Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 19th December 2012
The Weaver Hall Museum in Cheshire, U.K. will be hosting this event between 2.00 – 5.00 on Saturday, Jan. 26th. According to the organisers:
In 1899 a young woman and her husband go to see a demonstration by one Edward Barton-Wright, the first jujutsu instructor in Europe.
But how does she then become implicated in brawling between campaigners for the Women’s Vote and the police?
And what is the connection to the great fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes and his escape from the Reichenbach Falls?
We’ll be unfolding the legend of Edith Garrud, and taking a very physical look at how the Victorians combined English boxing, Japanese grappling and walking stick fencing, with the use of whatever came to hand, from umbrellas to bicycles, to create an early mixed martial art for street defence.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 22nd November 2014
The historical drama series Peaky Blinders is named for a fearsome Birmingham street gang armed with razor blades sewn into the rims of their flat “peaky” caps. But did that really happen? And even if it did – would a razor blade cap actually work as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat?
The series takes some liberties with history; for example, whereas the Peaky Blinders were a real Birmingham gang, their heyday had been during the late 19th century rather than during the post-WW1 period. Also, as noted by Birmingham historian Professor Carl Chinn, the historical record seems to make no reference to Peaky Blinder gangsters using razor blade cap weapons.
The hooligan gangs active in 1890s Birmingham were infamous for wielding steel-capped boots, stones and sometimes knives; they also used heavy belt buckles as flails and kept their pockets full of iron bolts to be thrown as projectile weapons. Straight-razors (rather than razor caps) were used as weapons by street gangsters in cities as far-flung as Glasgow, Sydney and Sao Paolo during the early decades of the 20th century.
The first documented reference to razor blade caps, however, actually appears to have been in a popular novel written by Birmingham author John Douglas in 1977.
In A Walk Down Summer Lane, which is set between the two World Wars, Douglas describes the bills of the gangsters’ “peaky” caps as being “slit open and pennies or razor-blades or pieces of slate inserted and stitched up again.” In close combat, according to Douglas, the cap would be “whipped off the head and swiped across the opponent’s eyes, momentarily blinding them, or slashing the cheeks.”
Douglas also refers to this nasty street-fighting trick in his poem, The Legend of Summer Lane:
I was born in Newtown Row – down Summer Lane we dursen’t go, To show our face because, you know, they’re always fighting drunk, lad. They’d shop their gran for two and six, or blind your eyes with brutal flicks, Of ‘peaky blinders’ – just for kicks – but only just in fun, lad.
Douglas may have been referring to a bit of real Birmingham history that went unreported at the time the Peaky Blinders were most active, or simply repeating a colourful local urban legend. It’s also possible that he invented an improvised weapon out of whole cloth, as it were, for storytelling purposes. However, A Walk Down Summer Lane undoubtedly spread the folklore of the razor cap, especially when it was serialised in the Evening Mail newspaper during the late 1970s.
But would it work as a weapon?
Regardless of its historicity, is a cap with razor blades sewn into the rim a plausible weapon in hand to hand combat, as described by John Douglas and as shown in the Peaky Blinders TV series? What sort of damage could it do?
We stitched two relatively heavy antique razor blades into the brim of a tweed flat cap and set about testing the weapon. Our first observation was that, in order for the blades to be sufficiently exposed to serve as weapons, they have to be stitched so as to project at a particular, dynamic angle relative to the cap brim. While the razors might not be noticeable at a distance they are quite obvious (and potentially intimidating) at close range.
Gripped by the rear of the cap and swung with force, the blades consistently slashed cleanly through braced sheets of 1/4″ cardboard, leaving 3″ long cuts. Covering the cardboard targets with light cotton fabric reduced the depth and length of penetration and heavier fabric reduced it to negligible levels, so exposed-skin targets such as the face and hands are the most plausible.
Although the Peaky Blinders series often shows a single slashing attack with the cap dealing several parallel wounds simultaneously, our experiments suggest that to be impossible if the razors are all stitched into the cap brim in parallel.
