Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 6th March 2016
Note – “Lady Clara Vere de Vere”, referred to below, is actually a character in an 1840s poem of the same title by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; the author of this article is using the name generically to refer to “ladies of the upper crust”.
Yukio Tani, the great Japanese exponent of ju-jitsu, who is quite confident of beating his English opponent in the great match for £200 a side, puts in several hours a week instructing the dames and damsels of Mayfair in the noble art of (Japanese) self-defence. Lady Clara Vere de Vere has taken up Ju-jitsu , as the science is called, with vigour, and is rapidly making herself competent to tackle the burliest hooligan who ever donned cap and muffler. The writer on Saturday received the testimony of “Apollo,” the Jap’s manager, on the subject.
The strong man was at breakfast when our reporter called at his cozy flat in Shaftesbury avenue, but he readily consented to talk.
Makes Women Graceful
“Ju-jitsu”, said he, “is particularly adapted for ladies for several reasons. In the first place, no muscular strength is required, for it is all a question of ‘knack’ and quickness. In the second the science, apart from its usefulness as a means of self-defence, induces grace of carriage and develops the’ figure. You see, to be a competent ju-jitsuist you must hold yourself upright. Whereas, in other styles of wrestling, one has to adopt a crouching attitude, which contracts the chest and makes the figure ugly.”
The fad, it appears, commenced when Tani began to take engagements to appear at private houses and give exhibitions’ of wrestling in the Japanese style. Fashionable hostesses began to vote Hungarian fiddlers and Polish tenors altogether out-moded after they had seen the lithe and graceful Jap and his manager give a glimpse of ju-jitsu. Sometimes, at dances, the wrestling-mats were spread on the ball-room floor between waltzes, and looking on at a bout of ju-jitsu gave the dancers a rest. The grace, the quickness, and the absence of violence which are the distinguishing marks of ju-jitsu fascinated Lady Clara Vere de Vere, and from seeing it done to wanting to do it herself was but a step. Now, Tani has his hands full putting fair and aristocratic aspirants up to the various locks and holds which constitute the Japanese art of self-defence.
Keenness of the Ladies
“A girl,” says the authority, “will learn ju-jitsu in one-third of the time, and with one-half the trouble, compared with a man. For one thing, they are keener about it; and for another, we cannot get the men to take it seriously enough to moderate their drinking, smoking and late hours – all of which are not conducive to excellence in ju-jitsu.
“Again, a girl is more anxious to improve her general physique than the male thing – and there is no doubt that this style of wrestling is a first-class thing for health and beauty.
An ever-present terror to women living in the country is the prowling tramp. But, armed with a knowledge of ju-jitsu, madame or mademoiselle may take her unattended walks abroad, and in the event of an encounter with the ‘hobo,’ may give him the alternative of crying quarter or having an arm broken.”
So fashionable is the new craze becoming that some West End stationers are printing invitation cards with “Wrestling” in the corner where “Dancing” or “Music” was wont to stand.
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Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 13th March 2016
This very ordinary short report on one of E.W. Barton-Wright’s 1901 jiujitsu promotions includes a distinctly unusual photograph. The man on the left is probably Yukio Tani who was, along with Sadakazu Uyenishi, performing this type of exhibition for Barton-Wright at this time. The man on the right, however, does not look at all like Uyenishi, who was closely comparable to Tani in both age and physique. No other Japanese jiujitsuka are known to have been active in London during 1901, let alone to have been performing martial arts demonstrations and challenge matches under the Bartitsu banner.
It’s possible that the Sketch made use of an archival photograph and that the man on the right was actually either Yukio Tani’s older brother, who is known to us only by his initial, K., or S. Yamamoto. Along with Yukio, K. Tani and Yamamoto had been among the first group of jiujitsuka that Barton-Wright had brought to England in late 1899. The elder Tani and Yamamoto left after only a few months, apparently due to a miscommunication or misunderstanding about the type of work they would be asked to do. Yukio stayed on and was joined by Uyenishi in early 1900.
No other photographs of either K. Tani or S. Yamamoto are confirmed to exist.
