Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 20th October 2016
Captain F.C. Laing’s 1902 article The ‘Bartitsu’ Method of Self Defence is an often-neglected resource for canonical Bartitsu stick training.
As with all choreographed set-plays, Laing’s “examples” are best approached as formalised representations of certain technical and tactical options. It would be naive to assume that, for example, an active, aggressive opponent would allow any given action by the defender to take effect without attempting to defend and counter it, let alone that any set sequence of techniques could be relied upon in the chaos of a real fight. Thus, Barton-Wright’s precept of adaptability should be taken into account in all set-play training:
It is quite unnecessary to try and get your opponent into any particular position, as this system embraces every possible eventuality and your defence and counter-attack must be based entirely upon the actions of your opponent.
Bearing that principle in mind, the practice of set-plays offers four significant advantages.
1) Given that Bartitsu was effectively abandoned as a work-in-progress during 1902 and that no complete traditional curriculum exists, preserving the canonical set-plays constitutes our strongest practical link back to the first generation of Bartitsu practitioners.
2) Mastery of the set-plays as formal exercises conveys many of the essential, fundamental technical and tactical elements of Bartitsu as a martial art.
3) The set-plays can be “brought to life” via the addition of Bartitsu Club lineage material, as detailed in the second volume of the Bartitsu Compendium, and via combat improvisation training. Numerous failure drills and other exercises introducing progressive elements of spontaneity and active resistence may be applied to any set-play, offering a bridge between martial choreography and free sparring/fighting.
4) The canon of formal set-plays offer a “common language” for modern Bartitsu practitioners, which is especially useful when training with people from different clubs.
Here is an interpretation of Captain Laing’s “First Example” of Bartitsu stick fighting, which he described but did not illustrate in his article:
First.–We will suppose you are attacked by a man also with a stick in his hand; in nine cases out of ten a man who doesn’t know “Bartitsu” will rush with stick uplifted to hit you over the head.
Assume “first position,” guard head, then, before he has time to recover himself, hit him rapidly on both sides of his face, disengaging between each blow as explained, the rapidity of these blows will generally be sufficient to disconcert him; the moment you see this; dash in and hit him in the throat with the butt end of your stick, jump back at once and as you jump hit him again over the head.
The defender (right) assumes the “first position”, equivalent to the Front Guard described and illustrated in Barton-Wright’s articles but with the guard held wide to the defender’s right, inviting the attacker’s strike to the top of the defender’s head.
The attacker takes the bait and strikes to the top of the defender’s head. The defender wards the attack, allowing it to “shed” past him.
The defender immediately strikes a backhanded blow across the right side of the attacker’s face …
… disengages …
… and then strikes a forehanded blow across the left side of the attacker’s face.
Taking advantage of the attacker’s stunned state, the defender jumps in and delivers a point (jab) to the throat with the butt end of his cane …
… and then jumps back again out of distance, finishing with a backhand strike with the ball handle of his cane to the top of the attacker’s head.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 28th October 2016
Note – The March, 1899 antagonistics exhibition at the London Bath Club was widely reported upon in the media. Most accounts agree that the advertised Bartitsu contest between E.W. Barton-Wright and wrestler Eric Chipchase had been cancelled because both men had been injured in a cab accident the night before, but reports vary significantly on the amount and type of demonstration that did in fact, take place.
As noted below, Barton-Wright and Chipchase did come to grips about a month later during another exhibition at the St James’s Hall.
It’s also worth noting that “chucker-out” was Edwardian slang for a doorman or bouncer, who might be employed in saloons or at boisterous political rallies. Barton-Wright seemed to be annoyed by the suggestion that Bartitsu should be used in this way, and explictly refuted it in several lectures and interviews, probably because he intended the art to appeal to members of the educated classes.
Bartitsu/historical fencing exhibition at the Bath Club.
Sporting Times – Saturday, 11 March, 1899
A big platform covering the centre of the bath, decorations of red and white in stripes, the level space round the bath and the gallery crowded with ladies and gentlemen in their evening finery, band in red mess jackets making music at intervals, Mr. W. H. (we used to call him Billy at Monkey’s) Grenfell in black velvet sitting aloft with a table and bell before him, Captain Hutton, also in black velvet, and carrying a rapier, on the platform, that was what saw when I made entry into the Bath Club on Thursday evening.
