Gracie in the shower moments after the fight, with his left hand on his head, clearly demonstrating that his left arm was not injured. After the fight, Kimura publically recognized the uniqueness of Helio Gracie’s technique on the ground and invited him to come teach in Japan.

Anyone who knows Jiu-Jitsu understands the extreme difficulty of withstanding a technical opponent with a 70-pound weight advantage for 13 minutes. This amazing feat, which was recognized by Kimura himself, was only possible due to the revolutionary defensive strategy developed by Helio Gracie, which prevented Kimura form executing his finishing holds even though he always held dominant positions. Although Gracie was defeated, this fight represented the definitive independence of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu from Japan. From that point forward, Helio Gracie was sure that his reinvention of Jiu-Jitsu was superior in many ways to the original Japanese method, and he and his family forged ahead with the process that led to the international acceptance of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu’s superiority as the most complete and effective fighting system in the world.