Author Archives: BartitsuSociety

Yukio Tani (1904)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 18th December 2015 A rare and unusual 1904 photograph of Bartitsu Club jiujitsu instructor and champion music hall challenge wrestler Yukio Tani.

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How to Deal with Undesirables

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 30th December 2015 Advice on the gentlemanly art of umbrella combat from the late and lamented Kingsman agent Harry (Galahad) Hart.

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“The Anti-Hooligan: Self-Defence as a Fine Art” (1902)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 13th January 2016 This short article from the London Daily News of Wednesday, October 29, 1902, offers a picturesque description of the Vigny stick fighting style in action, underscoring the central importance … Continue reading

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Have at you, Sir!

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 26th January 2016 Instructor James Garvey (right) demonstrates the entry into a canonical Bartitsu takedown technique.

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The Moriarty Variations at “Sherlock Seattle”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 27th January 2016 What if, during their fatal combat at the brink of the Reichenbach Falls, both Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty had been trained in Bartitsu and armed with walking sticks? … Continue reading

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A Report on the 2015 UKBA Bartitsu Gathering

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 3rd February 2016 A report on the recent UKBA Bartitsu Gathering via http://ordinaryvisionary.tumblr.com: “Organised by the Bartitsu Irregulars, the Bartitsu club I (very) irregularly attend, the Bartitsu Gathering kicked off Sunday morning in Basingstoke and … Continue reading

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“Footpads of Paris: How French Thugs Ply Their Thieving Trade” (1894)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 8th February 2016 The following catalogue of ingeniously non-lethal “mugging tricks” perfected by the Parisian “Apache” street gangsters is excerpted and translated from Le Bas du Pavé Parisien by Guy Tomel (1894). At the … Continue reading

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“Bartitsu” Variation in Mortal Kombat

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 19th February 2016 The Mortal Kombat video game character Bo Rai Cho, a master of zui quan (“drunken kung fu”), has now added a highly stylised and exaggerated form of Bartitsu cane fighting to … Continue reading

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The Earliest Known Collaboration Between E.W. Barton-Wright and Pierre Vigny: July 20, 1899

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 1st March 2016 These newly-discovered articles from the St. James’s Gazette offer our first glimpse at the original collaboration between Bartitsu founder Edward Barton-Wright and savate/stick fighting expert Pierre Vigny.  The articles … Continue reading

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Further Guard Positions in Vigny Stick Fighting

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 2nd March 2016 These illustrations of various guard positions in the Vigny walking stick system were reproduced in several US newspapers during August of 1904.  This sequence from the Detroit Free Press (August 28, … Continue reading

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