Budokwai demonstration (1937)

A British Pathe newsreel from 1937, including a brief shot (0:25-27) that may be the only surviving film footage of the then 56 year old former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani. Tani suffered a stroke in this same year, but continued to coach from the sidelines of the Budokwai until his death on January 24, 1950.

Bartitsu search story

Yukio Tani’s flying armbar

A promotional postcard (circa 1905) showing former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani demonstrating a flying armbar (juji gatame) on his manager, the strongman William “Apollo” Bankier:

… and the same technique executed by Rumina Sato against Charles Diaz for a six-second victory by submission during their Shooto match in 1999:

Yukio Tani’s kaeshi-no-kata

An interpretation of the kaeshi-no-kata (forms of countering) devised by former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani during his time as an instructor at the London Budokwai.

The Jujitsuffragettes

Bartitsu ref. in new superhero drama, “The Cape”

Bartitsu gets an unexpected shout-out in this preview for the new NBC superhero series, “The Cape”. From the official Cape website:

“The Cape” is a one-hour drama series starring David Lyons (“ER”) as Vince Faraday, an honest cop on a corrupt police force, who finds himself framed for a series of murders and presumed dead. He is forced into hiding, leaving behind his wife, Dana (Jennifer Ferrin, “Life on Mars”) and son, Trip (Ryan Wynott, “Flash Forward”). Fueled by a desire to reunite with his family and to battle the criminal forces that have overtaken Palm City, Faraday becomes “The Cape” his son’s favorite comic book superhero — and takes the law into his own hands.

During a training montage, the Cape’s mentor, Max Malini, says:

“British Bartitsu … the warrior dancers of the T’ang Dynasty used their robes as weapons.”

The Cape is obviously an expert martial artist armed with a super-powered cloak, but it’s unlikely that we’ll see any classical Bartitsu featured in the series. On the other hand, it’s always nice when writers do their homework. One wonders what E.W. Barton-Wright would have made of all this:

Baron Charles de Berenger’s “Defensive Gymnastics” (1838)

“To be courageous is enviable, whilst, on the other hand, to be able to conceal the absence of courage is useful” – Baron Charles de Berenger, 1835

Seven decades before E.W. Barton-Wright produced his articles on Bartitsu, there was Baron Charles de Berenger and his “Defensive Gymnastics”.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Random, Baron de Berenger, was a colourful character indeed. Virtually nothing is known of his early life, except that he was born with the humbler name of Charles Random sometime in the late 18th Century.

During the first decade of the 1800s he was reported to have been working as a colourer at Ackermann’s Printing Company in London and to have been serving as an Army volunteer. He was a notably good shot with both rifle and pistol. As a well-mannered young sportsman he enjoyed the patronage of a banker named Hammerley, and it was at Mr. Hammerley’s home that Random met and subsequently married a German widow, the Baroness de Berenger. He would probably have been aged in his late twenties at that time.

By virtue of having married a Baroness, it appears that Random then assumed the title of Baron and for the rest of his life announced himself as “Charles Random de Berenger de Beaufain” and claimed to be of noble Prussian heritage.

By all reports an effusively polite and remarkably inventive man, de Berenger was none-the-less prone to financial problems. While the Napoleonic Wars raged throughout the European mainland, de Berenger landed in a London debtor’s jail on at least one occasion. In 1814 he was implicated in an audacious and elaborate stock fraud that included temporarily convincing a large proportion of London society that Napoleon Bonaparte had been killed. De Berenger served a year in prison for his part in that infamous affair.

The Stadium

By 1830 de Berenger appears to have come into a very substantial sum of money, enough to purchase a large estate in the London suburb of Chelsea.

At the time de Berenger bought the property it was a fine estate including a large villa and some eleven acres of picturesque park-land bordering the river Thames. Perhaps in consequence of his interests in marksmanship and athletics, he immediately began work on converting the oak and elm-studded grounds of Cremorne House into an elaborate outdoor training facility for all manner of sports. He installed butts (targets) for archery, pistol and rifle shooting, set aside fields for equestrian training and planned a “floating school of Natation (swimming),” to be set upon pontoons and moored to his pier.

On May 28th, 1831 the Baron issued a prospectus for “THE STADIUM, Cremorne House, Chelsea, established for the tuition and practice of skilful and manly exercises generally.” The Stadium’s motto was “Volenti nihil difficile,” “Nothing is difficult for him who has the will.”

