Jogo do Pau (Portuguese Stick Fighting)
Portuguese fencing with a long stick held in both hands, at home in Minho and Trás-os-Montes. In Lisbon gyms it was adapted to sport and displays from the late 19th century.
Quick Facts
PortugalCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Jogo do Pau (Portuguese Stick Fighting)
Jogo do pau is Portuguese fencing with a long stick that the player holds in both hands. A study from 2022 links it with Minho and Trás-os-Montes and states that it changed in the cities and is now considered national fencing. The Lisbon master António Nunes Caçador called it Esgrima Nacional in a book from 1963. In the north the stick was used to settle disputes at markets and pilgrimages, where, according to Caçador, one or several players defended back to back against a superior force. Itinerant masters and day labourers from the north brought the art to Lisbon, and from the end of the 19th century it was taught by gymnastic societies such as Ginásio Clube Português, which adapted it to sport and demonstrations. In the 20th century the northern game declined. Nuno Curvello Russo attributes this to bans on carrying sticks at festivities, young people leaving for the cities and abroad, and easily available firearms. Today jogo do pau is practised by clubs, associations and federations. In 2022 the municipality of Cabeceiras de Basto was preparing a candidacy for the national inventory of intangible heritage and since 2024 states that its tradition is inscribed.
History
Nuno Curvello Russo writes that the art reached Estremadura and Ribatejo from Minho by way of the capital. It was spread by itinerant professional masters, among them the father and son Calado Campos and Joaquim Baú, and by day labourers from Minho and Trás-os-Montes. As the first gymnasiums that taught the Lisbon form he names Ginásio Real (today Ginásio Clube Português), Atheneu Comercial de Lisboa and Lisboa Ginásio Clube. According to him, the Lisbon form was adapted to sport and demonstrations from the end of the 19th century. According to the chronology of the club Ginásio Clube Português, the club brought jogo do pau into the gymnasium in 1895, and from 1898 its class was led by professor Artur dos Santos.
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In a book from 1963, António Nunes Caçador names as the oldest master he knows José Maria da Silveira, called o saloio, and as the founder of the Lisbon school (Escola de Lisboa). According to him it is so called because it is a different type of fencing from that in the countryside. Caçador describes the Lisbon courtyards (quintais), where the game was taught as a public spectacle and everyone had a mestre and a contramestre, who had the same rank as the mestre but less authority. According to Russo, the northern game was already declining in the thirties of the 20th century, because the police enforced a ban on carrying sticks at festivities, departure to the cities and abroad interrupted transmission between generations, and firearms were easy to come by. A study by Lídia Aguiar and Rita Ribeiro from 2022 states that settling disputes at markets and pilgrimages was banned around the fifties of the 20th century and guards took sticks from all arrivals. The art then became only a demonstration, culture and tradition. The English Wikipedia states that in the thirties of the 19th century liberals were not allowed to carry a sword and therefore took up the stick. We have not found this claim in the scholarly literature.
How it differs
Caçador writes that the Lisbon game is most complete in the circular movements sarilhos, whereas the northern game uses few of them and relies mainly on the strikes varrimentos, that is, on the so-called market game. According to him, the Minho school takes a left guard with crossed arms, which he calls the right one. A 2022 study by Aguiar and Ribeiro says that the northern tradition from Cabeceiras de Basto differs from the south, where several competition-oriented schools operate today. According to the Portuguese Wikipedia, the Lisbon school gave less weight to fighting several opponents. The English Wikipedia lists Minho, Alto Douro, Trás-os-Montes, Pontevedra and Ourense among the regions of origin and says that jogo do pau is also played in Lisbon, in the Azores and on Madeira, and occasionally in Galicia and Macau.