So much enthusiasm has been created by the introduction into this country of the Japanese Secret Art of Self Defence that the Management have entered into an agreement with Mr. Barton-Wright for the appearance of his two Japanese Champions at the Empire Theatre from Monday last. New features have been introduced, and, in order that the utility of these methods may be properly tested, members of the audience are invited to go upon the stage. Mr. Barton-Wright has already arranged some important contests with three English Champion Wrestlers.
Posted inCanonical Bartitsu, Jiujitsu|Comments Off on The Japanese Wrestlers (The Sketch, October 2, 1901)
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 13th March 2016
The following article was first published in Votes for Women, the newspaper of the Women’s Social and Political Union, during March of 1910. At that time, Edith Garrud (right, above) had been running her “Suffragettes Self Defence Club”, which was advertised in Votes for Women, since at least December of the previous year. The club was based at Leighton Lodge in Edwardes Square, Kensington, a facility which also included a number of studios for classes in sculpture, painting and voice. The Suffragette self defence classes started at 7.00 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday evening and cost 5s, 6d per month.
Click on the article to read it at full size:
Eight months after this article was written, the intensity of the “suffrage question” was dramatically boosted when a large but ostensibly peaceful suffragette rally in central London escalated into the violent confrontation that became known as the Black Friday riot. That event forced the urgency and evolution of Mrs. Garrud’s training and by 1912 her Votes for Women advertisements read:
Ju-Jutsu (self-defence) for Suffragettes, private or class lessons daily, 10.30 to 7.30; special terms to W. S. P. U. members; Sunday class by arrangement; Boxing and Fencing by specialists. — Edith Garrud, 9, Argyll Place, Regent Street
By 1913 – in response to the Cat and Mouse Act, which allowed hunger-striking suffragette prisoners to be released and then re-arrested once they had recovered their health – Mrs. Garrud was training the secret Bodyguard Society, also known as the Amazons, in preparation for their violent confrontations with the police.
Posted inJiujitsu, Suffrajitsu|Comments Off on “The World We Live In: Self-Defence” – Some Words of Wisdom from Suffragette Martial Arts Trainer Edith Garrud
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 9th April 2016
Vancouver-based fashion and style company Style by Sarai hosted this Kingsman-themed event at the Academie Duello Western martial arts school, including an umbrella self-defence lesson with Bartitsu instructor David McCormick.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 15th April 2016
On Thursday, the 9th inst., “ladies’ night”, an amusing and instructive evening was spent by the members and their friends, gathered in considerable numbers. The first part of the entertainment consisted of an exhibition, under the management of Captain A. Hutton, of Elizabethan methods of sword–play and fencing. It is unnecessary to state that this was admirable in every way, the most taking items being the Two-Handed Sword contest between Messrs. E. Stenson Cook, L.R.B., and W.P. Gate, L.R.B.; Rapier and Dagger, between Captain A. Hutton and Mr. W. H. Grenfell; and Rapier and Cloak. Mr. E. Campbell–Muir was indisposed, and unable to give his exhibition of trick–riding; and in order that the audience might not lack amusement, Mr. W. Henry, of the Life Saving Society, probably our best exponent of ornamental swimming, gave a very fine exhibition of the art. Miss Lewin afterwards also gave a good display of swimming and diving.
The last and most novel feature of the program was Mr. E. W. Barton–Wright’s exhibition of the new mode of self–defence, which he has named “Bartitsu.” It was therefore a considerable disappointment to all present when they learned that Mr. Barton–Wright, and his friend who was to assist him in his exposition, were both suffering from damages of a more or lasts serious character, sustained in a cab accident that they had been in the night before. However, Mr. Barton–Wright, though damaged, came forward, and showed some of his “chips,” as wrestlers style them.
Although unable to speak from experience, we must confess to being a good deal impressed by some of his methods. The manner in which he showed how to receive the attack of a heavier and more powerful man, grappling him by the throat or shoulders, was very striking. He gave way, and dropped on his back, drawing his opponent with him, and while holding to his adversary he applied leverage by means of his foot placed on the body of his assailant, causing him to turn a complete somersault, so that he fell at full-length upon his back. The illustration number three shows this.