Our conclusions are that the razor blade cap could plausibly be used as a weapon in surprise attacks, albeit not an especially effective weapon when compared to knives or straight razors. It is, however, unquestionably potent in works of dramatic fiction.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 1st May 2010
Even before Edith Garrud began teaching jiujitsu classes for the women and children of London, Emily Diana Watts was pioneering the way for female martial arts instructors in the Western world. This post looks at her extraordinary career as a martial athlete and physical culture innovator.
Born into a wealthy family in the year 1867, Watts developed an early enthusiasm for the “strenuous life” and in 1903 she began studying jiujitsu with former Bartitsu Club instructor Sadakazu Uyenishi and his associate, Akitaro Ono. By 1906 she was teaching basic classes herself at Prince’s Skating Rink in Knightsbridge. That was also the year in which she published “The Fine Art of Jujutsu“, a handsomely produced manual that was notable as being the first book in the English language to detail a number of Kodokan judo techniques.
Watts continued to study and teach jiujitsu but also found herself drawn to physical culture in the broader sense. By the beginning of the First World War she had become passionately engaged in the task of reviving classical Greek exercises via the close study of ancient statuary and artwork.
In 1914 she presented her new system in a book entitled “The Renaissance of the Greek Ideal“, writing as “Diana Watts”. Although academics criticised her fashionably romantic view of classical Greece, pointing out that many of the translations she used to illustrate her points were themselves inaccurate, the book was generally very well received. On its strength, Watts was invited to join both the French Institut Marey and the American Institute of Archeology.
Her presentations put a new spin on both the fad for “Grecian” dance (exemplified by Isadora Duncan) and the traditional Victorian poses plastique. In displays of the latter type, athletes, often almost nude with their faces and bodies powdered with white makeup, would assume postures evocative of famous works of classical statuary. This form of visual theatre had been popularised by the famous strongman Eugen Sandow at the turn of the 20th century.
Rather than holding frozen postures, however, Diana Watts would demonstrate her interpretations of the athletic techniques portrayed by the statues. These included actions such as drawing a bow, hurling a discus or throwing an opponent in wrestling.
Here is a video montage of some of the exercises from “Renaissance of the Greek Ideal”, re-animated from the cinematographic photographs that illustrated the original book:
Several critics noted the “suspicious” resemblance between Watts’ “ancient Greek” exercises and those of the Japanese martial arts. In her own words:
In selecting and systematising different series of sequential movements which shall be perfectly natural, one turns instinctively to those needed in imaginary attack and defence, not only on account of the great variety of these positions, but because of the rapidity with which they must be performed. The origin, then, of all physical training is war. Among primitive peoples, it was necessary to be always on guard against sudden attacks. For this reason, during times of peace, they practised at first a sort of mimic war, which gradually developed into a sport. The Greeks ascribed the invention of wrestling to mythical persons such as Palaestra, the daughter of Hermes, and to Theseus is given the honour of having been the first to reduce the sport to a game, with well-defined rules, and thus to have made an art of wrestling; whereas before his time it consisted of the most brutal fighting, in which the strength and weight of the adversary alone decided the victory.
In the mimic battles of the Spartans, they frequently lost eyes and ears, which tortures they accepted as the necessary sacrifice in return for the indomitable fortitude which they acquired.
At a later date, the system adopted by the Athenians had for aim beauty of form and line, and grace of movement, and no competitor was awarded a prize unless his performance had been gracefully as well as effectively achieved. Contest by wrestling was divided into two branches by the ancient Greeks. The first was the “Pale Orthe,” the upright wrestling. The second was called “Halendesis” or “Kylisis,” in which the athlete wrestled with his adversary on the ground. The “Pale Orthe” was the only kind of wrestling practised in Homeric times, and also later on in the National Games of the Greeks. The rules provided that on the fall of an athlete his adversary should allow him to rise and resume the contest if he wished, but if he fell three times, the victory was decided in favour of the other. There were also preparatory exercises called “Analeinemata,” exercises which were looked upon as of the greatest importance, since through them alone could the athlete acquire that tense elasticity of muscle necessary for the extreme rapidity required in actual wrestling.