Technique
Caçador noted that master Frederico Hopffer taught guardas de espera, strikes pancadas redondas, enviezadas and arrepiadas por dentro and por fora, rebate, pontuadas, vira costas, guardas avançadas and sarilhos de cima, de baixo, with hands over each other, sarilhos in motion around the perimeter of the playing area and sarilhos traçados da borda de água. Caçador distinguishes two ways of playing. The first is artistic classical fencing in series, played in a friendly manner with strikes held back so that both can play and the spectator is satisfied. The second he calls the wild part of fencing (parte selvática). Caçador describes the market game (jogo de feira) as a fight of one, two or more players against a crowd, back to back, with varrimentos and pancadas enviezadas strikes. When one man stands against many, he constantly hops around the perimeter and tries to break through with vertical strikes or arrepiadas strikes.
Training
Caçador recommends sticks made of lódão wood, which he considers the best, and also marmeleiro, freixo, castanho or junco. The stick should be at most 550 g and 1.52 m, usually 1.46 m and 500 g, and for teaching heavier sticks of the same length. In Cabeceiras de Basto, according to a 2022 study, a round stick is used that reaches the user's nose. The UNESCO International Martial Arts Centre (ICM) lists three kinds of practice: sarilhos, forms and series.
Ranks and progression
In 1963 Caçador knows only the titles mestre and contramestre. The Portuguese Wikipedia describes the belt system of the Lisbon school, created by master Pedro Ferreira: yellow for beginners, green for intermediate, red for advanced, black for masters (with up to five red stars or four purple stripes) and purple for the grand master. According to the same Wikipedia, some schools use a different system or none. The ADCJPauP association lists on its website the belts yellow, green, red, black with one to five stars, and purple.
Today
Green's 2001 encyclopedia states that jogo do pau still exists in Portugal as self-defense, cultural tradition and sport. In 1963 Caçador wrote that in Lisbon it is kept up at least by the Ateneu Comercial de Lisboa and the Ginásio Clube Português, and that in Cabeceiras de Basto a school of the northern game is led by master António Portela.
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According to a 2022 study, the practice in Cabeceiras de Basto rests on only two groups, one of which already has older members, and stick making depends on a single craftsman. The municipality was then preparing a candidacy for the national inventory of intangible heritage on the MatrizPCI platform. A municipal document of December 2022 mentions a safeguarding plan for the inscription application, and a 2024 municipal newsletter already calls jogo do pau from Cabeceiras de Basto inscribed intangible heritage. We have not found the date and number of the inscription in official sources. The municipality is represented in the tradition by associations from the villages of Abadim and Bucos. The UNESCO International Martial Arts Centre (ICM) names among the organizations Federação Nacional do Jogo do Pau Português, Associação Desportiva e Cultural do Jogo do Pau Português, Associação Esgrima Lusitana Cascais, Esgrima Lusitana Lisboa and groups from Bucos and Abadim. The Federação Portuguesa de Jogo do Pau, which according to the Portuguese Wikipedia emerged from an association founded in 1977 on the initiative of master Pedro Ferreira, is listed only by Wikipedia.
Did you know
A 2022 study cites the short story Como ela o amava! by Camilo Castelo Branco from the cycle Noites de Lamego, set in Cavez in Cabeceiras de Basto. According to the ethical code of these brawls, as the story depicts it, nobody attacked an opponent who did not have a stick in hand. Russo cites Xanquin Lorenzo Fernandez of Ourense, who described a brawl at a market in Porqueirós in Galicia at the end of the 19th century. Two Portuguese men defended themselves there back to back with sticks against many attackers and scattered the market.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the stick in jogo do pau?
In 1963 Caçador recommended for the Lisbon school a stick usually 1.46 m long and at most 1.52 m, weighing around 500 g. In Cabeceiras de Basto a round stick, according to a study from 2022, reaches the user up to the nose.
What distinguishes the northern and Lisbon schools?
According to Caçador, the Lisbon game is most complete in the circular movements sarilhos, whereas the northern game relies mainly on varrimentos strikes and on fighting against superior numbers at markets. The Portuguese Wikipedia states that the Lisbon school gave less weight to fighting several opponents.
Does jogo do pau have belts and grades?
There is no uniform system. In 1963 Caçador knew only the titles mestre and contramestre. The Portuguese Wikipedia describes belts of the Lisbon school from yellow to purple, introduced by the master Pedro Ferreira, and states that some schools use a different system or none.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.