Author Archives: BartitsuSociety

The Bartitsu Club as Imagined in “Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons” (2015)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 6th November 2017 In the 2015 graphic novel Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Amazons, the Bartitsu School of Arms serves as the gymnasium and headquarters of a secret society of female bodyguards who protect the … Continue reading →

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“Jiu Jitsu For Mental Nurses” (1911)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 6th November 2017 A historical curiosity from the Aberdeen Press and Journal of 4 January, 1911, detailing the self-defence training of psychiatric nurses via the game of “Indian wrestling” and some basic jiujitsu techniques.  Interestingly, … Continue reading →

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Baritsu in Denny O’Neil’s “Sherlock Holmes” Comic Book Adaptation (1975)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 9th October 2017 Famed comics writer/editor Denny O’Neil offers his take on the famous “baritsu” fight between Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty in these scenes from O’Neil’s Sherlock Holmes #1 (1975). At the end of … Continue reading →

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La Savate vs. Boxing in London (The Sportsman, 26 March, 1904)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 7th October 2017 Given the traditional rivalries between France and England, it’s unsurprising that savate vs. boxing contests around the turn of the 20th century should have attracted considerable interest and generated … Continue reading →

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The Athletic Jagendorfer (1905)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 2nd October 2017 According to a report in the Birmingham Daily Gazette of 12 October, 1905, the celebrated wrestler, strongman and club-swinging champion Georg Jagendorfer would shortly begin instructing the Viennese police in the gentle … Continue reading →

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“The Claims of Ju-Jitsu” (The Sportsman, 4th May 1906)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 2nd September 2017 The following letter to the editor of The Sportsman was written during the ongoing “jujitsu vs. boxing” controversy of 1906-7. The “boxing vs. jujitsu” debate was typically argued from a theoretical … Continue reading →

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John Steed’s Umbrella-Fu

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 2nd September 2017 Secret agent John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) wields a mean brolly in this training sequence from The Avengers (1998). Choreographed by the great English fight director William Hobbs, Steed’s impeccable umbrella-fu was … Continue reading →

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“Victory of the Foreigner”: Pierre Vigny vs. Professor Perkins (May, 1899)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 2nd September 2017 This newly-discovered article from the Sporting Life of 24 May, 1899 records one of Pierre Vigny’s first public forays into the London antagonistics scene.   Professor Perkins (England) vs. Professor Vigny (Switzerland) … Continue reading →

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Who Was the Bartitsu Club’s Mysterious “Instructor Hubert”?

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 1st September 2017 The roster of instructors at E.W. Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu School of Arms included Pierre Vigny (savate and walking stick defence), Yukio Tani and Sadakazu Uyenishi (jiujitsu), Armand Cherpillod (wrestling and … Continue reading →

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“Le Jiu-jitsu” (11 November, 1905)

Posted on December 16, 2020 by BartitsuSociety

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 3rd August 2017 A gallery of cartoons from the Parisian magazine Le Rire, imagining the impact of jiu-jitsu upon French society in the wake of jiujitsuka Ernest Regnier’s victory over savateur Georges Dubois.

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