It is, then, natural to suppose that the preparatory movements represented as nearly as possible the actual positions taken in wrestling, so that by continued practice the pupil might arrive at the unhesitating certainty and precision needed in the varied changes of position of real contest.
Antique Art gives many examples of this extraordinarily rapid form of wrestling by tripping. It appeared many centuries later among the Chinese, brought back probably through their intercourse with the Persians. The form of wrestling called Jujutsu, practised by the Japanese of the present day, is, I am convinced, a survival of the “Pale Orthe” of the Greeks. The collection of tracings on page 39, taken from Professor Krause’s book “Hellenika Gymnastik und Agonistik,” show the close resemblance of some of the Japanese throws used in Jujutsu, to those of the Greeks.
No. 1, especially, is identical with the Koshinage shoulder throw, in which the thrower drops on his knees after having hoisted his opponent upon his shoulder. This throw can be given standing or kneeling, but the latter position is much more disastrous to the victim. No. 2 is obviously the Koshinage hip-throw, as used in Jujutsu at the present day, and No. 4 has a very close resemblance to the Japanese “Shimoku,” the position of the attacker’s left hand being the only essential difference, while he is practically erect, instead of crouching on bent knees.
The “Pale Orthe” was introduced into Japan by a Chinaman about the third or fourth century, under the name of “Jujutsu,” and remained a jealously-guarded secret known to and practised by the Samurai nobles alone, until comparatively a few years ago—in 1860, I think—when the general public were allowed to learn. With the strange liking of the Chinese for all that represents the grotesque in movement, they neglected, and eventually completely lost, all the grace and beauty esteemed by the Greeks as indispensable, and retained only the dramatic and practical sides of wrestling, the genuine self-defence, which, among the Greeks, was subordinated to beauty.
It is, then, upon the preparatory movements that I place such immense importance, and it was during the study of all the rapid changes of position in this “Pale Orthe,” which demand such exquisite balance, that I found for myself the Law of Balance in movement, the application of which allows of the greatest rapidity and force with the least expenditure of energy. This law, as I have said, requires the centre of gravity of a moving body to be kept exactly and continuously over its base, an impossible achievement except under the condition of Tension already described.
As explained in “The Renaissance of the Greek Ideal”, Watts’ training system went well beyond simple public performance, comprising a detailed method of physical, mental and even spiritual development based on the principles of balance and dynamic tension. It was also promoted as an aid to longevity, turning the tide of middle age and restoring youthful poise and energy.
Diana Watts spent many years touring on the international lecture circuit, sometimes in collaboration with other artists and researchers inspired by classical antiquity. Her personal wealth allowed her to fund these tours and to lecture free of charge, and by the 1940s she had circled the world five times, meeting Mahatma Gandhi and befriending George Bernard Shaw among other notables. She had homes in England, Italy and in Canada and was famous enough to have been written in to several novels and short stories as a sort of archetype of the eccentric physical culture enthusiast.
Watts’ system evidently worked for her, as she lived until 1968, passing away at the age of 101. Perhaps her training system is due for a revival.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 8th March 2016
If I have been fortunate enough to interest the readers of this Journal in one of the many forms of “Bartitsu,” I shall hope to describe later in another article a further series of “walking-stick defence” tactics, combined with some of the most useful and punishing falls and grips used in Japanese wrestling (…)
– Captain F.C. Laing, “The ‘Bartitsu’ Method of Self Defence”, Journal of the United Service Institution of India (1903)
For a period of several months during 1901, Frederick Laing, a Captain with the 12th Regiment of the Bengal Infantry, studied at the Bartitsu Club while on furlough from the army. Although it seems that Laing did not actually write a follow-up article addressing the combination of walking stick defence with Japanese wrestling, his quote above is one of the few concrete records of the fact that the Bartitsu curriculum actively combined those two styles. One hundred and fifteen years later, this essay is an attempt to address that combination in the context of the Bartitsu canon.