The special attraction was have been an exposition of the noble art of Bartitsu, by Mr. Barton-Wright; but very early in the evening Mr. Grenfell rose and told us that Mr. Barton-Wright and Mr. Chipchase, the middleweight wrestling champion, with whom he was to have had a bout, had been upset while driving together in a hansom, and that one had strained his leg and the other put out his shoulder, Mr. Wright could and would talk but could not wrestle, bartitsu, or what ever the correct expression may be; but to make up for this disappointment were to have some swimming and a bout with the gloves, as well as some extra turns of Elizabethan sword-play.
The Elizabethan sword play is always interesting. It takes an expert to tell exactly what two men with foils are doing, but any lady can understand a cloak and rapier, or a rapier and dagger fight. The contests have a picturesqueness, too, which is lacking in fencing. Sandwiched between the various combats were swimming exhibitions, and a grey-headed gentleman frequently ran his face up against pair of boxing gloves on the hands of professor somebody-or-another.
Then Mr. Barton-Wright, a spare, lightly-built gentleman, stepped on to the platform, took off his coat and waistcoat, and proceeded to explain Bartitsu as well as a game leg would permit. It would not be fair to judge the system by what was, owing to the unlucky tab accident, a lecture almost entirely without illustrations; but I saw enough interest in the subject.
“If he once gets his grip on a man, he is done,” said a very old amateur boxer to me, and the “locks” are certainly, some of them, terrific in their strength. The only question is whether a boxer might not get in disabling blow before Mr. Barton- Wright could get his persuasive hands upon him. To chuckers-out, policemen in rough quarters, and men who go where there is trouble around, Bartitsu undoubtedly will be useful; but it requires, I should say, an athlete’s training.
Sporting Times – Saturday 29 April 1899
Mr. Barton Wright—who has not quite, I am sorry to say, recovered from his cab accident—lectured on and gave an exhibition of Bartitsu at St. James’ Hall, on Monday. He wrestled a bout with Mr. Chipchase, the middle-weight amateur champion, and certainly held his own, though both men were hampered the smallness of the stage.
The chucker-out science was, as before, the most interesting part of the lecture. My previous impression that Bartitsu is most useful to a small athletic man who may have to encounter a big man is confirmed, and I certainly think that policemen, chuckers-out, and others who have to deal with troublesome characters, should study the science. The presence of Sandow’s manager nearly led to a little breeze at one period of the lecture.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Friday, 28th October 2016
The Tokio and Osaka professors of the Japanese art of self-protection are in England, ready, under guidance of Mr. Barton-Wright, not only to display their skill, but to meet any British wrestler and show him he knows nothing of his game. They gave a private exhibition at the Tivoli Theatre yesterday, and they almost persuaded the hundred or so gentlemen who looked on that Japan is ahead of this country in personal self-defence, as with some other things, and infinitely superior to Continental peoples.
The writer of this paragraph has good reason to know that there no humbug in the business. After sitting open-mouthed throughout the performance, he still had a lingering suspicion that there was collusion, wherefore he asked Mr. Barton-Wright, who is himself an adept, what would if somebody rushed at him with a big stick. The scribe suited the action to the word, whereupon Mr. Barton-Wright treated him to one of the Japanese “locks”, which consisted in seizing the uplifted wrist with both hands and pressing the left elbow into the hollow of the sceptic’s arm, irresistably forcing him onto his back. If he had not yielded, he felt that his arm would have been broken.
This was one of the simplest demonstrations. It is said that there are 300 grips and throws the art. Exhibiting a considerable number yesterday, the two Japanese shied one another about in the most alarming manner. A rough who attacked one them would run risk getting killed, but on the Tivoli stage there was a thick carpet, and besides, the art, or rather the science, includes knowledge of how to fall.
Although each professor weighs less than ten stone, Mr. Barton-Wright declares that Sandow could not hold either of them down, and that the most skilful and heaviest English wrestler would thrown. Anybody is liberty to try after this week, for these terrible Japs begin a series of performances on Monday. Even expert boxers would probably come off second best, though the visitors know nothing of boxing. As for the French savate, they laugh at it.
One thing, however, should be clearly understood; Japanese self-defence knows no sporting rules. It is a serious thing, taught and practised for serious ends, and could only be tolerated in this country as counter to Hooliganism. Its thorough character is the reason of its efficiency. Like boxing, it must be learnt and practised, but it is more elaborate and scientific than our English sport, for the resistless nature of the grips and throws largely depend upon a knowledge of anatomy. Let any man of healthy physique once master its principles and learn to apply them promptly, and the biggest Hooligan that ever rushed would be at his mercy.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 1st November 2016
… by engaging toughs I trained myself until I was satisfied in practical application.
