About
Edward William Barton-Wright, the founder of Bartitsu
In March of 1899, readers of an article appearing in London’s Pearson’s Magazine were intrigued to learn that a “New Art of Self Defence” had been introduced to their city. The author of the article and founder of the New Art was Edward William Barton-Wright, whose life and contributions to the martial arts are the subjects of this website.
As detailed in the series of articles Barton-Wright authored between 1899 and 1902, his New Art – which he referred to as Bartitsu – was largely drawn from various ko-ryu (“old school”) forms of jiujitsu. Over the next several years he also incorporated tactics and combat techniques from British boxing, kicking, and a stick fighting style that had been developed by a Swiss Maitre d’Armes, Pierre Vigny. As such, Bartitsu – the word was a portmanteau of “Barton-Wright” and “jiujitsu”, defined by Barton-Wright himself as “self-defence in all its forms” – became the first combat system to combine Asian and European martial arts.
Bartitsu was taught at the Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture and promoted through a series of well-publicised challenge matches, pitting Barton-Wright’s Japanese and Swiss champions against exponents of various other combat sports. These challenges anticipated the mixed martial arts craze of the 1990s by nearly one hundred years. Edward William Barton-Wright was a man well and truly ahead of his time. However, after a brief heyday at the turn of the 20th century, the art was all but forgotten for the next hundred years.
In 2001 the Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences (EJMAS) website began to re-publish many of Barton-Wright’s magazine articles, which had been uncovered by martial arts historian Richard Bowen. Almost immediately, the “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” articles attracted a minor cult following and the illustrations were reproduced, often with humorous captions or other alterations, on a number of other sites.
In 2002, author and Bartitsu enthusiast Will Thomas set up an email list to communicate with others of like mind. This correspondence developed into an international association known as the Bartitsu Society, which was formed to research E.W. Barton-Wright’s “New Art of Self Defence”. Although initially focussed on academic and historical documentation, the charter of the Bartitsu Society grew to encompass reviving the art at the practical level.
The first task was to gather as much primary source information as possible about Barton-Wright and his martial art, and towards this goal, members of the Society scoured institutions such as the British Library as well as old bookstores and newspaper archives. Eventually, the Society had enough information to be able to confidently define “Canonical Bartitsu”; the collection of self defence sequences, kata and techniques that were specifically presented as Bartitsu by Barton-Wright and his associates between 1899 and 1902. Canonical Bartitsu is maintained as a mark of respect for Barton-Wright’s vision, as a matter of historical preservation and also as a form of common language amongst contemporary enthusiasts.
Having established the Bartitsu canon, the Society then turned its attention to the idea of neo-Bartitsu. This was suggested as a way for Bartitsu enthusiasts, both individuals and groups, to work creatively with the canonical material; to continue Barton-Wright’s martial arts experiments. Neo-Bartitsu was also conceived as a way to extend the art through reference to the corpus of boxing, jiujitsu, savate and stick-fighting methods recorded in the books produced by Barton-Wright’s colleagues and their students between 1903 and the early 1920s. In this sense, neo-Bartitsu can be described as “Bartitsu as it might have been” or as “Bartitsu as it can be today.”
By 2004, members of the Society had begun offering practical workshops in both canonical and neo-Bartitsu techniques.
In August of 2005 the Society published a book, the Bartitsu Compendium, which details the complete history of the art as well as a technical curriculum for canonical Bartitsu. Proceeds from the sales of the book have been dedicated to creating an appropriate memorial for E.W. Barton-Wright.
3 years later, in August 2008 the Society published the second volume of the Compendium, providing further resources for continuing Barton-Wright’s work. Containing excerpts from multiple self defence manuals of the era, as well as newspaper records and other archival material, this volume supports the development of Neo-Bartitsu.
