Category Archives: Edwardiana

“Houdini & Doyle” TV Series to Showcase “Supernatural” Edwardian Mysteries

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 9th December 2015 Back in 2011 we reported the pre-production of no less than three media projects based on the premise that Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle teamed up to fight crime. … Continue reading

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Gandhi on Jiu-jitsu (1905)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 30th May 2014 Some wry commentary on jiujitsu from Mohandas K. Gandhi (Indian Opinion, April 2, 1905): The eyes of Europeans are slowly being opened. Narmada-shankar, the Gujarati poet, has sung: The Englishman rules, … Continue reading

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The Jiu-Jitsu Waltz (“The Scrap Book”, Vol. 4, 1907)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 31st May 2014 A FRENCH WOMAN AND A JAPANESE MANAMAZE LONDON WITH A NEW STUNT. The novelty of the summer in London is the jiu-jitsu dance in which Mlle. Deslys and S. … Continue reading

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Inside the “Hilltop Dojo” of W.E. Steers (1909)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 10th July 2014 These excerpts from the article “The Dwelling-House of an Apostle of Health” (“The House Beautiful”, Sept. 1909) offer a further glimpse inside the extraordinary dojo constructed in W.E. Steers’ Hilltop … Continue reading

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“Exercise With the Double-Handed Sword” (1894)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 25th August 2014 A very rare colour version of artist Percy Macquoid’s Exercise With The Double-Handed Sword, part of his Types of Old Swordsmanship series for The Graphic newspaper, dating to 1894. The swordsmen who posed for these … Continue reading

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Naginata Fencing at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 25th August 2014 As shown in this spectacular illustration for The Graphic of May 28, 1910, the use of the naginata was demonstrated alongside jiujitsu at the famous Japan-British Exhibition.

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“Japanese Ways of Chivalry” (Illustrated London News, May 1919)

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 8th October 2014 This Illustrated London News article describes some of the unusual Japanese martial arts displayed at the Aeolian Hall on May 31, 1919. As well as jujitsu, the visiting kendo master Sonobe … Continue reading

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“Wrestler vs. Boxer”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 22nd November 2014 A series of promotional photographs, subjects unknown, dating to the first decade of the 20th century.

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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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“The Rise of the Jujitsu-Suffragettes: Martial Arts in fin-de-siècle Great Britain”

Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 28th April 2016 Click here to contact the organisers and/or to book your place for this fascinating lecture on the real secret society of suffragette bodyguards who inspired the Suffrajitsu trilogy! When?  6.30 – 8.00 … Continue reading

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