• Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 11th May 2013

Yukio Tani, a Japanese in London, recently created quite a sensation by his wonderful wrestling performances at the Oxford Music Hall. Describing the Japanese wrestler, a London journal says:

“His inches are but sixty-one, and he turns the scale at nine stone, but despite his lack of bulk, he undertakes to overthrow the mightiest champion, professional or amateur, who may present himself. To the one who remains undefeated for fifteen minutes the sum of £21 rewards his prowess, and should he eventually defeat this pocket Hercules he may leave the hall the richer by £100. However, though many great and small have essayed the task, up to the present a very few minutes have sufficed to place them hors de combat.

It is, indeed, a fine study in Oriental subtlety, even in physical matters, to note the lithe, compact figure, feet well planted — a strange, passive look in his oblique eyes, watching his opportunity to attack his antagonist’s weakest line of defence. His methods, of course, are new, and peculiar to our ideas, but their effectiveness is beyond dispute, the result always being to place his opponent at his mercy, hopelessly fixed in a helpless position.”

Apparently the wrestler is a professor of Jujutsu.