Another method for holding an opponent on the ground so that he shall be unable to rise, is shown in number four, and a means of leading a refractory and unwilling person from a room is number five. This last is somewhat of an old friend we remember having practiced on ourselves at school, although the hold was not quite taken in the same way. On the whole, it seems as though there were a good deal in Mr. Barton–Wright’s methods, and, unquestionably, as applied by him, they are most formidable. It would be interesting to see him opposed to a really high–class, catch–as–catch–can wrestler, as giving a distinct line for arriving at a judgment as to the value of Bartitsu.
Where? Asia House, Library, 63 New Cavendish Street, London, W1G 7LP
How much? Admission: £8
What’s it about? The lecture will explore the blossoming of martial arts in Great Britain at the turn of the 20th century, investigating the Victorian obsession for self-defence, the appeal of the ‘exotic East’, and gender as a social and cultural construct.
Starting with the mid-Victorian garotting panics, Dr Godfrey will show how a fear of violent street crime was entangled with a fascination with Indian thuggee and how in response, civilians manufactured gruesome weapons.
By the end of the 19th century, the use of violent forms of self-defence had become unfashionable and Japanese martial arts were considered to be the ideal, minimally aggressive way to fend off attackers. Experts from Japan taught politicians, the public and police alike the art of jujitsu and women sensationally took up jujitsu in the campaign for women’s suffrage.
A century later, martial arts with an Edwardian twist are again in vogue.
Lecturer: Emelyne Godfrey
Dr Godfrey is a writer and researcher specialising in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. She is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and has been interviewed by the BBC on numerous occasions. Author of Masculinity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature (2010), and Femininity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature and Society (2012), her latest work Utopias and Dystopias in the Fiction of H.G. Wells and William Morris will be available in September 2016. Dr Godfrey is currently working on a book on the suffragettes.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 13th May 2016
A lot of fun stuff happening at the fort on Thursday nights! Here's a fun clip showing the kinds of martial and fitness fun we have at Forteza: the stunt team working some boxing drills; a group of Chicago Swordplay Guild scholars working through the admin sword curriculum; the The Bartitsu Club of Chicago practicing hip throws; and personal training happening in the back fitness area.
An active and diverse Thursday night’s training at Chicago’s Forteza Western martial arts studio, featuring boxing, historical swordplay and Bartitsu unarmed combat with instructor Nathan Wisniewski.
Posted inCanonical Bartitsu, Jiujitsu, Video|Comments Off on The Bartitsu Club of Chicago at Forteza Fitness and Martial Arts
Dr Godfrey’s lecture ‘The Rise of the Jujitsu Suffragettes’ was an illuminating and entertaining account that took a packed audience on a fascinating journey from India in the early 1800s to the violent struggles of the Suffragettes in the early 1900s.
The talk began with an account of the origin of the Garotters of London which in turn gave rise to the self defence culture into which Barton-Wright launched Bartitsu.
Dr Godfrey opened with a fascinating piece of etymological study explaining how lurid accounts of the Spanish execution device called the garrotta – which consisted of a throttling mechanism attached to a heavy chair that was used to slowly strangle victims – led to criminal gangs in London being called Garotters.
Their name might have come from this infamous machine but their techniques, however, seemed inspired by India’s Thuggee cult. Dr Godfrey provided some extremely vivid and graphic explanations of their methods and one of the many highlights of the lecture was her photographs of a collection of miniature Thuggee figures from the early 1800s that had at one time been on display in the British Library public space but which were removed for fear that they might inspire copycat criminal behaviour and stoke up the garrotting panics that were sweeping through London.
The figures (about 6 inches high) effectively make a series of diorama scenes showing a band of Thuggees stalking their victims and then attacking them before burying and disposing of the bodies while sharing out the loot. They are incredible in their detail and graphically show the whole method of operation of the Thugees including a three man attack involving two ‘assistants’ holding the victim while a third strangled him from behind with his rumal (garroting scarf). Apparently these are in store somewhere, which is a huge pity because they would make a fascinating exhibit and definitely deserve to be seen.
Dr Godfrey pointed out a number of very interesting literary mentions of both the Thuggees themselves and their copycats, the London Garotters. In particular, Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor which was made into a film called The Deceivers starring Pierce Brosnan; Wanderings in India by John Lang as re-published by Charles DIckens in his Household Words magazine circa 1859 and the mugging of Mr Kennedy in Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Finn.