Savate and stick fighting instructor Pierre Vigny appears to have arrived in London during early/mid-1899. While it’s evident that at least one of his style’s signature characteristics (an emphasis on ambidexterity) was already present during that period, reports on his early demonstrations do not make any reference to tripping, throwing nor other wrestling techniques.
Otherwise, in fact, very little is known of Pierre Vigny’s stick fighting style prior to its presentation in Barton-Wright’s two-part article “Self Defence with a Walking Stick”, which appeared in Pearson’s Magazine during January and February of 1901. In his introduction, Barton-Wright wrote that Vigny’s style had “recently been assimilated by me into my system of self-defence called ‘Bartitsu’.” It’s likely that, by the time this article appeared, Vigny and Barton-Wright had already been collaborating, more or less formally, for about one year.
Vigny’s style as recorded in SDwaWS and thereafter was highly idiosyncratic by comparison with the cane styles that were then commonly taught on the European mainland, particularly in France and Italy, which more closely resembled sabre fencing. Most notably, the c1901 Vigny style placed an unusual emphasis on ambidexterity in attacking and defending; operated largely from a variety of high guard positions, excluding the standard fencing parries of 3 and 4; and incorporated a variety of trapping, tripping and takedown techniques. These latter techniques were particularly unusual in comparison with the more mainstream cane fighting styles that had preceded the Bartitsu Club.
Of the twenty-two set-play sequences illustrated in SDwaWS, Vigny is shown as the active defender in every sequence involving counter-strikes and the use of the crook in hooking techniques, the latter techniques appearing in three separate sequences. Barton-Wright is shown as the active defender in every set-play involving joint-locks and leg trips. The only (quasi-)exception to this pattern is shown in SDwaWS 1/10, in which Vigny demonstrates the use of the cane in levering the attacker to the floor by pressure against his lead thigh.
As a working hypothesis, therefore, it seems likely that the joint-locking and takedown content evident in the Pearson’s articles was at least partly the result of the collaboration between Vigny and Barton-Wright during the year 1900, resulting in the series of hybrid cane/jiujitsu close-combat techniques referred to by Captain Laing. Significantly, all of these techniques are presented in the tactical context of following a high-line attack intended to force a better-armed opponent to guard high, at which point the defender enters to close-quarters and either grapples or trips the opponent to the floor.
Here follows a selection of the relevant SDwaWS set-plays, with corresponding jiujitsu techniques for comparison:
An elbow and shoulder lock leading into a rear takedown, with variants from “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” and “The New Art of Self Defence”.
Throwing the opponent backwards over the thigh, again with variants from “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” and “The New Art of Self Defence”.
A sweeping trip to the lead foot, with variants from “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” and Bartitsu Club instructor Sadakazu Uyenishi’s “Text-Book of Ju-jitsu”.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Wednesday, 27th December 2017
Mancunian pro-wrestler “Gentleman Jack” Gallagher is a rising star of World Wrestling Entertainment due to his (mostly) unflappable charisma, technical grappling style and distinctly Bartitsuvian umbrella-fu, as seen in this “duel” with rival wrestler Aria Daivari:
… and heard straight from the horse’s mouth:
Perhaps an ambassadorship is in order …
Posted inPop-culture, Video, Wrestling|Comments Off on “Gentleman Jack” Gallagher Brings Umbrella Fighting to the WWE
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018
Having already addressed the umbrella combat of debonair super-spy John Steed in general terms, our attention now turns to some of the specifics, as delineated in The Avengers Annual of 1967. The following graphic tutorial probably accounted for a number of damaged umbrellas and wounded feelings between siblings and young friends.
John Steed’s Sword-Stick
The sword stick is essentially a light but surprisingly strong weapon which is used as an extension of the arm, a lever, or a locking stick. It enables the user to actually start his offensive before his opponent is within reach of him. It is silent, accurate and has great psychological advantages. While it can be lethal, it is mostly used to overpower without injury or to incapacitate an opponent. An important technique used with the stick is “tension”. When it is released at one end, the built-up energy causes it to go immediately into a movement almost too rapid for the eye to follow!It is also a fact that when the sheath is cast aside or thrown at the opponent, his eyes almost invariably follow it and provide a distraction of great advantage.
