Big Sound Temple

 

Extracts taken from the bestselling From Lee to Li: An A-Z Guide of Martial Arts Heroes, published by HarperCollins 2009. All rights reserved. 

 

  

Fairbairn, William E.

Born in 1885, William E. Fairbairn’s experiences in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, and then the Shanghai Municipal Police (whom he joined in 1907) led him to develop his own form of hand-to-hand combat, which he called ‘Defendu’. Based upon ju-jitsu and such Chinese martial arts as kung fu, it also featured brutally efficient techniques that Fairbairn had developed in the countless ‘one-on-one’ fights he’d had whilst serving as a police officer. (Some estimates state that there were over 600 such altercations.)

Fairbairn also concentrated on studying and developing weaponry (techniques as well as equipment), and lent his name to the famous double-edged ‘Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife’ that became standard issue for British Commandos during the Second World War, and which continues to remain in production.

Rumoured to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s character, James Bond, Fairbairn died in 1960.

 

Filipović, Mirko ‘Cro Cop’

Born on 10 September 1974, Filipović won the PRIDE 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix on his thirty-second birthday. A kickboxer, Filipović is particularly feared for his lightning left high kick, which has felled many an opponent. His nickname, ‘Cro Cop’, is short for ‘Croatian Cop’ – Filipović was for six years a member of Croatia’s elite anti-terrorist unit ATJ Lučko. He has since pursued a minor acting career, and was from 2003–2007 a member of the Croatian Parliament. 

 

Fujibayashi, Sabuji

 

A seventeenth-century ninja, Sabuji Fujibayashi is popularly believed to have been the author of the ‘ninja training manual’ the Bansenshukai (commonly translated as either ‘Sea of Myriad Rivers Merging’ or ‘Ten Thousand Rivers Flow into the Sea’). Chapters within the Bansenshukai – which it is claimed Fujibayashi wrote in 1676 – concentrate on weaponry, astronomy, philosophy, military history, and so on. One section dispenses advice on how a ninja may best disguise himself before undertaking a mission, declaring that by cutting one’s hair in a ‘moon shape’ (whatever that may be) a man may ‘…appear like a woman’.

Following the end of the Second World War, handwritten copies of the Bansenshukai were for a short time made available to the Japanese public, presumably in a bid to bolster general moral during the American occupation of Japan. It is remarkable that such a document was even written in the first place, as Ninja commonly preferred to shroud their knowledge and techniques in mystery, delighting in common misconceptions (for example, suggestions that they could fly or breathe underwater), and passing on what they knew only to trusted students in conditions of absolute secrecy.

At the time of writing this book is not in print, although it can be found – in both Japanese and English – on the internet.

 

Gracie, Carlos

 

‘…If you want to get your face beaten and well smashed, your ass kicked and arms broken, contact Carlos Gracie at this address…’

The above, delicately-worded advertisement ran in a Brazilian newspaper during the mid 1920s. It came from Carlos Gracie, who would become the founder of the world-famous ‘Gracie’ school of ju-jitsu, considered by many to be one of the most comprehensive fighting systems ever developed. 

But the story really starts in the late 1800s in Japan, when a man called Mitsuyo Maeda – who would later become better known as ‘Count Koma’ – switched from learning classical ju-jitsu to the developing art of judo, all the while observed by judo’s founder Jigoro Kano.

Kano thought his 5-foot 6-inch, 150-pound student was good – in fact a virtual prodigy – although he was still a little too fond of drinking sake and indulging in fisticuffs in the street.

‘He needs focus, a direction,’ considered Kano, who in 1904 thus ordered Maeda to go to America and start spreading the word about judo.

Once in the United States, Maeda took on a series of challenges against sporting jocks, including a much larger man who had the bowel-loosening title of ‘The Butcher’. But Maeda bested everyone he was put against, meeting raw brawn with superior technique and lightening speed.      

He then travelled extensively (including visiting Europe, and it was when he was in SpainBrazil. that he earned the nickname ‘Count Koma’), until finally he was requested by the Japanese government to help found a colony in northern

He was greatly assisted in this matter by an official named Gasto Gracie, who also showed a lot of interest in ‘Count’ Koma’s martial art. In return for Gracie’s help, therefore, Koma agreed to show Gracie’s frail, 15-year-old son Carlos a little of what he knew.

Even the descendants of Carlo Gracie themselves are a little unsure of exactly how long Carlos studied with Koma. Certainly it was for longer than two years, though no more than five. What is known is that Carlos studied everything from devastating elbow strikes and knee blows right through to a multitude of submission techniques when fighting ‘went to ground’. (A place where the Gracie brothers retain their superiority to this day.)

Aged 19, fully trained and feeling rather confident, Carlos Gracie moved to Rio Janeiro to teach and compete in martial arts. He said goodbye to his Japanese teacher, who left to embark on yet another bout of travelling and generally disappear from this story.   

In Rio Janeiro, Gracie opened his ‘Academia Gracie de Jiu-jitsu’, somehow managing to attract students despite his fairly ‘forceful’ way of advertising (see start of entry). He also shared what he knew with his brothers, and, ultimately, eleven of his 21 children. Between them, the Gracies pioneered – and continue to promulgate – a system of fighting that to this day dominates ‘no-rules’ contests around the world.

Ju-jitsu is not just about fighting, say the Gracies. It is a system of life, a way of respecting yourself and others, of creating a healthy mind and body. It advocates the ‘Gracie diet’, with alcohol, tobacco, and any kind of drug, being strictly forbidden.

