An Ethnographic Research of Martial Arts as a Subculture
Brazilian jiu jitsu is a martial art that has been around for many decades and it is commonly referred to as BJJ. Although, BJJ has been around for many decades, it is not a practice that has been yet perfected. One of the main issues that makes the art flawed, is that it lacks a governing body, meaning that there are no strict rules or someone to impose thus rules if someone were to break them. As a result, BJJ is not an art that requires to be mastered before calling a person a master. Therefore, no one is required to be a black belt in order to open a BJJ school and teach.
On the other hand, some would argue that by BJJ having no one governing body is what makes jiu jitsu an attractive martial art to learn, since there is no one preventing anyone from creating their own dojo and running it as they see it fit. The issue with this would be that certain schools can be tainting what Brazilin jiu jitsu means and could potentially confuse others into thinking that they should only learn jiu jitsu to harm others. Many people could theoretically be learning only for self-defense motives and in doing so losing the concept of what BJJ really means. People who learn BJJ for what the original meaning of education, and discipline could argue otherwise. For example, the person I decided to interview for this subculture says that he finds inner peace in practicing BJJ. The interviewee knows of many other fellow BJJ martial artist that do not practice BJJ for self-defense, but who practice it because it helps them relax, keep calm, and meditate. The interviewee argued that BJJ is a great way to relieve tension and stress cause by work or personal constrains of the human notion.
As a child, I was always drawn into martial arts. Martial arts were not my favorite thing to watch or to want to learn about as a child, but it was always appealing to me, mainly because of the movies I would watch. I got into watching varies martial art movies from actors like Bruce lee and Li Lianjie, who is better known as his stage name Jet Li. Martial arts always seemed interesting to me for two main reasons; it looked cool and self-defense. For a 9-year-old, martial arts can look cool and for a kid, feeling like your cool can be very important. In addition, when I thought about martial arts, I always related it to self-defense. Self-defense is always important and with bullying being a main issue at most schools, I thought if I was proficient at martial arts, I would be able to always defend myself against bullies. I wanted to learn how to defend myself, so I would always imitate moves from martial arts that I would watch on television. I would always win fights even against people who were bigger than me, because that’s what I would witness in most martial arts movies. However, my parents weren’t zealous on me learning martial arts, so I never got introduce to it, but I’ve always had a keen interest in learning martial arts.
Consequently, when thinking about what subculture should I focus my ethnographic research paper on, one of the first ideas that came to mind was martial arts. I may not be very knowledgeable when it comes to martial arts. For example, I don’t know their specific rules or different techniques and styles, but I have always wanted to explore the lifestyle of a martial artist and how it affects their life. Conversely as I got older, I ended up getting a job and forgetting about wanting to learn martial arts, but then one day I started talking more to a fellow coworker and we ended up becoming friends. After getting to know my coworker a little better, I learned that he is a jiujitsu instructor at the Jubera Jiu Jitsu Dojo. Getting to talk to my coworker about his experience as an instructor made me rekindle my interest in martial arts that I once had as a kid.
Before my coworker, and now this assignment, my knowledge on jiu jitsu as a martial arts style was very limited. The little information that I did have about jiu jitsu was mostly from what I learn from watching movies and tv on the topic. Coming from a Hispanic family did not help with me learning more about the topic since they showed no interest in me wanting to learn martial arts. When we were assigned this assignment, I knew this homework was a perfect opportunity to expand my knowledge on the field, that is the main reason why I decided on studying this sub-culture. I’m very excited to see what my research will uncover and how it will affect me.
My journey on learning jiu jitsu has been eye opening for me. There are some stereotypes behind what jiu jitsu is and how those skills can help a person shape their life. Many believe that jiu jitsu is just about fighting and about competing to see who is the toughest. They believe that the martial arts is like in the action movies, where all they do is battle and compete for belts that demonstrate their skills and capabilities. Jiu jitsu is so much more than competition and “fighting”. Jiu jitsu is an art, a discipline, and an education that enhances the mind to be stronger than the body. My plans are not only to learn about the sub-culture of jiu jitsu, they are also to participate and learn the skills of jiu jitsu itself.