– E.W. Barton-Wright, 1950
Announcing the first international Bartitsu sparring video competition, for prizes of up to US$1000! The contest is open to martial artists and combat athletes of any style(s) and its object is to help fulfil the Bartitsu Society’s mission: “to continue the legacy of martial arts pioneer E.W. Barton-Wright”.
The “New Art of Self Defence”
For a few years at the turn of the 20th century, Barton-Wright’s London “School of Arms and Physical Culture” was the site of the world’s first experiment in cross-training between Asian and European fighting styles:
Under Bartitsu is included boxing, or the use of the fist as a hitting medium, the use of the feet both in an offensive and defensive sense, the use of the walking stick as a means of self-defence. Judo and jujitsu, which are secret styles of Japanese wrestling, (I) would call close play as applied to self-defence.
– E.W. Barton-Wright, 1901
Barton-Wright’s system was effectively abandoned as a work-in-progress during 1902. It then remained in obscurity for a century (apart from a cryptic reference in a Sherlock Holmes story) before being revived as a collaborative, on-going project by members of the Bartitsu Society.
Towards that project, we’re now looking to pressure-test the following set of experimental sparring guidelines, which are designed to closely evoke the “Bartitsu style” in hard-fought matches. These guidelines have been carefully designed to simulate the type of “all-in” fighting suggested by E.W. Barton-Wright’s original writings on Bartitsu, maintaining the spirit and detail of that system as it was evolving at the London Bartitsu Club circa 1901.
1) There is no provision for counting points nor declaring winners. The object of the sparring match is specifically to test and demonstrate the Bartitsu style in action.
2) Bouts may continue up to a nominated time limit and/or to submission, as you prefer.
3) Striking and thrusting with the stick, stick traps and disarms, unarmed striking, takedowns/throws and ground-fighting to submission are all legal. Videos that show examples of most or all of these techniques will be favoured by the adjudicators.
4) Both fighters must wear fencing masks or similar protective face/headgear, hockey gloves or similar protective handgear and groin cups at minimum; more extensive protective equipment is optional.
Gi jackets and belts/sashes are optional (note that Bartitsu does not use belt ranks, so belts and sashes are purely utilitarian and may be of any colour).
5) Contact levels and targets must be commensurate with the type of protective equipment employed – “play hard, play fair, nobody hurt”.
6) Each fighter must begin the match armed with one, approx. 36″ long rattan sparring cane with a rubber ball handle or crook handle. In the event of disarms, etc., the bout should continue seamlessly into unarmed combat.
Stick fighting guidelines:
1) Guard positions are generally high (the front, rear and double-handed guards as shown in Barton-Wright’s Self Defence with a Walking Stick articles), with lowered or widened variant guards serving as positions of invitation, i.e. “baiting” an attack to a particular target.
2) There is no use of orthodox fencing-style weapon-to-weapon parries in positions 3 or 4, nor any other weapon-to-weapon parry or block in which the hand is lower than the point of impact between the sticks. These are contrary to the basic premise of protecting the weapon hand and they significantly alter the fighting style if used in sparring.
Unarmed combat guidelines:
1) Fighters use the classical fisticuffs stance (erect or with a slight backward lean) and the pugilistic mill (circling the fists vertically in deceptive patterns) and/or extended guard position.
2) Predominantly linear punches from the mill and linear, low (predominantly knee/shin level) kicks.
3) The MMA-style double–leg takedown, while very effective, was not a part of the eclectic “British jiujitsu” practiced at the Bartitsu Club, and so is not allowed in Bartitsu-style sparring.
Video Guidelines
You may enter as many videos as you wish.
Entries will be accepted at any time before midnight USA Central Time, February 1, 2017.
Videos may be either static or dynamic (moving) camera set-ups and may include edited and/or raw footage. A single edited video may include footage from more than one sparring session.
When deciding on framing, editing choices, etc., however, please bear in mind that the object is to display the style clearly and to its best advantage.
Background music should not be used.
Videos must be issued under a Creative Commons licence and must be uploaded to YouTube and/or Vimeo. If you do not wish your video(s) to be publicly searchable on YouTube, we suggest setting the privacy to “Unlisted”.
Links to each video you are entering should be sent to tonywolf(at)gmail.com.
Adjudication and prizes
The adjudicators’ decisions will be based on the levels of historical/stylistic accuracy and martial intent apparent in each video. Their decisions will be binding and final – no correspondence will be entered into.
If no videos achieve the requisite standards of historical/stylistic accuracy and martial intent, the adjudicators reserve the right to defer awarding any prizes.
The winning entry will receive a single prize of US$1000, sent by PayPal to the entrant’s nominated email address.
The second place winning entry will receive a single prize of US$500, sent by PayPal to the entrant’s nominated email address.
