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The Sumo Wrestler Who Taught BJJ, Soshihiro Satake
3 year(s) ago • 2738 views • 18 replies
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
While all BJJ practitioners are familiar with Mitsuyo Maeda, few are are aware that Maeda was just one of several Japanese Judoka that influenced the founding of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Satake (second from left) was close friends with Maeda (far right), fought challenge matches across Brazil, was a noted leg-locker and opened the very first Judo/Jiu-Jitsu school in Brazil run by a Japanese person.
His academy at the Rio Negro Athletic Club in Manaus was created in 1916 and still has descendant BJJ, Judo and MMA academies to this day.
UFC VII Champion, Marco Ruas hails from this lineage.
Read more about Satake and his contributions to our art at BJJHistory.org.
Follow me on Instagram @historyofbjj.
Thanks,
Josh
Satake (second from left) was close friends with Maeda (far right), fought challenge matches across Brazil, was a noted leg-locker and opened the very first Judo/Jiu-Jitsu school in Brazil run by a Japanese person.
His academy at the Rio Negro Athletic Club in Manaus was created in 1916 and still has descendant BJJ, Judo and MMA academies to this day.
UFC VII Champion, Marco Ruas hails from this lineage.
Read more about Satake and his contributions to our art at BJJHistory.org.
Follow me on Instagram @historyofbjj.
Thanks,
Josh
JBlack belt 2nd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Thanks! This is very interesting stuff. I’m definitely enjoying your material on BJJHistory.org. I just finished the article about the first BJJ black belt (https://simonbjj.com/firs[...]k-belt-bjj).
Edited 3 year(s) ago
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Thanks! This is very interesting stuff. I’m definitely enjoying your material on BJJHistory.org. I just finished the article about the first BJJ black belt (https://simonbjj.com/firs[...]k-belt-bjj).
Thanks a lot.
Josh
Josh
MBrown beltVerified
3 year(s) ago
While all BJJ practitioners are familiar with Mitsuyo Maeda, few are are aware that Maeda was just one of several Japanese Judoka that influenced the founding of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Satake (second from left) was close friends with Maeda (far right), fought challenge matches across Brazil, was a noted leg-locker and opened the very first Judo/Jiu-Jitsu school in Brazil run by a Japanese person. His academy at the Rio Negro Athletic Club in Manaus was created in 1916 and still has descendant BJJ, Judo and MMA academies to this day. UFC VII Champion, Marco Ruas hails from this lineage. Read more about Satake and his contributions to our art at BJJHistory.org. Follow me on Instagram @historyofbjj. Thanks, Josh
Yeah, very interesting, Josh…. Satake, Takeo Yano, Geo Omori and others, not only Maeda, influenced the very early Jiu Jitsu development in Brasil, too.
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Yeah, very interesting, Josh…. Satake, Takeo Yano, Geo Omori and others, not only Maeda, influenced the very early Jiu Jitsu development in Brasil, too.
Yes. Please check out my articles on BJJHistory.org. I have articles on all of them.
Josh
Josh
RBlack beltVerified
3 year(s) ago
My apologies, but the impact Mitsuyo Maeda may have had on BJJ was comparatively small.
I am therefore primarily referring to what Joe Svinth wrote in his 2003 book Martial Arts in the Modern World, as I find Joe Svinth to be a very reliable source.
Svinth notes that it would be plausible to assume that Carlos Gracie was only tutored by Maeda from 1920 to late 1921:
!As a rule, it takes 6 to 12 months to train someone to reasonable proficiency at groundwork, and 3 to 5 years to train that same person to equal proficiency at standing wrestling.
Thus, if Maeda knew that he had only a few months to work with Gracie, then he probably would have concentrated on teaching groundwork rather than standing throws."
(Svinth 2003, S.218)
If that's true - and the timing proves it - then Maeda's influence on the Gracie family's combat system wasn't huge, to say the least.
I hope I didn't upset anyone with my comments...
:-)
I am therefore primarily referring to what Joe Svinth wrote in his 2003 book Martial Arts in the Modern World, as I find Joe Svinth to be a very reliable source.
Svinth notes that it would be plausible to assume that Carlos Gracie was only tutored by Maeda from 1920 to late 1921:
!As a rule, it takes 6 to 12 months to train someone to reasonable proficiency at groundwork, and 3 to 5 years to train that same person to equal proficiency at standing wrestling.
Thus, if Maeda knew that he had only a few months to work with Gracie, then he probably would have concentrated on teaching groundwork rather than standing throws."
(Svinth 2003, S.218)
If that's true - and the timing proves it - then Maeda's influence on the Gracie family's combat system wasn't huge, to say the least.
