Author Archives: BartitsuSociety

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

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)

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)

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

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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