Bartitsu Featured in “Martial Arts Illustrated”

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org sit on Friday, 15th January 2010

Nick Collins’ feature article on Bartitsu appears in the February, 2010 issue of Martial Arts Illustrated magazine, on sale now.

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Art of Stick Defence (1903)

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 15th January 2010

Presenting the magnificently entitled article, “Schools Where Men Are Taught How To Defend Themselves Against The Attacks Of Street Rowdies”. It’s taken from the August 30, 1903 edition of the New York Tribune, and probably substantially based on another article from the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.

Although he’s not mentioned by name, the article and accompanying pictures clearly represent the stick fighting method of Bartitsu Club instructor Pierre Vigny.

Click the links below to view the full PDF files.

Art of Stick Defence
Art of Stick Defence 2

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Bartitsu Seminar in Eugene, Oregon

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 22nd January 2010

Maestro Sean Hayes will be hosting a two-day Bartitsu seminar with Tony Wolf at the Northwest Academy of Arms on Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14, 2010.

Both days will begin with training in the Wolf System, an integrated progression of competitive and co-operative combat biomechanics exercises. These challenging exercises foster the balance, improvisational ability, physical confidence and related skills that are fundamental to the study of any martial art.

The classes will then segue into the study of both canonical and neo-Bartitsu. The canonical material is based on E.W. Barton-Wright’s classic 1900 articles, “The New Art of Self Defence” and “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” and provides a platform for training in neo-Bartitsu, continuing Barton-Wright’s experiments in cross-training between jiujitsu, fisticuffs, low kicking and the Vigny system of walking stick fighting.

When: Saturday March 13 and Sunday March 14, 2010 at the Academy. 9 am to 5 pm each day, with lunch from 12 – 1 pm.

Space is limited!

Where: The Northwest Academy of Arms, Eugene, Oregon

Cost: Two Days – $75 One Day – $50 At the Door – add $20

Lunch: $12 additional for cold cuts, good bread, apples, coffee and tea ($8 for one day)

Equipment: Suitable exercise clothing, including shoes (we have a textured wooden floor). Sturdy cane (crook handle preferred), or strong, smooth dowel approx. 36″ long. We will have some training canes for a minimal cost at the seminar.

Fencing masks, boxing gloves and judogi jackets are useful, but are
not required. The Academy has some masks for loan, but bring your own if you can.

Water bottle (refills from on-site fountain).

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Portland Bartitsu seminar

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 23rd January 2010

The Academia Duellatoria historical fencing school in the Portland, Oregon suburb of Milwaukie, will be hosting a two-day Bartitsu seminar with guest instructor Tony Wolf on March 20-21, 2010.

The seminar will focus on the self defence applications of Bartitsu and the skill of spontaneously transitioning between techniques and styles as required by the needs of the moment.

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“About Martial Arts, E.W. Barton-Wright and Yukio Tani”

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 25th January 2010

Marcus Rowland’s short article About Martial Arts, E.W. Barton-Wright and Yukio Tani was first published in Valkyrie magazine in 1996, and accompanied a CD-Rom which included all five of the articles E.W. Barton-Wright had written for Pearson’s Magazine between 1899-1901. As such, Rowland’s article appeared at the very beginning of “modern” Bartitsu scholarship, several years before copies of Barton-Wright’s articles were broadcast online via the EJMAS website.

Since the original publication of Mr. Rowland’s essay, the Bartitsu Society has undertaken considerable further historical research on Bartitsu and on Barton-Wright himself, and offers the following comments and corrections:

Barton-Wright worked in Japan from 1891 to 1899, and towards the end of this period he trained under the sensei Yukio Tani, then aged nineteen. When he returned to Britain, he persuaded Tani and his older brother to accompany him, with the aim of setting up a martial arts school in London. Why they agreed is unclear; while Tani was obviously very talented, he was also very young to be a sensei, and it seems possible that there were simply few opportunities for him in Japan. The picture shows Barton-Wright with a bearded Japanese martial artist, possibly Tani or his older brother.

