# What is the difference between Brazilian and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu?



## JayC (Jul 16, 2007)

*A question many ask.* But what is the difference between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Japanese Jujitsu?

The first and most important reason can be found in the art's history and is primary to all others discussed afterward. When you research the history of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, you will understand that it came from *Judo* in its time of renaissance. In the early 1900's, Judo was being developed from a variety of Jiu-jitsu styles in order to make it the most complete and effective martial art in the world. Some older Jiu-jitsu schools only focused on one area of fighting (some practiced primarily standing techniques) and had been left without a realistic battlefield testing ground for hundreds of years. If you recall the history of Judo's beginning, you know that it was made up of mostly standing techniques at first, from Kito Ryu Jiu-jitsu and a few other styles. This alone was not enough, so the groundwork of Fusen Ryu was added, making it more complete. When you say "traditional" or "Japanese" Jiu-jitsu, you are referring to only one of these Jiu-jitsu styles, which is incomplete alone. When you say Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, you are referring to the best techniques from a wide variety of styles.



Gene Simco said:


> Jiu-Jitsu in the United States was underdeveloped compared to the Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil. Only now are they beginning to catch up, and they are still suffering from the inadequacies of the 'older' and more traditional schools of Jiu-Jitsu in this country. To give you an idea of what I mean, I'll tell you a little about my training. I earned a black belt in a classical style of Jiu-Jitsu, which taught all the Judo throws of the Kodokan and Aikijitsu (the grandfather of Aikido). It was a great art, but one that could not be used on anyone with skill effectively before complete mastery. I was subsequently defeated by a student of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who was only at blue belt level, while I was a black belt in traditional Jiu-Jitsu. Why? Lack of realistic practice is the reason. There was too much of: "you stay perfectly still while I try an extravagant technique on you and you play along." There are many techniques which is where Judo is great, and some traditional schools teach techniques that were designed thousands of years ago whose applications have not been modified or thought about since. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is simple to learn, so simple that a dedicated student of one year can easily beat martial artists of other styles who have many years of experience.
> 
> Some styles of martial arts spend hundreds of hours working on a rigid stance and one hundred standing techniques that cannot possibly be mastered in a reasonable amount of time. I once interviewed Royce Gracie and he gave a response that supports this point quite well:
> 
> "We don't believe in teaching a ton of moves every class and the student walking away with limited knowledge. We prefer our students to know 20 techniques at 100%, than 100 techniques at 20%."


Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu focuses on techniques that are easy to learn in a very short period of time. The techniques taught in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu are also effective and have been tested on knowledgeable martial artists who are not cooperating. A small amount of simple but high percentage techniques makes the difference. If all you do is practice five or six techniques, you will be very good at them in a year or so, but if you have to divide your time between a hundred or more techniques, you will most likely be a jack of all trades and a master of none in a year's time.

The differences in the two styles of Jiu-Jitsu are not necessarily in the technique, but in the practice and application. First of all, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has a very sophisticated ground-game, where Japanese Jiu-Jitsu places importance on standing techniques, as does Judo. Judo as a sport does not allow leg locks, where Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu does. Sport rules for Judo dictate that if a player has been pinned by his/her opponent for twenty-five seconds, he or she will lose the match. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has no time restraints on ground positions and stalling most often occurs while standing. Older styles of Jiu-Jitsu (often spelled jujutsu or jujitsu) are usually preceded with their style name or Ryu (the Japanese word for "style"). These Ryu of Jiu-Jitsu were developed long ago and have no sport application to allow them to develop technically. The lack of realistic practice is what makes some styles ineffective or obsolete.

To really understand the differences between Brazilian and Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, one must research the history of both arts. In particular the birthing of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Carlos Gracie, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's founder, who was an avid boxer. Most Japanese Jiu-Jitsu fighters were studying traditional Karate strikes, which are much different from that of a boxer. Maeda, the man who introduced Gracie to Jiu-Jitsu, was also a student of Judo, which at the time was considered an updated version of Jiu-Jitsu, or Kano 's Jiu-Jitsu. As discussed previously, the Judo that the Gracie family was introduced to was a Judo whose focus had turned to ground fighting in recent years. This ground fighting came from only one style of Jiu-jitsu (Fusen Ryu), the other styles that made up Judo had not focused on ground work, so as their practice continued, they stayed to their traditional roots, which considered mainly of standing techniques. While older styles of Jiu-jitsu stuck to their core curriculums, Judo soon forgot about experience and turned its attention to gaining world wide exposure as an Olympic sport, which would eventually restrict the once great art and cause it to focus once again on primarily standing techniques. Maeda was also exposed to western wrestling, as he had encountered one wrestler in particular at the West Point Military Academy in New York, and had more experience fighting throughout Europe and the Americas than any other Japanese fighter of that time.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a progressive style of Jiu-Jitsu; once a technique is developed and used in competition, other Jiu-Jitsu players begin to design counters to that technique, and counters to those counters, which allows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to evolve freely. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players do not prepare for the untrained opponent; they assume that their opponent may be more technical.

The problem with some 'older' styles of Jiu-Jitsu is the same problem with old cars, or anything that has not been updated or modified.