Steed grasps shoulder and pulls it towards him while thrusting his umbrella between arm and body. The action is confined to pulling shoulder towards him and thrusting umbrella away – note that the curved handle is held to trap the arm so that from a forward movement, it will hook over the wrist. Steed can now move swiftly behind his opponent and, if he wishes, force him face downwards to the ground.
In this the main action is a left hand movement in order to keep the right hand free for a strong grasp on the gun hand. The right hand holds the stick in tension against the left so that when it is drawn it whips around to a violent blow on the gun hand. Steed uses his right hand to twist the gun away and takes an offensive threatening posture with the sword.
From the ground Steed slides his stick between his adversary’s legs at knee level. It is held firmly with both hands and all the following twisting and rising action must be smooth and continuous. The first movement is to twist umbrella between the legs and rise to a sitting position, proceeding to twist and rise onto one knee. At this stage adversary begins to fall and Steed rises fully to the offensive position as opponent falls backwards.
As the assailant kicks out, Steed steps back and traps the heel with his stick. As the leg extends forward it is forced upwards. Steed rises as high as possible to throw his assailant backwards to the ground. He is then able to take up a threatening pose over floored opponent.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 2nd January 2018
Popular enough in its day but almost forgotten over the past four decades, the mystery/adventure TV series Adam Adamant Lives! was intended as the BBC’s answer to The Avengers. Both series featured dapper Edwardianesque gents teaming up with groovy young women to combat the outlandish masterminds of fantastically devious schemes.
Adam Adamant, however, distinguished himself from The Avengers’ John Steed in three essential ways. Firstly, he was not simply an Old Etonian spy with a taste for snappy suits, formal courtesies and umbrella fighting, but rather a genuine Victorian-era gentleman-adventurer. In the year 1902, Adamant had been placed in suspended animation by his arch-nemesis, a masked evil-doer known only as “the Face”. Accidentally rediscovered and revived in 1966, the hero resumes his crusade in the name of Queen and Country, assisted by his quickly-acquired manservant, Mr. Simms, and swinging chick Georgina “Georgie” Jones.
The second point of difference is that Adam Adamant, as a gentleman of the belle epoque, could not quite bring himself to believe that the women of the 1960s might be anything other than the virtuous objects of his manly protection. This gallant naiveté frequently resulted in his being duped by villainesses and then knocked cold.
Thirdly, at least when facing male opponents, Adamant exhibited the ruthlessness of his penny dreadful forebears to an extent that might have made even the steely John Steed blanch. While Steed would not hesitate to kill an enemy if required by dire circumstance, he preferred non-lethal options when possible. Adam Adamant, on the other hand, demonstrates a cold-blooded relish for the kill, whether impaling his opponents (typically with the sword concealed in his ever-present cane, occasionally with spears or javelins), hurling them to their doom from great heights as Holmes did to Moriarty, or just slitting their throats:
The fight scenes in Adam Adamant Lives! are typical of their vintage; low budgets led to fast-paced production schedules that seldom allowed time to properly rehearse action sequences, resulting in sometimes imaginative, often energetic, but frequently sloppy and (actually) dangerous fights. However, credit must be given to the fight arrangers who devised Adamant’s signature combat style, which is a Bartitsuesque combination of Queensberry Rules boxing, jiujitsu and fencing, with occasional use of the walking cane itself as a weapon.
Adamant’s formal, extended-guard unarmed stance is a fairly good approximation of late 19th century fisticuffs and he makes frequent and effective use of the classic left lead-off, rather than resorting to the modern jab. His jiujitsu – which must surely have been learned at the Bartitsu Club, given that he lived in central London and was placed in suspended animation the very same year that the Club folded – generally defaults to those techniques that can be learned quickly by a game but over-worked actor and then “sold” by agile stuntmen.