Barton-Wright actually lived in Japan for approximately three years, between 1895 and 1897. There is no evidence to suggest that he met Yukio Tani while resident in Japan; his major martial arts training there appears to have been in Kobe, at the Shinden-Fudo Ryu jiujitsu dojo of sensei Terajima Kuniichiro. Barton-Wright also claimed to have taken some lessons with professor Jigoro Kano, the founder of Kodokan judo, but nothing more is known of that connection except that Barton-Wright apparently later corresponded with Kano “and other friends in Japan” towards arranging for some jiujitsu instructors to work at the Bartitsu Club in London.

The identity of Barton-Wright’s demonstration partner in the photographs for his “New Art of Self Defence” articles remains a mystery, but it is certainly not Yukio Tani, nor Tani’s elder brother.

Bartitsu was never very popular, possibly because Barton-Wright’s changes deterred sportsmen with an interest in authentic Ju Jitsu and its associated ceremonies, and the dojo closed within a few months.

The Bartitsu Club was active for a little over two years, between late 1899 and early 1902 and in fact, a number of athletes did train at the Club. It is also worth noting that no-one else in England during this period actually knew what “authentic jiujjitsu” was, and that there is nothing to suggest that anything other than “authentic jiujitsu” was taught at the Club. Barton-Wright’s concept of Bartitsu essentially involved cross-training between the various martial arts and combat sports taught at the Club, thus including jiujitsu, fisticuffs, kicking and Vigny stick fighting; a crucial point that has eluded many critics between the early 1900s and the present day.

He next tried to make money by putting on Ju Jitsu displays on the music hall stage; Tani’s brother promptly denounced this abuse of the art and returned to Japan.

Barton-Wright had publicised Bartitsu via lecture/demonstrations on music hall stages since 1899, well before any of the Japanese fighters had arrived in London. Of the original group of three (Yukio Tani, his elder brother who is only known to us by his initial, K, and their associate S. Yamamoto), K. Tani and Yamamoto taught at the Bartitsu Club and participated in exhibitions for a short period before returning to Japan. No-one is certain why they left England, though their departure aroused some controversy at the time. Barton-Wright’s version of the story was that, through a mis-communication, K. Tani and Yamamoto had not realised that they would be required to exhibit jiujitsu in the music halls. Yukio Tani evidently had no problem with that arrangement and became a popular “star turn” in the halls throughout and for many years after the Bartitsu Club era.

How To Pose as a Strong Man (January 1899) shows some simple tricks based largely on martial arts concepts of leverage. It was not written to publicise Bartitsu, but does illustrate Barton-Wright’s opportunistic approach; it seems unlikely that a more dedicated student would have written it.

Barton-Wright was evidently fascinated by the mechanics and psychology of these types of leverage stunts, and his article was actually written as an exposé of the tricks employed by athlete/entertainers such as the “Lulu Hurst, the Little Georgia Magnet”, who often claimed that their performances displayed supernatural powers of “electricity” or “animal magnetism”. This is comparable to the modern practice of exhibiting similar feats as demonstrations of ki or chi power. It’s difficult to see how Barton-Wright’s article can be viewed as being opportunistic, or as demonstrating a lack of dedication; if anything, it suggests an advanced understanding of body mechanics that could only have augmented his martial arts skills.

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Vote for Edith!

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 30th January 2011
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We all now have an opportunity to vote for a memorial plaque to record Edith Garrud’s memory as a pioneer of jujutsu and a suffragette. Islington Council in London will erect a plaque on one of the houses where she lived if she receives enough votes. Edith is one of ten candidates for a plaque and the top five will be commemorated.

You can vote for Edith online via the Islington People’s Plaques website.

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Vigny/Lang Stick Fighting in Israel

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 1st November 2010

Thanks to Israeli martial artist and martial arts historian Noah Gross for this rare footage of veteran Kapap instructor Yehezkel Avneri demonstrating basic stick fighting techniques.

As explained in this article, during the 1940s the Kapap walking stick method was developed from Indian Police Superintendant H.G. Lang’s 1923 book, The Walking Stick Method of Self Defence.

