Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 18th February 2012
Announcing a seminar in Bartitsu, a mixed martial art system created the late 19th century, which combined French boxing with the Vigny system of stick fighting, English bareknuckle boxing and jiu jitsu.
Knowledge of other martial arts is a plus but is not necessary. Given the nature of some of the techniques taught during the workshop, the minimum age for participants is 12 years (only with the consent of parents/guardians). Please wear clothes that allow freedom of movement. Only gym shoes are permitted in the gym.
Date: March 25, 2012 Instructor: J.Jozen Register via: johjoz@yahoo.com Time: 13.00 t/m17.00 Address: Messermaker 4 Gymnasium, Veldhoven Cost: 10 Euro
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 22nd February 2012
During the final decades of the 19th century, a cabal of fencers and historians led by Captain Alfred Hutton and his colleague, the writer Egerton Castle, undertook a systematic study and practical revival of combat with long-outmoded weapons such as the rapier and dagger, sword and buckler and two-handed sword. Their efforts presaged the current revival of historical fencing, a rapidly growing movement that directly parallels the modern renaissance of E.W. Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu.
The book Ancient Swordplay details the origins, colourful heyday and ultimate decline of this unusual late-Victorian revival movement. Highlights include reports on many historical fencing exhibitions throughout the 1880s and ’90s, Hutton’s and Castle’s work as theatrical fight choreographers (who paid strict attention to historical accuracy) and Hutton’s determined efforts to revolutionise military sabre fencing with an infusion of “ancient swordplay”, especially that of the Elizabethan English master, George Silver.
Of particular interest to Bartitsu enthusiasts, Ancient Swordplay includes a chapter on Captain Hutton’s collaborations with E.W. Barton-Wright. In his book The Sword and the Centuries (1902), Hutton was moved to note that “the fence of the case of rapiers, as of all the other Elizabethan weapons, is much in vogue at the present time at the Bartitsu Club, now the headquarters of ancient swordplay in this country.”
For all their efforts, though, the Hutton/Castle revival did not directly survive their own generation. The final chapters examine the reasons why, coming to a conclusion that may surprise modern readers, and attempt to trace their legacy into the following decades of the 20th century.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 29th February 2012
19th century pugilism, fencing and other “manly arts of self defence” will be on display at the upcoming Port Townsend Victorian Heritage Festival (Washington, March 23-25).
Posted inBoxing, Exhibitions, Fencing|Comments Off on 19th Century Antagonistics at the 2012 Victorian Heritage Festival
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 7th March 2012
A short video impression of the recent Open House held at Forteza Fitness, Physical Culture and Martial Arts, featuring demonstrations by the Chicago Swordplay Guild, the Bartitsu Club of Chicago and the Asylum Stunt Team.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 12th March 2012
On Sunday, March 11th of 2012, members of the Bartitsu Club of Chicago took part in the first ever “antagonisticathlon” event hosted by the Forteza Fitness and Martial Arts studio in Ravenswood, Chicago. This was their graduation from the recent six-week introductory Bartitsu training course.
During the late 19th century, the word “antagonistics” meant all manner of combat sports and self defence skills. Antagonisticathlon participants represent Victorian-era adventurers fighting their way through a gauntlet of obstacles and ne’er-do-wells, inspired by Sherlock Holmes’ escape from Professor Moriarty’s assassins in The Final Problem:
My dear Watson, Professor Moriarty is not a man who lets the grass grow under his feet. I went out about mid-day to transact some business in Oxford Street. As I passed the corner which leads from Bentinck Street on to the Welbeck Street crossing a two-horse van furiously driven whizzed round and was on me like a flash. I sprang for the foot-path and saved myself by the fraction of a second. The van dashed round by Marylebone Lane and was gone in an instant.
I kept to the pavement after that, Watson, but as I walked down Vere Street a brick came down from the roof of one of the houses, and was shattered to fragments at my feet. I called the police and had the place examined. There were slates and bricks piled up on the roof preparatory to some repairs, and they would have me believe that the wind had toppled over one of these. Of course I knew better, but I could prove nothing.
I took a cab after that and reached my brother’s rooms in Pall Mall, where I spent the day. Now I have come round to you, and on my way I was attacked by a rough with a bludgeon. I knocked him down, and the police have him in custody; but I can tell you with the most absolute confidence that no possible connection will ever be traced between the gentleman upon whose front teeth I have barked my knuckles and the retiring mathematical coach, who is, I dare say, working out problems upon a black-board ten miles away. You will not wonder, Watson, that my first act on entering your rooms was to close your shutters, and that I have been compelled to ask your permission to leave the house by some less conspicuous exit than the front door.
The “stations” of the antagonisticathlon (not all shown in the video compilation) included:
Charging shoulder tackle to punching bag (“knocking an assassin out the window and into the Thames”) Precision cane thrusts through suspended rings Overcoat and cane vs. dagger-wielding assassin Weight-lifting on antique pulley-weight apparatus “Death Alley”; cane vs. three stick-wielding assassins “Rowing across the Thames” on antique rowing machine “Rescuing Dr. Watson” Cane vs. stick combat Shoulder roll and hat toss to finish
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Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 26th March 2012
Thanks to the Victorian Productions website for this shot of a Bartitsu demonstration by Terry Kroenung and the Victorian Antagonistics League at the recent AnomalyCon steampunk gathering in Colorado.
Posted inExhibitions|Comments Off on Bartitsu at AnomalyCon
