Author Archives: BartitsuSociety

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

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

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

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

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

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

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 →

Posted in Antagonistics, Boxing, Canonical Bartitsu, E. W. Barton-Wright, Exhibitions, Fencing, Jiujitsu, Savate, Vigny stick fighting | Comments Off on The Earliest Known Collaboration Between E.W. Barton-Wright and Pierre Vigny: July 20, 1899

Further Guard Positions in Vigny Stick Fighting

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

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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“Bad News for Honest Burglars” (Dundee Evening Telegraph, January 2 1922)

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 3rd March 2016 Very occasional references have been made, considerably after the fact, to the idea that Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright may have continued to teach self-defence into the 1920s. According to … Continue reading →

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“Ancient Duels and Modern Fighting”: an Account of the Elizabethan Fencing and Bartitsu Display at the London Bath Club (March 9, 1899)

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 3rd March 2016 The following is a highly detailed account of the famous exhibition of both Elizabethan fencing and Bartitsu performed at the Bath Club during March of 1899.  This event was … Continue reading →

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An Exhibition of Ju-Jitsu at Aldershot: A Lady Throws a Man (The Graphic – Saturday, 08 April 1905)

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 5th March 2016 Ju-jitsu or the Japanese scientific wrestling, now being taught by a Japanese professor, Professor Uyenishi, of Seibouhan, Japan, to the Aldershot Gymnastic Staff, formed, perhaps, the greatest attraction at … Continue reading →

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Portraits of Sadakazu “Raku” Uyenishi

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 5th March 2016 Sadakazu Uyenishi was aged just twenty years when he arrived in London to join E.W. Barton-Wright’s new Bartitsu enterprise during the year 1900. Although he was young, Uyenishi was … Continue reading →

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The Life’s Work of Percy Longhurst

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 5th March 2016 Percy William Longhurst (1874-1959) was a lifelong wrestling and antagonistics enthusiast, a prolific writer and a significant figure in the history of Bartitsu. Unfortunately, comparatively little is known of … Continue reading →

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Society Women Wrestlers: Ladies’ Craze for Japanese Ju-jitsu (Daily Mirror, April 4, 1904)

Posted on December 23, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 6th March 2016 Note – “Lady Clara Vere de Vere”, referred to below, is actually a character in an 1840s poem of the same title by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; the author of … Continue reading →

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