Abstract
The Japanese martial art known as jiu-jitsu came to America at the turn of the 20th century. In a short period of time, it grew from an exoticized entertainment to front-page news across the United States. The evolution of news coverage in these earliest years, from jiu-jitsu’s arrival until the departure of the first wave of instructors, shows how the jiu-jitsu fad affected culture, from sport to health to politics, in a lasting, significant way. This examination of media reports reveal the motivations, meanings, and purposes held by people training and teaching jiu-jitsu, from average Americans to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Two prominent categories of media coverage include prizefighting for public entertainment and people using jiu-jitsu for personal self defense. The author analyzed more than 2,400 articles that included references to “jiu-jitsu” or “jujutsu” between 1900 (when the first instructor in the art came to America) and 1906. This research assesses the public’s use of jiu-jitsu to form both collective individual identities, and how media representations of jiu-jitsu informed ideas on race, class, and gender. The paper takes an intersectional approach to examining representations of gender and ethnic identity in sport and society. The transmission of jiu-jitsu to America from Japan, and subsequently to South America, shows the impact of cultural traditions and cultural differences on sport. The research also suggests future work that would compare media representations across eras, laying the groundwork for a longitudinal study analyzing equity in access to sport.
Presenters
Jeff ShawAdjunct Professor, Journalism, Western Washington University, Washington, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
MEDIA, JOURNALISM, WRESTLING, MARTIALARTS, SELFDEFENSE, IDENTITYFORMATION