‘Follow the Gracie style of ju-jitsu’, say ‘today’s’ Gracies, such as Carlos Jr., and you will be rewarded with a sense of well-being that is otherwise hard to attain in today’s hectic world.

 

Huo, Yuanjia

 

Born in 1868, Yuanjia Huo was a sickly child who was troubled by a variety of ailments, including jaundice. (This would periodically reoccur throughout his life.) Consequently, Huo’s father – who was both a farmer as well as a bodyguard of wealthy merchants – forbade his son from following family tradition of practising wushu (Chinese martial arts), instead demanding that he devote himself to more scholarly pursuits.

The young Yuanjia, however, secretly watched his family train at night. (Yuanjia was but one of ten children, most of whom received tuition in the martial arts from their father), later to practise – again in secret – all he’d observed. Slowly, over many years, he became an expert martial artist. Finally, when he was aged around 22, he astounded everyone who knew him by soundly beating a hoodlum who’d been tormenting his brother. This caused a number of other fighters in the area to challenge Huo, who subsequently bested everyone he fought. Quickly, his reputation began to spread.

At this stage in its history, China was being crippled by a succession of natural disasters including floods and famines, chronic opium addiction amongst its populace, and what almost amounted to a ‘carving up’ of the country by England, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan. To add insult to injury, a Russian wrestler currently in China was loudly declaring that he could beat any Chinaman who cared to fight him. The Chinese were, he declared, the ‘…weak men of the East’.

In the 2006 film Fearless, which stars Jet Li in a highly fictionalised portrayal of Yuanjia Huo’s life (although the story of Huo has, indeed, become so exaggerated over the years that it is often difficult to separate fact from fiction), Huo fights four foreigners in one day in a bid to prove that wushu is supreme. (Fearless is just one of several films that have been based upon the exploits of one of China’s most popular heroes.)

But, in reality, although Huo did challenge the Russian wrestler to a fight, along with an English boxer named Hercules O’Brien, both men declined to participate. In fact, at Huo’s demand, the Russian wrestler even wrote an apology for his comments, which was printed in a major newspaper. However, Huo and a few of his students did have an altercation with some Japanese judoka, most of whom (the judoka, that is) sustained broken hands in the brawl.   

When the unpopular Manchu Emperor banned martial arts, fearing that it could possibly be used in an uprising against him, Huo nevertheless opened a wushu training school which he disguised with the title ‘Chin Woo Physical Training Centre’. (The Chin Woo Association continues to flourish today, with branches in many different countries.) 

Huo, however, was steadily sickening with another attack of jaundice – from which he suffered so frequently that he’d become known as the ‘Yellow-faced Tiger’ – as well as tuberculosis, and died aged 42 on 9 August 1910.

Rumour quickly spread that he’d been poisoned by the Japanese (as is portrayed in Fearless), though it’s possible that the attempted treatment of his diseases in fact resulted in his death. Almost 80 years later, his bones were analysed and found to contain black spots symptomatic of arsenic poisoning. In the early 1900s, however, arsenic was commonly used to treat TB; so the mystery that continues to surround Huo’s early death only adds to his legend.
 

Ishii, Kazuyoshi  

 

A Japanese karate expert (born 1953), Ishii founded the ‘K-1’ fighting circuit in 1993. K-1 has since become famous worldwide, with its tournaments seeking to determine the best ‘stand-up’ fighter from such disciplines as karate, tae kwon do, savate, kickboxing and traditional (English) boxing. Ishii’s creation made him a wealthy man, though he is at the time of writing serving a near two-year sentence for tax evasion.

 

Jaa, Tony

 

Born Panom Yeerum in Surin Province, Thailand, 5 February 1976, Tony Jaa established himself as a martial arts’ film star in Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003).

He has trained in numerous martial arts, but somewhat inevitably is best known for his expertise in Muay Thai. By all accounts, as a boy aged ten, he threatened his father with suicide should he be disallowed to train in Thailand’s best-known fighting art.

A particularly spiritual man, Jaa meditates daily at a Buddhist temple when he is not busy filming. He counts as his pets two elephants named ‘Flower’ and ‘Leaf’, and while working as a stunt double for Sammo Hung once performed a backwards somersault onto an elephant’s back for a drinks’ commercial.

 

Jacks, Brian 

Britain’s youngest ever eighth dan, Brian Jacks won a bronze medal in judo at Salt Lake City in 1967, and again (aged 26) at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Jacks began training aged ten, and had barely turned 15 when – at the encouragement of his father, also a judo enthusiast – he travelled to Japan, there to train at the legendary Kodokan (judo’s international ‘headquarters’). An extremely charismatic character, good-looking and with a beaming smile, Jacks was also ruthlessly efficient when it came to ‘studying’ a potential opponent, garnering as much information as possible concerning how they moved and what their favourite throw was, down to which hand they favoured using first to grab hold of the other judoka’s gi jacket. As powerful and as shockingly fast as Jacks’ judo techniques were, however, he was also not adverse to employing some slightly ‘underhand’ tactics: on occasion he would eat copious quantities of garlic before a tournament, something guaranteed to make even the hardiest of opponents perform a little below par.

Disillusioned, however, by the poor financial backing that professional judoka (at least in Britain) have to endure, Jacks ultimately decided to spread his wings, doing everything from appearing on children’s TV shows to delivering motivational speeches to corporate high-flyers. He even had a computer game – Brian Jacks’ Uchi Mata – named after him, and today remains an irrepressible and truly larger-than-life character.