Adam Adamant Lives! lasted for two action-packed seasons but ultimately could not compete with The Avengers. It did, however, inspire the Austin Powers movie series, which updated the concept to feature an action man of the 1960s being cryogenically frozen and then revived during the late 1990s. Those who enjoy ’60s action-adventure with an Edwardian flair should also note that a number of Adam Adamant Lives! episodes are available on YouTube.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 6th January 2018
A satirical self-defence article from the Bristol Magpie of February 2, 1905:
NOTWITHSTANDING there are already numberless systems of self defence extensively advertised and practiced, Magpie hopes to be excused for bringing before his readers just one more, “The Magpie System,” which has been devised by a brainy professor, specially for ladies, in this respect filling a great and crying need.
To get to business; we will commence with railway assaults as these are the most common and the most dreaded. In the first place, dear ladies, you must never travel alone without a copy of the Magpie and a trusty life preserver, which latter can easily be concealed conveniently to hand, in the byways of your skirt. If you find yourself in a railway carriage, the only other occupant of which is one of those terrifying objects – a man – you will, after having reviewed in your mind all the crimes you can remember committed under similar circumstances, readily see that you are in a critical position and will prepare to act accordingly.
Wait till your natural enemy is buried in the latest phase of the fiscal problem, looking out of the window, or otherwise engaged, and then give him a tap over the “brayne panne” with the aforesaid weapon. One blow is usually sufficient, and all that remains is to throw the body through the window far into the night, or day as the case may be. Of course the man might have been as innocent and free from guilt as Mr. Balfour or E. T. Hooley, but that is a side issue and you cannot afford to take any risks in this strenuous life.
Let us take another view of the case. Suppose that by some means or other, you allow the man to get the best of the early exchanges, and find yourself apparently in his power, you must, whilst appearing to accede to the hooligan’s demands, stealthily disengage one of your hatpins, which are, I understand, like your troubles always with you, and plunge it into any tender spot which your assailant leaves exposed. A very slight knowledge of anatomy is of advantage here, as it will help you to decide where to strike, but it may be laid down as a safe rule, that if the pin sinks in the flesh to a depth of seven or eight inches without reaching bottom, you have, so to speak, touched the spot, and your man is at once placed hors de combat. You now recover your hat pin, adjust your toilet, and turn to the pages of this journal for further information.
We now come to the ordinary footpad, the common or garden form of Hooliganitus. Should you find yourself in a dirty street, commanded by a dirty Dick Turpin to “stand and deliver” you must use that sense of tact with which the gods have so liberally endowed your sex. Throw your bulging purse heavily on the pavement. The clink of the filthy lucre will generally cause Turpin to lose all caution, and as he stoops to pick up the spoils, you spring with all possible force on to his back. This will send him sprawling face downwards, and you can either sit on his head till the police arrive — which will be from one to twenty-four hours — or punish him yourself by seizing his ears and bumping his face in the gutter ad lib.
Sometimes, however the rascal is too wary to be had by the purse bait, and then a hand to hand struggle is inevitable. Close with him. Put your right arm somewhere around his neck, your left arm somehow around his waist, knock his feet from under him anyhow, and if you are as strong as Sandow you will be able to walk away victorious. But if, by some strange chance, you are bested, and find yourself on the ground with the man on top of you, then the hat pin trick is the correct thing.
Other tricks may be described briefly. Face your man squarely. Soozle round him a bit and then if you are able to reach so high, kick him in the wind. If you cannot soar to such heights, the shins of man are very sensitive and make a good substitute. Here again, a superficial acquaintance with the science of anatomy is most desirable.
An almost infallible method of self-protection.