I hope I didn't upset anyone with my comments...
:-)
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
My apologies, but the impact Mitsuyo Maeda may have had on BJJ was comparatively small. I am therefore primarily referring to what Joe Svinth wrote in his 2003 book Martial Arts in the Modern World, as I find Joe Svinth to be a very reliable source. Svinth notes that it would be plausible to assume that Carlos Gracie was only tutored by Maeda from 1920 to late 1921: !As a rule, it takes 6 to 12 months to train someone to reasonable proficiency at groundwork, and 3 to 5 years to train that same person to equal proficiency at standing wrestling. Thus, if Maeda knew that he had only a few months to work with Gracie, then he probably would have concentrated on teaching groundwork rather than standing throws.' (Svinth 2003, S.218) If that's true - and the timing proves it - then Maeda's influence on the Gracie family's combat system wasn't huge, to say the least. I hope I didn't upset anyone with my comments... :-)
Yep. You are correct. Please check out my articles on the topic. I think you will enjoy. Myself, Drysdale, Valente, Pedreira, Tufy, Chadi, etc. all agree Maeda's interaction with Carlos would have been minimal. Carlos' primary instructor was Jacyntho Ferro.
Josh
Josh
JBlack belt 2nd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Origin stories in martial arts often remind me of hagiographies, which are tales about either the founder of a religious tradition or key figures in a religion’s development. Things sometimes get oversimplified or embellished as time goes on, especially since the founders rarely write anything down, so it’s up to the second generation to tell the tales (and the third generation to revise them).
Josh has a good article on his site about Jacyntho Ferro, the guy who was Carlos Gracie’s actual primary instructor: https://simonbjj.com/ferro. I’m now wondering if I need to change my lineage on Beltchecker to read “Jigoro Kano > ??? > Carlos Gracie….” ;) It reminds me of an episode of South Park…
Josh has a good article on his site about Jacyntho Ferro, the guy who was Carlos Gracie’s actual primary instructor: https://simonbjj.com/ferro. I’m now wondering if I need to change my lineage on Beltchecker to read “Jigoro Kano > ??? > Carlos Gracie….” ;) It reminds me of an episode of South Park…
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Jim, thanks for the shout out. Have you read my article. "What are we to think of the Gracie Version of History?" It hits on a lot of those topics.
https://simonbjj.com/the-[...]974dfb21aa
Josh
https://simonbjj.com/the-[...]974dfb21aa
Josh
RBlack beltVerified
3 year(s) ago
Yep. You are correct. Please check out my articles on the topic. I think you will enjoy. Myself, Drysdale, Valente, Pedreira, Tufy, Chadi, etc. all agree Maeda's interaction with Carlos would have been minimal. Carlos' primary instructor was Jacyntho Ferro. Josh
Thanks a lot.
I just checked out your articles. Very interesting and excellent!
I just checked out your articles. Very interesting and excellent!
Edited 3 year(s) ago
RBlack beltVerified
3 year(s) ago
May I say something more about Higashi and Hancock?
You mentioned in the timeline that the book "The complete Kano jiu jitsu" was published in 1905. But this book had absolutely nothing to do with Kano and his judo.
Kano called his fighting system "Judo" from the beginning. There was never any kind of "Kano Jiu Jitsu".
Regarding Higashi: There is no evidence that he ever trained in judo. The records of all black belts in the judo since 1883 do not include his name.
Higashi was born in 1881 and left Japan at the age of 19 (in 1900).
So he can only have trained something in the direction of "Jiu Jitsu" in the time before that, as a child and teenager.
Now it is assumed that Higashi is said to have belonged to Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu. However, that is not possible.
If one interprets the timeline benevolently in his favour, Higashi can have trained in the Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu at the most at the age of 13 - 16 years. That doesn't make him a representative of that school...
Moreover, there is no evidence that Higashi ever had any contact with the Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu. Its last representative, Jan de Jong, states that the name Katsukuma Higashi never appeared in the school's records in connection with Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu.
Katsukuma Higashi is also not known in Shiten Ryu (although it is sometimes wrongly assumed that he belongs to this school).
So it is not verifiable which Japanese Koryu Higashi is said to have belonged to - and this, in connection with his very moderate abilities, does not make him a representative of Japanese martial arts in Europe and the USA.
His book is a botch, and the few public fights he fought in Europe he lost all. Higashi didn't stand a chance in the fight against Yukio Tani, and Tani must have been very disrespectful afterwards...
"Tani, who keeps a school of Japanese wrestling in London, says that Higashi is unknown in Japan."
