Author Archives: BartitsuSociety

Bartitsu Seminar at Autumnfecht (Maryland, USA)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 5th September 2017 Instructor Chris Dyer will be teaching a Bartitsu seminar at the Autumnfecht HEMA event in Columbia, Maryland on November 4, 2017. Class description: Explore the gentleman’s art of self-defense! … Continue reading

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The Gentlemanly Art of 19th Century Cane Fighting in … 1990s Russia!?

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 6th September 2017 The 1990 Russian sociopolitical satire Bakenbardy (“Side-whiskers”) is distinguished as the only feature film in which walking stick fighting serves as a crucial plot device.  It’s also a pertinent warning as … Continue reading

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“How Sir Hiram Maxim Met the Hooligan” (St James’s Gazette, 24 June 1902)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 8th September 2017 In which the estimable inventor Hiram Maxim, best-remembered today for devising the world’s first portable machine gun, tells of how he fended off a London hooligan with his fists and … Continue reading

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“A Jiu-Jitsu Battle Royale in Paris”: Tani vs. Higashi (1905)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 13th September 2017 The following two accounts offer a fairly complete record of the controversial 29 November, 1905 jiujitsu match between former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani and Tsutsumi Hōzan-ryū stylist Katsukuma … Continue reading

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How To Make A Kingsman-Style Gunbrella (Sort Of)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 13th September 2017 In honour of (and to help promote) the upcoming release of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Hacksmith YouTube channel has been challenged to create a Kingsman-style weaponised umbrella: In the pedantic interests … Continue reading

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The Christmas Truce of 1914

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 20th December 2018 In this holiday season marking one century since the end of the First World War, we depart from our usual coverage of Edwardian-era antagonistics to highlight the events of … Continue reading

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Alex Kiermayer Seminar in Nürnberg

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 23rd October 2017 A photo from instructor Alex Kiermayer’s recent Bartitsu seminar for the Zanchin Kampfkunst martial arts club in Nürnberg, Germany.

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“The Fall Guy”: S.K. Eida

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 29th October 2017 The first generation of Japanese jiujitsuka to arrive in London included Kaneo Tani, Seizo Yamamoto and Yukio Tani, all of whom had been invited to the England by Bartitsu … Continue reading

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“The Champion Lady Fencer”: Marguerite and Pierre Vigny Demonstrate Walking Stick Defence (1908)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 12th November 2017 This newly-discovered image of Marguerite and Pierre Vigny shows the former demonstrating a double-handed thrust to the throat. Note that Pierre Vigny, left, is holding what appears to be … Continue reading

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The Redoubtable Toupie Lowther

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 19th November 2017 Bartitsu has received an unusual shout-out in the new biography Toupie Lowther: Her Life, by English author Val Brown. Born to a wealthy, aristocratic family in 1874, May Lowther – … Continue reading

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