This prospectus and one subsequent were notable for including pictures by both de Berenger himself and his friend, the famous caricaturist and illustrator George Cruikshank.

“How to Protect Life and Property”

In 1835, de Berenger released his second book, “Helps and Hints: How to Protect Life and Property.” His format and style may have been modeled after that of Lord Chesterfield, whose correspondence with his son Philip (dating from 1730) had since been compiled into a popular and controversial volume. In any case, de Berenger chose to frame “How to Protect Life and Property” as a series of letters to his own son, Augustus, advising him on how to prevent or otherwise counter a myriad of potential threats.

Thus, de Berenger’s work may actually be considered as an early ancestor of the modern “self-protection handbook” genre. De Berenger did not simply present a system of, for example, fencing, nor boxing; rather, his lessons addressed self-defence in the broadest sense, including everything from escaping a burning house to numerous tricks of hand to hand combat; from dealing with wild animals to the avoiding the depredations of swindlers and pickpockets, with numerous digressions on the subjects of manly courage and morality.

The book was well-received by most contemporary reviewers, although it was dismissed out of hand by a much later (and deeply unsympathetic) writer as being a “claptrap book of gymnastics.” Several journals noted the Baron’s apparent obsession with moral conduct, which was cast in a rather ironic light by his involvement in the Stock Exchange scandal, but most seem to have taken his unusually florid prose style with amused good grace and to have been genuinely impressed with the scope and detail of his instruction and anecdotes.

In 2008, de Berenger’s writings on self-protection were re-published as “Defensive Gymnastics”, a compilation of the Baron’s advice on the different modes of “manly character”; the use of defensive gymnastics with fists, canes, whips, pistols and umbrellas to thwart pickpockets, street ruffians and con-artists; and how to escape from highwaymen, burning buildings, icy ponds and wild bulls.

The 2008 edition features over 50 new photographs and drawings, an introductory biography and a special feature on the Baron’s Stadium. Here is a short video preview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xIxhQCJCWk

The book is available from the virtual bookstore at Lulu.com.

Bartitsu at ISMAC 2010

Tony Wolf will be teaching a six-hour Bartitsu seminar at this year’s International Swordfighting and Martial Arts Convention in Detroit, Michigan (September 3-6 2010).

This class will explore three essential combat principles of Bartitsu, the “gentlemanly art of self defence” founded by Edward William Barton-Wright in 1898. Barton-Wright defined these principles as:

(1) to disturb the equilibrium of your assailant; (2) to surprise him before he has time to regain his balance and use his strength; (3) if necessary to subject the joints of any part of his body … to strains which they are anatomically and mechanically unable to resist.

He also noted that:

It is quite unnecessary to try and get your opponent in any particular position, as the system embraces every possible eventuality, and your defence and counter attack must be entirely based upon the tactics of your opponent.

Drawing from a selection of classical Bartitsu unarmed and walking-stick fighting set-plays, we will take up the challenge implied by Barton-Wright’s precepts of adaptability and improvisation, thereby continuing the “mixed martial arts” experiment that he began in late Victorian London.

Pre-requisites: this class is not suitable for beginners. Intermediate to advanced level martial arts training, preferably including skill in falling techniques, is required.

Equipment: a sturdy crook-handled walking stick or 36 inch dowel with any edges smoothed away; fencing mask or similar face/head protection.

A video montage from the 2009 conference:

See the ISMAC schedule page for details on the many classes to be offered at the conference.

The martial athletics of Diana Watts

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:

Diana Watts physical culture from Tony Wolf on Vimeo.

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”, her 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.

Seminar footage from Eugene, Oregon

Footage from the Bartitsu seminar that took place at the NorthWest Fencing Academy in Eugene, Oregon on March 13-14, 2010.

The Eugene seminar included training in both the “canonical” or classical set-plays of the art and also in neo-Bartitsu drills, which are used as a transition between the set-plays and free-sparring. In these neo-Bartitsu exercises, the “opponent” can spontaneously resist or counter the “defender’s” scripted techniques and the defender is challenged to improvise to regain to control of the fight.

The focus in this seminar was on Bartitsu as a recreational martial art, rather than purely as self defence.

Bartitsu seminar in Eugene, Oregon from Tony Wolf on Vimeo.

Partnering instructor Tony Wolf are David Borland, Provost d’armi (classical Italian fencing) in the black shirt, Matthew Lowes, aikido shodan and certified Systema instructor in the grey shirt and Maestro Sean Hayes (classical Italian fencing) in the white shirt.