Prize-winning videos and a selection of runners-up will be announced and showcased on the Bartitsu Society website and via Bartitsu-related social media. At the adjudicators’ discretion, highlights of the prize-winning and runner-up videos may also be re-edited and collated into other videos as exemplars of Bartitsu-style sparring.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 8th November 2016
Feedback in the wake of our announcement of the international Bartitsu sparring video contest has included this question, both from groups who practice their own forms of neo-Bartitsu and from groups who train in comparable styles of Filipino, French, Italian and other martial arts.
“We don’t strictly train in Bartitsu – can we still enter the sparring video contest?”
The objects of the contest are to pressure-test the sparring guidelines themselves and to generate sparring video footage of the “canonical” method described by E.W. Barton-Wright, circa 1900.
With that in mind:
We’ve allowed a three-month period so that martial artists can train for their entry (or entries) if they wish. We anticipate that many people who are already skilled in comparable styles will find that is plenty of time to adjust their regular practice towards the style suggested in the guidelines.
The rules allow videos to be edited and note that a single video can include footage from multiple sparring matches. “Highlights videos” are just as welcome as are unedited videos of single matches. Therefore, if, in the heat of sparring, you perform techniques that are outside the style guidelines, you are welcome to edit those techniques out of your video.
If you have any further questions regarding the contest rules or sparring guidelines, feel free to ask in the comments below or by contacting tonywolf(at)gmail.com.
We look forward to seeing your videos!
Posted inEditorial, Sparring|Comments Off on “We don’t strictly train in Bartitsu – can we still enter the sparring video contest?”
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Thursday, 10th November 2016
Because Bartitsu is a culturally eclectic, Edwardian-era self defence system, revivalists are faced with a variety of words that have fallen out of fashion over the past century or simply originate in languages other than English. Here’s a quick and easy guide to the phonetic pronunciation of some of these words:
Apaches (as in the Parisian street gangsters rather than the Native American people) – Apahsh.
Bartitsu – Bart-it-soo.
la canne – pronounced lah kahn.
jiujitsu – in Japanese, joo-jits’ (with a very lightly voiced “oo” sound at the end); in standard English adaptation, joo-jitsoo.
pugilism – soft “g”, as in pew-jill-ism.
savate – sah-vaht.
Suffragette – pronounced with a soft “g”, like suffrajet.
Vigny – we’re not certain how Pierre Vigny pronounced his surname, but most likely either Vih-nyee or Vih-nyay.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 17th December 2016
The Bartitsu Compendium, Volume 1: History and the Canonical Syllabus (2005) and The Bartitsu Compendium Volume II: Antagonistics (2008)
Compiled by members of the Bartitsu Society, volumes 1 and 2 of the Bartitsu Compendium are availablein print from Lulu.com.
Volume I collates most of the canonical Bartitsu material and features over two hundred and seventy pages of original essays, rare vintage reprints and never-before-seen translations, illustrated with hundreds of fascinating photographs and sketches.
Volume II provides resources towards continuing Barton-Wright’s martial arts experiments. It combines extensive excerpts from fifteen classic Edwardian-era self defence manuals, including well over four hundred illustrations, plus a collection of long-forgotten newspaper and magazine articles on Bartitsu exhibitions and contests; new, original articles on Bartitsu history and training; a complete course of Edwardian-era “physical culture” exercises; personality profiles, essays and more besides.
Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes documentary (2011)
At the end of the Victorian era, E. W. Barton-Wright combined jiujitsu, kickboxing, and stick fighting into the “Gentlemanly Art of Self Defence” known as Bartitsu. After Barton-Wright’s School of Arms mysteriously closed in 1902, Bartitsu was almost forgotten save for a famous, cryptic reference in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Empty House.
In this fascinating 54-minute documentary shot in Switzerland, Italy, the UK and the USA, host Tony Wolf reveals the history, rediscovery and revival of Barton-Wright’s pioneering mixed martial art.
London, 1914: The leaders of the radical women’s rights movement are fugitives from the law. Their last line of defense is the secret society of “Amazons”: women trained in the martial art of bartitsu and sworn to defend their leaders from arrest and assault.
After a series of daring escapes and battles with the police, the stakes rise dramatically when the Amazons are forced into a deadly game of cat and mouse against an aristocratic, utopian cult…
The Suffrajitsu graphic novel trilogy is available as e-books from Amazon and comiXology – we strongly recommend comiXology’s Guided View system for a fluid, intuitive online reading experience – as well as in print form as part of the Blood and Honor anthology.