Of all attacks whether in love or war, that which comes from the rear is acknowledged by every competent authority to be the most dangerous. We are pleased to be able to give a word of advice on this point. Whenever you find yourself in a difficult locality, WALK BACKWARDS. This will completely confound your enemy, as he cannot tell whether you are coming or going, and will effectually guard against an attack from behind. Those ladies who are skilled in the mysteries of the cake walk will find no difficulty in carrying out this part of our system, but we admit it has its disadvantages, (see sketch) and a little practice is highly recommended. For this purpose we cannot suggest a better place than Magpie Park during the dinner hour, and to that lady who proves herself most adapt we will award suitable recognition.
Everyone will agree that our methods are most effective and easily mastered, but should private lessons be desired, the editor will be pleased to send terms and particulars on receipt of stamped addressed envelope.
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Saturday, 3rd February 2018
The article “L’Art de la Canne” originally appeared in the Revue Olympique of May, 1912. The anonymous author provides a rare technical description and some analysis of Pierre Vigny’s stick fighting system during the post-Bartitsu Club period, after Vigny had left England and returned to Geneva, Switzerland.
A translation of this article was published in the first volume of the Bartitsu Compendium (2005); the following revised and annotated translation offers some updated information and references.
The text begins:
It is all very well to learn how to use “noble”, but unusual weapons such as the sabre, the epee or the rifle; it is even better to superimpose upon this knowledge the management of the weapon that we hold most frequently in hand but of which, it must be admitted, few of us know anything in terms of effective use.
There does exist an art of the cane, but that cane recalls the gymnastic “horse” which is not constructed to resemble the animal in such a way as its exercise can be practically useful. The assaut (sparring) stick is a small, short, light wand, which is neither a baton nor a whip; a hybrid weapon for which no occasion will ever arise to use in earnest.
The author refers to the canne d’assaut, a slender, somewhat flexible stick for relatively safe fencing in the salle d’armes.
When you know how to use the assaut stick and you then pick up your walking stick – rigid, stronger, heavier and of a different length – you are in no way prepared to use your stick for your own defence. And so the opinion has been formed that the so-called walking stick is a worthless weapon.
Prof. Pierre Vigny, who taught at boxing clubs in London and at the military School of Aldershot and now runs a “Defensive Sports Academy” in Geneva, has demonstrated that (the canne d’assaut method) was nothing and that his own method, in addition to constituting an excellent system of gymnastics, leaves little to be desired in terms of practical application. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to explain (the Vigny method) other than by direct instruction. An illustrated manual might succeed in ways that cannot be claimed for a short article. So, we will confine ourselves to an attempt to indicate the characteristics of this method, whose expansion is to be desired.
The need to acquire a great flexibility of the wrist is just about the only similarity between this new fencing and the cane fencing that is taught elsewhere. The guard and strikes are very different. The guard is essentially a combat guard. The left arm is forward as if it were holding a shield; the right arm is raised back with the weapon overhead in, so to speak, a perpetual “back-swing”.
The French term here is prise d’elan, also implying a state of momentum poised before release, like a compressed spring. This guard is described by E.W. Barton-Wright as the Left Guard or Rear Guard, as demonstrated here by Pierre Vigny (on the right):
You are attacked; a brief retreat with a rapid change of guard and your cane falls mightily onto the hand or arm of the aggressor. You are almost mathematically certain to reach and damage it.
This is the Guard by Distance from the Rear Guard, as described by Barton-Wright and illustrated in Self Defence With A Walking-Stick:
After which, you advance upon him while quickly turning your wrist, thrusting the steel ferrule of the cane like a dagger into his eyes or beneath his nose. And here is a man … amazed!
The use of the ferrule end of the cane as a dagger thrust into the opponents face or throat was referred to by Barton-Wright and described by a number of practitioners and observers of the Vigny style circa 1900, most famously Captain F.C. Laing. Here Pierre Vigny himself demonstrates the technique against a belt-wielding hooligan:
The other strikes are usually whipped. Although M. Vigny calls some strikes “whipped” and others “wrapped” in order to distinguish them better, you must always get the whistling sound of a whip.
The term used here is enveloppé, which can be translated as “wrapped” or “folded”, but the technical implication is unclear. Speculatively, it’s possible that a “whipped” strike delivered a slashing or glancing impact whereas a “wrapped” or “folded” strike was a direct, percussive blow.