Lang’s method, in turn, was substantially based on the system devised by Pierre Vigny and taught both at the Bartitsu Club and Vigny’s own academy circa 1900-1914.

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Victorian Cane Fighting Demo at the San Francisco Dickens Fair

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 27th December 2010

Thomas Badillo of the Botta Secreta historical martial arts club demonstrates a cane flow drill at the 32nd annual Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco.

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Vancouver Bartitsu Seminars Report

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 29th March 2010

A report from Devon Boorman of the Academie Duello in Vancouver, Canada, detailing the recent Bartitsu seminars held there:

Day 1

This weekend’s Bartitsu seminar, lead by Tony Wolf, started up today and I must report it’s been a lot of fun and a good and thorough mental and physical workout.

The workshop started with Tony setting the stage with a short lecture on the life and times of Barton-Wright and where our historical basis from the art has been unearthed. From there we got on our feet and began to explore the underpinning arts of the system.

First we started with bare knuckle boxing entries, basic attacks, and plays from the inside or clinch. After that we played with some of the low line kicks employed to destabilize the opponent.

As Bartitsu uses boxing techniques to facilitate entry into throws and holds, this first section lead well into jujitsu. We explored several take downs and then worked on combining the bare knuckled and jujitsu techniques together.

The final conclusion of the day was the cane fighting everyone had been looking forward to. We explored many of the techniques found in the turn of the century Pearson’s Magazine article, where Bartitsu was first revealed to the broader public. We then worked on blending these with the boxing and jujitsu from earlier in the day in many cases abandoning the cane altogether to employ boxing techniques or jujitsu submissions.

One if the aspects I enjoyed most was the method of full contact flow exercises Tony employed to help us explore the principles of the art. We would start with a given technique and then have our opponent foil it in some way such as throwing an unexpected attack or seizing our cane, etc. We would then have to flow into an alternate technique, or several, to complete the goal of destabilizing and submitting our opponent. This really helped us not get stuck trying to force a given technique and instead allowed us to explore how all the techniques support one another.

From having done a fair bit of exploration into Bartitsu and boxing before, this approach offered some real added value and insight. Thanks Tony! Looking forward to day 2!

Day 2

Day 2 of the Bartitsu workshop commenced this morning at 10am and was definitely a full day at 7 hours of instruction with a 1 hour lunch break in the middle. Today we explored each aspect of the Bartitsu system, again blending any given canonical technique from the manuals
with the principals and various forms of the art, i.e. boxing, jujitsu and cane fighting.

Tony did an excellent job of demonstrating various routes that a given technique might take if it were foiled by an opponent and then emphasizing the creative exploration of principles through free form flow exercises.

Some of the highlights today included using the cane in two hands, both bayonet style but also in a doubled grip at the base (like a sword). We used it thus to face large clubs or longer ranged weapons, but then through the flow exercises we frequently abandoned our cane to enter into boxing and jujitsu.

Another highlight of the day was working on submission techniques and many different forms of belaboring the opponent to end a particular engagement. This allowed us to get very close to sparring and conclusion while staying within the system itself.

All in all this was a terrific workshop and I think we’re already looking forward to having Tony back. For our part we’re going to be starting up a regular Bartitsu club as part of our offerings at Duello so we can continue to explore Bartitsu and share it with those who weren’t able to make it out to Tony’s visit this time around.

Thanks Tony and thanks to everyone who came out and made his visit possible!

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Vancouver Bartitsu Intensive

  • Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 22nd February 2010

The Academie Duello historical fencing and martial arts school will host Tony Wolf teaching a two-day Bartitsu intensive on March 27th and 28th, 2010.

Each class will include the study of both canonical and neo-Bartitsu. The canonical material is based on E.W. Barton-Wright’s classic 1900 articles, “The New Art of Self Defence” and “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” and provides a platform for training in neo-Bartitsu, continuing Barton-Wright’s experiments in cross-training between jiujitsu, fisticuffs, low kicking and the Vigny system of walking stick fighting.

Details are available here at the Academie Duello website and prospective attendees can make inquiries and bookings via this page.

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