“Address Yourself Directly to the Japanese”

WHY THIS ARTICLE

Disappearances are not always decreed: sometimes they are written in a readers’ column. This article documents the exact mechanism of media abandonment — and the Queirolo scandal which, in parallel, had already poisoned public trust.

The volunteer from Campinas

Three days after Feitósa’s defeat, a wrestler from the Campinas region, Antonio Gomes, writes to the Diario Nacional. His letter deserves to be read in full, for it is the last act of faith of Paulista sporting capoeiragem: “I come by the present to challenge the Japanese wrestler for a free fight, on a football ground, but that the people pay no entry to attend. […] I was stupefied to learn that the Japanese goes about beating capoeira players, like Argemiro Feitósa, who was a true fiasco. But this man does not know capoeira, for if he knew it he would not be beaten — a capoeira always wins when it is not a matter of a combination.”

Free, in the open air, without a suspect organiser: Gomes radicalised Feitósa’s conditions to their purest form. And his faith — “a capoeira always wins” — was exactly the one that twenty years of national narrative, from Cyriaco to the intellectuals, had forged.

The editorial reply

It holds in two sentences, and it is glacial: “We are among those who no longer believe what the capoeira champions say, seeing that until now those who have affirmed themselves intrepid have failed lamentably. […] As we no longer wish to make predictions about capoeiragem fights, still less to involve ourselves in them, we remind Mr Antonio Gomes that it is preferable he address himself directly to the Japanese Omori, at the Circo Queirolo, Formosa street, in this capital.”

Address yourself directly to the Japanese. The newspaper that had made an idol of Vasques and a new Cyriaco of Feitósa no longer even wished to serve as a letterbox. “Without material, financial, relational and advertising support, the capoeiras were pushed to the margin of a sporting movement in full flight.” In São Paulo, the national struggle “disappeared from public space” — not by decree, but by unsubscription.

The Queirolo poison

The abandonment had a backdrop: trust was dead before the capoeiras were. As early as September 1928, the Omori–Rogerio Archimedes fight had turned to scandal: thirty minutes of domination by the Brazilian, a public awaiting the proclamation — and the Queirolo enterprise decreeing a ten-minute extension, then a draw “against the general opinion of the public and that of the journalists present.” Accusations of doctored results “to keep intact the invincibility of their champion,” suspicions of pre-arranged duels, journalists “summoning the police to shed light on these fraudulent practices,” a public deserting the stands.

When all was consumed — a mistrustful public, a disenchanted press, an exhausted pool of challengers — Omori himself turned the page: less than a week after his victory over Feitósa, his representative presented himself to the Diario Carioca to announce that “the celebrated Japanese wrestler wishes to come to Rio and seeks, for that, an impresario.” In Rio, a young teacher trained by Count Koma was precisely seeking to make a name for himself. He was called Carlos Gracie. What followed would change the name of the world’s martial arts.

SOURCES

National Library of Brazil: “Apparece outro capoeira. Este não quer o prejuizo do publico,” Diario Nacional, 16 January 1929 (letter and reply); “Géo Omori vae lutar no Rio,” Diario Nacional, 18 January 1929; “As lutas no Circo Queirolo. Rogerio dominou o japonez mas não foi considerado vencedor,” Diario Nacional, 26 September 1928. — Malo, O., La capoeira et les arts de combat noirs : histoire effacée, techniques invisibles (1905–1984), doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020, Part II, chap. A.1.

IN THE CORPUS

→ The Man Who Refused the Ring, the Kimono and the Money

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HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE

MALO, Olivier. “Address Yourself Directly to the Japanese”. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 45. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/address-yourself-directly-to-the-japanese. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.