Comparing "old" Jiu-Jitsu to "new" Jiu-Jitsu is like comparing old cars to new. Both a Ford Model-T and a Ferrari will do the same job, but a Ferrari will do it more efficiently. The ability of Jiu-Jitsu teachers can be compared to the mechanics certified to work on these cars; if you take a mechanic from 1910 and show him a Ferrari, some things would look familiar, but he would not understand the new design and complexity of the modern variation without proper training.


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## Jango (Sep 4, 2007)

Great post:clap:


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## silverback (Oct 25, 2007)

thx great post dude


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## Si-K (Jul 23, 2007)

Jay C - did you have a couple of spare hours on your hands???? lol.

I Keep trying to pm you and keep getting told I do not have the authority - or somethin' like that.

I'm back at BJJ next week - if you fancy killing me and gashing my head open a la Eastman and co. again


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## christomo (Nov 20, 2007)

good post lad, good info there


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## knox (Jun 2, 2008)

what a great thread! seriously very helpful and informative to somone new such as myself!

thanks!


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## toxo (Mar 11, 2008)

I was let to believe that there is nothing in bjj thats not in judo but i could be wrong about that. Judo focus is the throwing side of things whilst bjj is the grappling side of things.


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## steve c (Mar 10, 2009)

thanks man great post


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## D-TEC (Nov 27, 2007)

main diff is LOL


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## toxo (Mar 11, 2008)

the first post is inacurate, kano may of only trained in 2 ryu of ju jitsu but many of his students who helped develope judo had black belts in other ryu of ju jitsu aswell as training in and fighting in catch wrestling. kano also trained with alot of karate masters to help develope the foot sweeps in judo and alot of these karate guys where also masters of tegumi the okinawan grappling art( Miyagi Chojun secifically)

also saying that ju jitsu has stagnated through not having a sporting form is nonsense aswell, its called randori.

the idea that ju jitsu was used on the battle field is funny aswell as samuras had pikes and bows and arrows, swords,knifes ect and the chances of you loosing all of them is laughable, it was used to take prisoners for ransom once you had disarmed them.

the main difference is that bjj is a sport and ju jitsu is a system of combat, a good example of why you dont see a whole load of ground work in ju jitsu would be mark coleman/kerr totally negating the guard with double bicep ties and headbutting (i know there both wrestlers, it was an example) once you know all the dirty tricks alot of groundfighting dosnt work though alot of it does, ju jitsu has just developed to go strieght to submission or more accurately in jj a break from standing as working for position is a bad idea in a real conflict.


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## stuart (Jul 13, 2009)

ju-jitsu is a very powerful art jap style is not as strong on the ground as the brazillian style but nonetheless in the correct hands they are very powerful.


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## scott23 (Jun 23, 2009)

this post is really good. everyone can lear more of these..... we all know that jiu-jitsu originated from japan and was brought to brazil.. the gracey's was able to make their own rendition and added more techniques.... i guess one martial artists said.. there is no superior style but what matters is the level of skills.


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## toxo (Mar 11, 2008)

scott23 said:


> this post is really good. everyone can lear more of these..... we all know that jiu-jitsu originated from japan and was brought to brazil.. the gracey's was able to make their own rendition and added more techniques.... i guess one martial artists said.. there is no superior style but what matters is the level of skills.


what techniques?


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## theheft (Mar 10, 2009)

toxo said:


> what techniques?


The "take your back and slap you up technique"


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## toxo (Mar 11, 2008)

getting the hooks in and punching or the side ride and smash um in the face were both invented by wrestlers.


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## theheft (Mar 10, 2009)

toxo said:


> getting the hooks in and punching or the side ride and smash um in the face were both invented by wrestlers.


Sorry mate, you obviously havnt seen the vid where the BJJ black belt gets challenged by a Karate black belt and takes his back and just slaps him round the side of the face.


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## scott23 (Jun 23, 2009)

oh really? can you post the link so we can watch it.. tnx.


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## theheft (Mar 10, 2009)

scott23 said:


> oh really? can you post the link so we can watch it.. tnx.


Ill have to look for it when I get home from work, it was on youtube. Just search BJJ vs as I think that what I searched for when I found it.


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## bonecrusher (Aug 28, 2007)

I love the fact that people who train bjj etc think that trad/jap jujitsu is stagnant. Makes it easier for me to hurt them when they think they are better than you. I am a trad/jap black and nogi bjj blue belt. Let me tell you how for a few years I heard how rubbish jap is blah blah blah and all of a sudden a few gyms are starting to teach jap techniques. I have been in gyms and found it quite easy to take some guys down because they used to rolling around the floor, when you take them down with a nice throw crashing them into the mat the looks on their faces haha. Jujitsu is all about changing and developing. Also it's not a sport, it's combat. I'm looking at snapping/chocking whatever things before I've even got you on the floor. Tearing parts of or whatever it takes in the real world. Like I said its combat not sport. In the real world if you had me on the floor I'd take and eye or and ear or whatever I needed to get you off me, rules only exist when you water down combat into sport!! But all that aside jujitsu in itself is a mixed martial art, using all styles in its make up. Never dis or think one is superior to another. Each and every martial art has a relevance in all competition. One little technique not many have seen can make you the loser, only when it is seen by many is it then practised then everyone wants to have a go. How many times you seen a move done in ufc, that knocks someone out or taps them and you go into the gym Monday and everyone trying to do it lol. Study many arts will surely make you a better fighter/martial artist


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