Author Archives: BartitsuSociety

Exercising on Board the Titanic

Courtesy of 3Dhistory.de, a colourised image of the on-board gymnasium of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. As a physical culture enthusiast, it’s likely that former Bartitsu Club member Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon would have made use of this gym prior to the night of April … Continue reading

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The “Knowledge of the Stick” in Napoleonic France

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 2nd March 2013 This short essay on the practicalities and wisdom of stick fighting is excerpted from “The Story of the Stick in All Ages and Lands” (1875), by Antony Réal. I … Continue reading

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Keep Calm …

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 4th March 2013

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Bartitsu and Suffrajitsu in “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: The Rise of the Martial Arts in Great Britain”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 5th March 2013

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Miss Sanderson and the Womanly Art of Parasol Self Defence

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 9th March 2013 Although the woman known as “Miss Sanderson” was a prominent fencer and self defence instructor in Edwardian London, regrettably little is known of her life – including her first … Continue reading

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Inspector LeBrock (Anthropomorphic Badger and Bartitsu Enthusiast)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 12th March 2013  Detective Inspector Archibald “Archie” LeBrock (left), the protagonist of the Grandville graphic novel series, assumes the Bartitsu “rear guard” position.

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The Bartitsu Club of New York City on “Edge of America”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 18th March 2013

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Jiujitsu Film Footage from 1912

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 21st March 2013 This 1912 vintage newsreel footage is among the earliest film recordings of Japanese martial arts techniques. The film, which was probably shot in Paris, begins with a demonstration of … Continue reading

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“The Year of the Bodyguard” (1982): Summary

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 21st March 2013 For a number of years, the 1982 docudrama The Year of the Bodyguard, directed by Noel Burch, was one of the sasquatches of Bartitsu/Edwardian antagonistics research. There was tantalising evidence that … Continue reading

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The Forteza Gymuseum

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 27th March 2013 The Gymuseum at the Forteza Fitness and Martial Arts studio in Ravenswood, Chicago is a unique “living museum” collection of antique physical culture apparatus, mostly dating from the period 1880-1910. Many of the … Continue reading

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