The panics about street attacks in London, Paris and elsewhere led directly to a culture of self-defence and the publication of illustrated books such as Émile André’s 100 Façons de se Defendre dans la Rue. All of which paved the way for Barton-Wright to step in with Bartitsu.
In addition to books, specialist weapons were developed and Dr Godfrey showed pictures of the Belt Buckle Pistol which allowed you to shoot someone grabbing you from behind. Basically the gun was a short barrel and firing mechanism mounted on a brass plate looped through a belt so that it sat in the small of your back. If someone grabbed you from behind there was a cord looped around to the front that you could pull to discharge the weapon and shoot the attacker in the stomach. Obviously if you were on a night out you’d want to make sure it didn’t go off accidentally while you were sitting in the theatre and kill the person sitting behind you. Unless, of course, they were fiddling with their iPhone …
Dr Godfrey paid excellent tribute to the contribution of Barton-Wright before moving on to talk about Edith Garrud and the general environment of intimidation by men in general and the police in particular towards women in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Especially interesting was the account of the arrest and trial of Elizabeth Cass in 1887 who went out one evening to window shop for gloves on Regent Street and ended up being arrested, roughed up and hauled in front of a magistrate for soliciting and prostitution.
It was eye-opening to find out about the astonishing level of harassment that women were subjected to on the street in Victorian London. It certainly reinforces how far we have come since then and how precious the freedoms are that we have today. Interestingly though, in the Q&A after the talk, it was pointed out that even today the right of women to walk about freely on the street is threatened by people who’s behaviour is remarkably similar to that on show in the 19th century. The men harassing women in the Walking in New York video and the sleazy street pick up artists promoting the Game could easily have been time travellers from 1899.
In response to this harassment 19th century women equipped themselves with various weapons including life preservers and perhaps most deadly of all – the long hat pin. An authentic example was passed around and I’m pretty sure that any would-be sleazeball would get a hell of a shock to have one of those stuck in them where the sun don’t shine.
Dr Godfrey eloquently explained how this societal treatment of women formed a backdrop to the struggle of the Suffragettes for the right to vote and helps to explain the startling levels of violence that were used to suppress them. Anyone not already familiar with the history of the Suffragettes would have been shocked by Dr Godfrey’s description of Black Friday on 18th November 1910, when hardened police officers from the East End were drafted in to deal with the 300 Suffragettes led by Mrs Pankhurst to Parliament Square to protest about the suppression of the Conciliation Bill which would have extended the right to vote to property-owning women. Anyone interested might pick up on the point made that Winston Churchill was Home Secretary at the time and responsible for the handling of the riot. It didn’t turn out to be his finest hour.
Against all this going on in the background Edith Garrud had appeared on the scene and learned her jujitsu from Sadakazu Uyenishi at his Golden Square school which was later taken over by her husband William Garrud. Dr Godfrey gave vivid accounts of Garrud’s involvement in teaching jujitsu to suffragettes as well as the part the Golden Square dojo and her own gymnasium in Argyll Place played as safe havens for Suffragettes during the window smashing campaign on Oxford Street. Apparently women would return to the gym from a session of smashing windows and if the police followed them and tried to gain entry to arrest them Edith Garrud would confront them and demand that they leave because “ladies were exercising and gentlemen shouldn’t be present”. A clever use of the rules of the time to protect those campaigning to change them!
Dr Godfrey left the audience in no doubt that even at 4’11” Edith Garrud was a formidable woman and deserves her reputation as a redoubtable figure in the Suffragette movement and a pioneer of jujitsu and women’s self defence in the UK.
The following Q&A was lively and included some agreeable speculation on the mystery identity of Vigny’s ‘wife’ and assistant Miss Sanderson and whether she might have been involved in teaching la canne to the Suffragettes. No conclusions reached for lack of sources. Also noted was the rise of the Hugger Muggers of modern London whose choreographed techniques are reminiscent of the Hooligans and Apaches, although less violent.
All in all a very enjoyable and enlightening talk. Dr Godfrey is a superb speaker and has a wealth of deeply researched anecdotes and information about the Bartitsu era and I recommend looking out for future public lectures. A definite must-see for any Bartitsu enthusiast.