So in a nutshell - I just wanted to point out that Katsukuma Higashi does not belong in the list of Japanese teachers who spread Japanese martial arts in Europe and America ... :-)
You mentioned in the timeline that the book "The complete Kano jiu jitsu" was published in 1905. But this book had absolutely nothing to do with Kano and his judo.
Kano called his fighting system "Judo" from the beginning. There was never any kind of "Kano Jiu Jitsu".
Regarding Higashi: There is no evidence that he ever trained in judo. The records of all black belts in the judo since 1883 do not include his name.
Higashi was born in 1881 and left Japan at the age of 19 (in 1900).
So he can only have trained something in the direction of "Jiu Jitsu" in the time before that, as a child and teenager.
Now it is assumed that Higashi is said to have belonged to Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu. However, that is not possible.
If one interprets the timeline benevolently in his favour, Higashi can have trained in the Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu at the most at the age of 13 - 16 years. That doesn't make him a representative of that school...
Moreover, there is no evidence that Higashi ever had any contact with the Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu. Its last representative, Jan de Jong, states that the name Katsukuma Higashi never appeared in the school's records in connection with Tsutsumi Hozan Ryu.
Katsukuma Higashi is also not known in Shiten Ryu (although it is sometimes wrongly assumed that he belongs to this school).
So it is not verifiable which Japanese Koryu Higashi is said to have belonged to - and this, in connection with his very moderate abilities, does not make him a representative of Japanese martial arts in Europe and the USA.
His book is a botch, and the few public fights he fought in Europe he lost all. Higashi didn't stand a chance in the fight against Yukio Tani, and Tani must have been very disrespectful afterwards...
"Tani, who keeps a school of Japanese wrestling in London, says that Higashi is unknown in Japan."
So in a nutshell - I just wanted to point out that Katsukuma Higashi does not belong in the list of Japanese teachers who spread Japanese martial arts in Europe and America ... :-)
Edited 3 year(s) ago
JBlack belt 2nd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Thanks, Josh. That article is excellent. I am enormously grateful to the Gracie family for all they have done to develop and popularize Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Without them, I probably wouldn’t be training BJJ today. That said, I do think we need a more nuanced history of the art (which is exactly the kind of thing you’re doing).
I noticed that you’re affiliated with Relson Gracie. I had the good fortune to train with him and Todd Tanaka on occasion when I lived in Hawaii (though they weren’t my main instructors). Has GM Relson read any of your articles and, if so, what does he think of them? I always enjoyed his stories about the fights that he and his brothers would get into back in the day.
I noticed that you’re affiliated with Relson Gracie. I had the good fortune to train with him and Todd Tanaka on occasion when I lived in Hawaii (though they weren’t my main instructors). Has GM Relson read any of your articles and, if so, what does he think of them? I always enjoyed his stories about the fights that he and his brothers would get into back in the day.
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Rambat,
Thanks. Yes, I mention some of that about Higashi in my article. I include him and Hancock in the Foundational Era, as the books were the first exposure to Jiu-Jitsu for many people around the world (including Brazilians). While I agree their qualifications were suspect, this is likely where Mario Aleixo learned and he was the first Brazilian to teach Jiu-Jitsu.
So, while it was not "good Jiu-Jitsu", it is part of the history of events.
Josh
Thanks. Yes, I mention some of that about Higashi in my article. I include him and Hancock in the Foundational Era, as the books were the first exposure to Jiu-Jitsu for many people around the world (including Brazilians). While I agree their qualifications were suspect, this is likely where Mario Aleixo learned and he was the first Brazilian to teach Jiu-Jitsu.
So, while it was not "good Jiu-Jitsu", it is part of the history of events.
Josh
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
Thanks, Josh. That article is excellent. I am enormously grateful to the Gracie family for all they have done to develop and popularize Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Without them, I probably wouldn’t be training BJJ today. That said, I do think we need a more nuanced history of the art (which is exactly the kind of thing you’re doing). I noticed that you’re affiliated with Relson Gracie. I had the good fortune to train with him and Todd Tanaka on occasion when I lived in Hawaii (though they weren’t my main instructors). Has GM Relson read any of your articles and, if so, what does he think of them? I always enjoyed his stories about the fights that he and his brothers would get into back in the day.
He has not read them as far as I know. I have tried to speak about historical topics with him and other Gracies. So have others. In general, the Gracies are not really interested or aware of the "history". Drysdale writes about this a lot in his last book.
They are familiar with the "Gracie Version" and not really other aspects.
Josh
They are familiar with the "Gracie Version" and not really other aspects.
Josh
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
The Sumo?
JSBlack belt 3rd degreeVerified
3 year(s) ago
I will keep an eye out, but I have not seen anything regarding a modern influence.