Once I start taking my jiu jitsu classes, I expect to be taught either one on one or in a small group, and I plan on my instructor being Elvin Ryan. Mr. Ryan is an instructor at the dojo, and he is currently a purple belt, but can compete and even win against fellow black belts. His strength is not only demonstrated by his physical strength, it is also demonstrated by his mental strength. He is a master of jiu jitsu and I know that he could be a great teacher for me. The attire for the class is casual with a regular white uniform. Classes are not long, or time consuming, they are between forty-five minutes to one hour long. I’m still not sure how physical intensive the training will be, but I’m prepared for it. Mr. Ryan has mentioned that jiu jitsu requires so much more than strength and I am excited to learn what he means by that.
In the 1900’s Brazil decided to adopt the Japanese fighting style jiu jitsu after the Russo-Japanese war because it was showcased to be an effective non-lethal fighting style that also had displayed great physical training. The Brazilian navy had decided to hire a jiu jitsu master to teach its elite officers corps, but in the wake of this happening the public was displeased to hear this. Since, Brazil already had its own fighting style called capoeira, and among the capoeira fighters there was known fighter that went by the nickname “old monkey”, he had earned the reputation as a tough street fighter. Old Monkey was not allowed to openly practice or use capoeira since it was outlawed by the republican Criminal Code of 1890.
The public wanted both fighters to fight to see which fighting style would be superior, and after many persistence requests from the public to allow the fight to happen the authorities gave in and allowed the fight to happen. Both fighters seemed very confident about their skills as a fighter especially the Brazilian fighter, before the fight began the Brazilin had to use the uniform of jiu jitsu in order to look respectful and better represent the Afro-Brazilin nationality. Once the fight started it was almost over in a instance with the jiu jitsu master being on the losing side, he stood no chance with the range techniques that capoeira had to offer. The audience erupted with cheers shouting out “Asia kneels to Brazil”.
A few years after that event jiu jitsu still remained popular among brazil and there was even a establish jiu jitsu dojo that offered a 5,000 francs to whoever could beat them, time after time they would win the fights, mainly due to the fact that they had to fight using the karate gi which is the name of their uniform. The uniform also gives them the upper hand because it allows for jiu jitsu practitioners to get better grip and preform their techniques. The dojo finally lost due to a fight where the participant had covered in body in oil and refuse to wear the gi thus granting him victory since the jiu jitsu student couldn’t use any of his grappling techniques.
In the aftermath of that encounter, the Gracias family which was the winner against the jiu jitsu fighter became familiar with Mayeda which was a Japanese university-educated martial artist. Then the Gracias family, which practice the brazilin fighting style wanted their oldest son to learn jiu jitsu because they saw how much success the Japanese dojo had in defeating their opponents. Therefore, the Brazilian and Japanese jiu jitsu fighting styles were mix. This peculiar dojo that I am attending to shows brazilin jiu jitsu by a world class champion and holds a second-degree black belt.
When I was conducting my field notes I notice how well structured the dojo is and how the chain of command works. The dojo seemed very friendly to newcomers and even had a four-day free trial to see if they could entice people to join their dojo. I also notice that by them not having no one to take orders from or change their teaching methods, meaning they have no governing body. They were able to teach students effectively and the way they thought was best. But after conversing with the instructor he told me that this could be seen as a double edge blade since there could be many dojos who aren’t teaching properly and could possibly be ruining BBJ reputation.
My proposal to fix this issue would be to make the IBJJF better known as “international Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation” the official governing body of BJJ. Since to many schools it is already recognize as a governing body just unofficially, since they set up all the major tournaments and people can only participate in them following their set of rules. By the IBJJF being the official governing body, they can regulate the rules and enforce them. And this creating stability all over the dojo schools with no one school being able to invent their own rules or do any actions that would tarnish BJJ as a martial arts form. Finally, this will help prevent people who aren’t qualified to teach BJJ and thus ward off people who are only interested in using BJJ to make money or only teach BJJ to harm others while disregarding what principles BJJ was made from. Therefore, the best option that would better the BJJ community would be to make the IBJJF the official governing body of Brazilian jiu jitsu.
Works Cited
- Cairus, José. 'MODERNIZATION, NATIONALISM AND THE ELITE: The Genesis of
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 1905-1920.' Revista Tempo e Argumento, vol. 3, no. 2, 2011, pp.100-121.