The little “riding crop” cane will whistle when swung without much effort. The rigid cane will not whistle unless you handle it with real vigour. Where does this force come from? From the shoulder and in the reins.
This word implies the lower part of the back; the muscular structure of the body on both sides of the spine between the lowest (false) ribs and the hipbones.
You must attain serious mobility of the reins and a wide range of movements of the arm, operated by the shoulder.
Unlike the fencing of the light assaut cannes, managing the momentum of the heavier, asymmetrically-weighted Vigny cane often, though not always, requires a whole-body engagement. The shift of weight from foot to foot that “powers” this type of action is transmitted into the cane via the legs, hips, back, shoulder and arm.
Of course, the teaching is given on the left as well as the right. The left will not be as strong as the right, but must be able to provide for it on occasion.
There are also bludgeoning strikes that require a special preparation. There is nothing like it in other styles of fencing.
Possibly a reference to the use of double-handed striking:
And the muscles, at first, do not want to accommodate. They contract incorrectly; the force is lost en route and the blow arrives low and as if cushioned. There must be, so to speak, an internal continuity between the cane and the arm that extends it. Without stiffness, but with a tensile force, the wrist must become like a knot in the wood. For this reason we hold the cane with a full grip, the thumb folded on the other fingers and not lengthened against the cane. This habit is difficult and somewhat painful to acquire. The palm wrinkles and blisters and the muscles register tension and pain, but this is the price of efficiency.
The Vigny method requires not only that the body is always well-balanced, but also that it sustains equilibrium in perpetual motion. In this, it is akin to Ju-jitsu. It has the disadvantage of not allowing the assaut between average amateurs (students); to truly spar in such a sport would be to expose oneself and one’s partner to the risk of severe injury. Therefore, one must stick to the prescribed lesson or engage in a mock combat with the professor. But does this not, in fact, commend it as an exercise of defence?
The Vigny style was, in fact, used in sparring bouts, at least during the Bartitsu Club era and afterwards at Vigny’s own academy in London; though ironically Pierre and Marguerite Vigny may have employed the canne d’assaut for that purpose, as shown in this photograph:
Originally published on the Bartitsu.org site on Tuesday, 6th February 2018
February 6, 2108 marks the centennial anniversary of (limited) women’s suffrage in the UK. As numerous cultural and media organisations mark the anniversary, here are some current and upcoming projects that focus particularly on “suffrajitsu” – the use of jiujitsu by radical suffagette Bodyguards, circa 1913-14.
The Good Fight
Chicago’s Babes With Blades Theatre Company is currently staging Anne Bertram’s play The Good Fight, which details the history and missions of the suffragette Bodyguard team. Women’s jiujitsu pioneer and Bodyguard trainer Edith Garrud appears as a character in the play.
Suffrajitsu by Horse + Bamboo Theatre
England’s Horse + Bamboo Theatre Company is currently developing Suffrajitsu, an original play celebrating the suffragette Bodyguard through puppetry, music and film. Aimed at young audiences, the play will begin touring the UK in Autumn 2018; you can learn more about, and support the project via this Crowdfunder site.
The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, England will be showcasing Edith Garrud’s suffrajitsu as part of the Warrior Women exhibition during mid-late February.
Kitty Marshall: Suffragette Bodyguard at the Museum of London
The Museum of London’s year-long Votes for Women exhibition includes a showcase for Katherine “Kitty” Marshall, who was an active member of Emmeline Pankhurst’s Bodyguard team. Marshall also wrote the memoir Suffragette Escapes and Adventures, which currently exists in manuscript form as part of the Museum’s suffragette collection.
Kitty and the Cats: Mrs. Pankhurst’s Suffragette Bodyguard and the London Police
Suffrajitsu martial arts lessons will be part of the UK National Trust’s Suffragette City, an immersive, interactive experience that will recreate the headquarters of the Women’s Social and Political Union circa 1913.
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