13 Comments
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Lost Martial Art Bartitsu Rediscovered a Century Later | Martial Arts Nomad dot com — Tuesday, 8th September 2009 @ 11:19 pm
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By british boxing, Monday, 15th December 2008 @ 11:28 pm
hi nice site some great post interesting read with very useful information will visit again
By James, Tuesday, 16th December 2008 @ 10:38 am
Glad you found it useful!
By Dragonfist, Saturday, 15th August 2009 @ 3:24 am
was it london prize ring style or queensbury style boxing, that bartitsu uses.
By Tony Wolf, Saturday, 15th August 2009 @ 11:05 am
We don’t know much about the boxing that Barton-Wright included in Bartitsu. He said that he had modified boxing to better suit it for self defence, so we assume that he was teaching Queensberry rules (which was the established style circa 1900) but with modifications that might have resembled London Prize Ring pugilism.
By stuart, Monday, 21st December 2009 @ 8:26 pm
Very impressive and informative site, good luck with reintroducing Bartitsu I am sure people would be very interested in learning it. It is a shame that it didnt stay as popular as want it once seemed as it may have been on par with jujutsu or other forms of eastern martial arts in the UK and alike
By James, Tuesday, 22nd December 2009 @ 2:57 am
Thanks Stuart. The re-creation is continuing apace and I’m sure the popularity will grow, although I doubt we’ll ever get to the levels of jujutsu or the like
By stuart, Tuesday, 22nd December 2009 @ 4:36 pm
You never know James just look at how popular wrestling has become of late, granted due to the mixed martial arts scene. Let us know how you doing, at present I teach jujutsu and always looking for something new and challenging.
By jonny, Wednesday, 27th January 2010 @ 7:57 am
hey,
i live in sydney and i doubt that there is a group over here that is close, i am only 16 as well so it would be even harder to find a group that would take me, my mum suggested i read a bibliography on Barton-Wright last year and then we saw the style in Sherlock Holmes. i am very interested in this form of self defense and i was wondering if, at the least, there was some sort of text that explained this style in more detail because i am very keen to learn it.
cheers
By Bartitsu Society, Wednesday, 27th January 2010 @ 1:11 pm
Hi Jonny,
as far as I know, the closest thing to a Bartitsu club anywhere near Sydney is Craig Gemeiner’s Gold Coast academy – http://gemeineracademy.wordpress.com/ . Craig doesn’t teach Bartitsu per se, but he is an expert instructor of la defense dans la rue, which is an eclectic self defence system that was popular in France at the turn of the 20th century.
If you’re particularly interested in reading about Bartitsu, I strongly suggest reading both volumes of the Bartitsu Compendium – you’ll easily find them via Google search.
You should also join the discussions on the Bartitsu Forum – http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bartitsu_Forum/ .
Cheers,
Tony
By Mike, Wednesday, 21st April 2010 @ 8:11 pm
First off let me say how happy I am to have found this sight. I am a life long martial arts practitioner/teacher and the history and philosophy is as important to me as the physical aspects. I have been familiar with Bartitsu for years as through my numerous books and research turned up lots of information on William Baton-Wright. I never would have guessed that an actual society would be started to bring the art back. I live in the United States in NJ. I would love to be involved however possible in this endeavor. William Barton-Wright was the first man to introduce MMA to the world a full century before Bruce Lee.
Mike
mp75ftw@yahoo.com
By Bartitsu Society, Wednesday, 21st April 2010 @ 8:20 pm
Hi Mike,
I suggest that you join the Bartitsu Forum email list – http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bartitsu_Forum/ – to get in touch with most of the other modern Bartitsu enthusiasts.
Cheers,
Tony
By Sergiy, Wednesday, 30th June 2010 @ 9:16 pm
At 1st June 2010 created Ukrainian group of studying BARTITSU in the limits of Federation of assistance to development of Martial arts “A world way” in Odessa (Ukraine). Also generated the technical committee of group for preparation of instructors in this kind of Martial arts, and developed the program of development BARTITSU in Ukraine. For enthusiasts Bartitsu mitinis@mail.ru