Widely used by members of the Bartitsu Society, these rattan training canes are recommended for both drills and sparring applications.
The BlackSwift Raven self-defence walking stick
Combining a stylish, low-profile appearance with superb dexterity and great strength, the BlackSwift Raven is especially recommended as a “carry” cane for self-defence purposes.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Monday, 19th December 2016
“Bartitsu.” We have not had time to visit the National Library or T.C.D. in order to look up the derivation of this uncanny word, but we are assured that it is the world-old method of self-defence rediscovered — the science by which the Celtic heroes achieved their marvellous feats – and that Mr. Barton-Wright is its latter-day exponent. It is very simple, according to him, and should take in this country of paradoxes, for it is the art of conquering an adversary by yielding, and not resisting. He illustrated it on Monday evening the Bath Club, London, and we extract the following details from a graphic description in the “World.”
Mr. Wright, we are told, is small and supple, with hands as small and delicate as a woman’s, but he is as active as a wild cat. After making his bow to the spectators he summoned a friendly corpus vile out of the audience on which to make the necessary experiments. The Vile Body was a large muscular man who looked as if he could take Mr. Wright up in one hand and put him on the top of book-case; and yet under those small white hands with the sensitive tapering fingers the big man was absolutely helpless. All his weight told against himself; the strength he put out was his undoing.
The Vile Body was invited take Mr. Wright by the lapels of his coat and push him away. Mr. Wright resisted for instant, just to get his adversary to put out his whole strength, then suddenly yielded and fell upon his back. This brought the other over, only to find Mr. Wright’s foot in the pit his stomach, which sent him flying over the head of his small opponent.
In the same way Mr. Wright illustrated “how put man out of the room.” If you try push the man out, he will push back at you; also, if you pull him towards you, he will instinctively pull away. Therefore, Mr. Wright pulls his adversary gently, the other pulls away, and before he knows anything more Mr. Wright has him by the wrist and the upper arm in such a lock that if he tries to use the other arm, the held one would be broken: and, as Mr. Wright quaintly adds, “he presently leaves the room!”
Endless are these grips, which are all based anatomical knowledge, and which no amount muscular power will enable a man to resist. But “Bartitsu” does not simply mean attack. It also includes that difficult part of defence which enables you to turn your passing defeat to advantage to yourself, and to dismay for your triumphing opponent.
The art of falling has been truly reduced to a science by Mr. Wright. How to fall when thrown clear over your adversary’s head, so as to “pick him while passing over his head in the air and bring him down”, he being underneath and you on the top of his surprised person when you both reach the ground: how to bring down, while falling, the man who has tripped you, and thus provide yourself with something soft to fall upon; all are made simple.
The Vile Body submitted to be demonstrated upon with admirable equanimity and humour. Mr. Wright threw him; twisted his arm inside out; pitched him over his head; sat on his chest; showed us, in a most alluring way, how charmingly easy it is strangle man with the lapel and collar of his own coat, and tripped his legs from under him with a one-two parry of the right foot. His whole demonstration proves that, in Mr. Barton-Wright’s hands, man is open to muscular conviction, and that intelligence can always get the better of brute force. A knowledge of this art would be invaluable our police; but is it a sine qua non that they should active as wild cats?
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Sunday, 18th December 2016
In the game of Bartitsu, or Japanese self-defence, the other person tempts you to engage him, and then by apt manipulation deftly twists and twirls you to your mother earth. As you advance upon your opponent he gathers you warmly to his bosom, and, only his foot in your chest, induces you to somersault over his head, and doubt his friendship. Should you stoop to a prostrate man, he throttles or “shoulder locks” you on the instant; while “make but a rush against Othello’s breast,” and he retires, but only to kneel on one knee as he catherine-wheels you with the other.
One of the two Japanese wrestlers brought by Mr. Barton-Wright to exhibit “Bartitsu” at the Empire Theatre also lies on his back, while a man stands on his chest and four others press heavily upon a broomstick laid across his upturned throat. From this position he cleverly escapes by overturning the man from his chest, and slipping his head sideways under the stick in the confusion as he rises impassively to his feet.
The interest in Bartitsu centres in the hope that it may not be too difficult for the average person to acquire for his use in self-defence, so that the battle shall not be always to the strong, and that the Hooligan may fall in haste to arise at leisure but this, unfortunately, seems doubtful. In our issue of March 18th, 1899, we gave some illustrations of the “chips” used by Messrs. Uyenishi and Tani during their performance.
Posted inCanonical Bartitsu, Humour, Jiujitsu|Comments Off on “The Game of Bartitsu” (Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 12 October, 1901)
