Some dynamic Bartitsu-style sparring from the Szkola Fechtunku Aramis classical fencing school in Poland. The sparring canes are made according to the school’s own design, shown in more detail below:
Sherlock, Stock and Barrel is a Sherlock Holmes-themed event taking place at the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds, England between April 29-May 1.
Notably, the event marks the return of Bartitsu demonstrations to the Armouries, which had, in the year 2001, hosted the first known Bartitsu demos to have taken place since 1902.
Inspired by E.W. Barton-Wright’s Self Defence With a Walking Stick articles, which had then only recently been republished by the Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences, the 2001 Bartitsu demos were performed by Fight Interpreters Keith Ducklin and Rob Temple as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson.
The following dramatic and highly detailed account is taken from the Sheffield Independent of Monday 3rd February, 1908. It’s particularly interesting as it represents a hard-fought jujitsu-style contest taking place some seven years after the heyday of E.W. Barton-Wright’s music hall challenge matches. By this time, many of the sporting journalists and wrestlers of England were experienced in the rules, conventions and techniques of Japanese unarmed combat.
Former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani requires no introduction here, but his opponent might. George Dinnie was the son of the famous Scottish athlete Donald Dinnie, and George carried on the family tradition as a successful wrestler and strongman. His wrestling specialty was in the Lancashire catch-as-catch-can style, which was commonly acknowledged to be technically comparable to jujitsu …
A rare portrait sketch of Bartitsu founder E.W. Barton-Wright from The People newspaper of 24 October, 1915.
At this time, Barton-Wright would have been aged about 55 and was managing his impressively-appointed therapeutic clinic in Oxford Street:
Scenes from the Sherlock, Stock and Barrel festival taking place at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, UK. This event marks the return of Bartitsu demonstrations to the Museum, which was also the site of the first modern Bartitsu revival demos in 2001.
Founded in Paris in 1900, the Cercle Hoche was an exclusive fencing and athletic club whose amenities included a luxurious bathroom, a billiard room, a courtyard garden and a restaurant. On the 27th of May, 1908, the club hosted an all-women fencing tournament. Among the competitors was Marguerite Vigny, who went by the professional name of “Miss Sanderson”.
An expert fencer who had frequently and successfully competed in England, she was also the wife of former Bartitsu Club instructor Pierre Vigny and the proponent of a unique system of women’s self-defence employing umbrellas and parasols.
Marguerite Vigny narrowly lost her bout in this tournament, as her opponent – Mme. Rouviere, seen standing centre, above – gained six “touches” to Vigny’s five.
From the Shipley Times and Express of 23 February, 1906:
An exciting, though impromptu, jiu-jitsu contest was witnessed in the early the hours of Monday morning at Snow Hill Police Station. Two constables had arrested a well-dressed, powerfully-built man of about forty years of age at Alderegate Street at quarter past two, on a charge of disorderly conduct. With considerable difficulty the constables got their prisoner, who described himself as Arthur Leonard Paget, merchant, and gave an address in Clerkenwell — to the police station.
There he was released for moment, while the charge against him was being taken down. Suddenly throwing off his silk hat and two coats, he challenged any single policeman present to put him in the dock. Several of tha officers, as it happened, had learned jiu-iitsu from a Japanese expert, and, well aware the helplessness of an ordinary wrestler against jiu-jitsu methods, they smilingly accepted the challenge.
One of them stepped forward, and before he could get hold he found himself lying on the floor. When he had made another essay with similar results, he realised that his opponent knew more about jiu-jitsu than he did. A second policeman advanced the attack, but the formidable unknown threw him as easily as the other man.
Then three or four constables together rushed in, and a desperate struggle followed. Even against such odds Paget’s great strength and scientific skill enabled him for long time to hold his own. One after another the policemen want down, but they came on again. At length they tired out and threw their antagonist, who was then locked in a cell and left to cool down.
Speculation in the Force as to whether or not they had arrested Mr. Hackenschmidt was set at rest later as the prisoner, who assured an inquisitive officer that his description of himself was correct, and added that he used to be an Army drill instructor.
Taken before the Guildhall magistrates subsequently, Paget admitted that he was under the influence of drink, but urged that the unreasonable conduct of the constables in interfering with him at the outset had caused him to lose his temper. He was fined £5 and costs for being disorderly and assaulting the police.
Walking-stick sparring in the Bartitsu/Vigny style, as practiced in Santiago, Chile. Note the tactical shifts between the double-handed, rear and front guards:
