The game is afoot … and the DVD is on sale!

At the end of the Victorian era, E. W. Barton-Wright combined jiujitsu, kickboxing, and stick fighting into a new martial art he termed Bartitsu. This elegant discipline would have been forgotten save for a famous, cryptic reference in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Empty House, in which Sherlock Holmes used its mysteries to defeat the villainous Professor Moriarty.

Several years ago, director Guy Ritchie and actor Robert Downey, Jr. re-conceptualized the Great Detective as a Steampunk sleuth and man of action. Doyle fans have been divided on the interpretation, but one thing is certain, as martial artists themselves, Ritchie and Downey have given Holmes his fighting chops! Bartitsu, or “baritsu”, as Doyle penned it, gets plenty of screen time in the new Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, as can be seen in this teaser clip.

In conjunction with the film’s release this week, the Freelance Academy Press is featuring Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes at 30% off of its regular price. A unique documentary relating the fascinating history, rediscovery and revival of Barton-Wright’s pioneering mixed martial art, this is a great present for martial artists, Holmes enthusiasts, or lovers of Victorian and Edwardian England.

More information on the Game of Shadows/documentary DVD tie-in is available at the Freelancer blog.

“Be careful with the face, boys …” – fight scene from “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”

A new sneak preview (minor spoilers) of a baritsu fight from the feature film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, opening on December 16th.

“I am a woman, but no weakling” – Judith Lee, lady detective

He stopped – there was silence. The bell rang again. I was just about to suggest again that he should go and see who was at the outer door when – he leapt at me. And I was unprepared. He had me by the throat before I had even realised that danger threatened.

I am a women, but no weakling. I have always felt it my duty to keep my body in proper condition, trying to learn all that physical culture can teach me. I only recently had been having lessons in jiu-jitsu – the Japanese art of self defence. I had been diligently practicing a trick which was intended to be used when a frontal attack was made upon the throat. Even as, I dare say, he was thinking that I was already as good as done for, I tried that trick. His fingers released my throat and he was on the floor without, I fancy, understanding how he got there. I doubt if there ever was a more amazed man. When he began to realise what had happened he gasped up at me – he was still on the floor – “You … you …”

The above is quoted from the short story Mandragora, part of the Judith Lee detective series written between 1912-16 by Richard Marsh. Among the first protagonists of the still very popular lady detective genre, Judith Lee brought several unusual talents to her role as an amateur sleuth, including an almost uncanny ability to read lips and a willingness to physically apprehend evil-doers, thanks to her training in physical culture and jiujitsu. Certainly, she was among the first heroines in Western literature to have studied Eastern martial arts.

Several of Judith’s adventures are linked to from the Bunburyist website.

Bartitsu/defensive tactics seminar to benefit charity (UK)

A day of defensive tactics, including Bartitsu, the lost martial art of Sherlock Holmes, will be held on Sat. December 10 to benefit the Christopher’s Smile charity. Instructors will include Stewart McGill, founder of Urban Krav Maga and others from the Kapap England organisation.

Support this worthy cause by having a go at a Victorian Martial Art, the fighting styles of Bourne and Bond and much much more. Open to all, no previous training required.

Cost: £25 in advance or £30 on the day.

Dress Code: Victorian or Steampunk (Google it !!!)

Contact: (UK) 0781 739 2320 with any queries or to secure a place.

Venue: The Warren (Bromley, UK)

Date/Time: Saturday, December 10, 2011, 11 am-6:00 pm

More “baritsu” action in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Amidst intrigue and explosions, the Great Detective exhibits some deft atemi-waza (striking techniques), a nonchalant disarm against a pistol-wielding enemy and a picture-perfect combat combination with a tightly-furled umbrella in this new trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (opening December 2011).

Bartitsu and Suffrajitsu demonstrations at WMAW 2011

Tony Wolf and “Professor X” demonstrate Bartitsu as self defence for the gentleman about town:

A Jujitsuffragette takes the stage:

Video from the 2011 Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture

A report on the 2011 Bartitsu School of Arms (London)

The 2011 (and inaugural) Bartitsu School of Arms symposium was held over the weekend of August 27-28 in London, England. The symposium represented a landmark in the revival of E.W. Barton-Wright’s “New Art of Self Defence”, founded 110 years ago in the same city. 18 participants attended the event, including Bartitsu enthusiasts from the USA and Germany as well as throughout the U.K.

The theme of the 2011 School of Arms was to continue Barton-Wright’s radical experiments in cross-training between various martial arts and combat sports, which were abandoned as a work-in-progress when the original Bartitsu Club closed down under mysterious circumstances in early 1902.

The event began on Friday evening outside the doors of the Shaftesbury Best Western Hotel, the building that once housed Barton-Wright’s club. At precisely the time the group gathered, sheltering from a torrential downpour, the clouds parted and the sun shone through, which was generally taken as a good omen. The group then made its way to the back bar of the Salisbury inn, a classic late-Victorian London pub.

Training began at 9.00 a.m. on Saturday morning at our venue, the ground floor of a Victorian era warehouse in Bermondsey, which roughly made up in 19th century ambiance what it lacked in amenities. The large, white-walled space was divided into 10′ squares by a grid of iron pillars, with enormous wooden beams in the ceiling and a sturdy old wooden floor. A wall display featured a portrait of E.W. Barton-Wright, rare photographs taken inside the original Bartitsu Club and other inspirational images. Rubber-tipped rattan training canes were propped against the pillars and one section of the floor was covered with thick rubber jigsaw mats.

Mornings began with various warm-up exercises, including American wrestler and physical culturist “Farmer” Burns’ upper-body routine. The remainder of the mornings were spent alternating between circuit training, in which small groups rotated between instructors teaching 5-10 minute mini-lessons/drills in savate kicking, boxing, jujitsu and stick fighting, and team-taught sessions in which pairs of participants experimented with self defence scenarios incorporating elements of each of the lessons they’d just learned. The aim was to practice Bartitsu as a holistic art, smoothly transitioning between techniques, styles and ranges as required by the needs of the moment.

After the lunch break, the afternoon sessions featured longer, whole-group classes in each of the specialist subject areas, taught by James Marwood, Tony Wolf, Allen Reed, Stefan Dieke and George Stokoe. These classes covered practical self defence, neo-Bartitsu drills inspired by the canonical stick fighting and unarmed combat sequences, fencing theory applied to Vigny stick fighting and tactical kicking.

The final session on both days was allocated to “break-out” time, a chance for participants and instructors to explore areas of special interest in a less formal environment. In one corner a group would be debating and demonstrating the “garotting” attack of 19th century muggers, in another a pair of stick fighters would be sparring and a submission grappling match would be taking place on the mats.

Evening events included drinks and socialising at the Sherlock Holmes pub on the banks of the Thames and a meal at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub and restaurant dating back to the 1700s that was once the haunt of Charles Dickens and, later, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The 2011 Bartitsu School of Arms was a great success and plans are already underway to make it an annual event.

“Manly Arts Day” returns to Maryland

The “Manly Arts Day”, one of the Hampton National Historic Site‘s most popular Second Sunday Programs, returns with a Civil War theme between 10.00 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. on Sunday, September 18th.

While called “Manly Arts,” all men, women and children are invited to come and experience a rare look at self defense “Victorian style” in Baltimore City and County on the eve of the Civil War!

This is a hands-on program giving visitors the opportunity to learn swordsmanship, basic fist-fighting techniques, “swing” into action with stick fighting and engage in safe demonstrations with professional instructors. Special guests will include Professor Mark Donnelly and Mr. Steve Huff, internationally famous authors, historians and instructors of Western Martial Arts. They will be assisted by Victor Markland and members of The Mid-Atlantic Society for Historic Swordsmanship. A special display titled “Hampton, a House Divided” showcasing rare letters, photographs and objects from the Civil War will be available in the mansion.

Visitors will gain an appreciation of history. One hundred and fifty years ago people in Baltimore City and Baltimore County learned these same techniques. The first bloodshed of the Civil War occurred in a riot on Pratt Street in Baltimore. The violence of the Pratt Street Riot and its aftermath were not unexpected. In Mobtown (as Baltimore was known) gangs of thugs and criminals roamed dangerous streets. These “political” partisans easily moved from the chaos of the street fight to the carnage of battlefield. In the North and the South militia and para-military units were formed and equipped in anticipation of war. It was with one of these units, from Massachusetts, that the Baltimore mob clashed with in close-quarter combat. Charles Ridgley of Hampton led another as the Captain of the Maryland Horse Guard, a Pro-Southern militia unit.

Bartitsu seminar in Racine, Wisconsin (October 8 & 9)

Instructor Tony Wolf will lead a Bartitsu seminar at the DeKoven Center‘s 1875 vintage gymnasium in Racine, Wisconsin. The seminar will run from 12:30 to 5.00 pm each day on the weekend of the 8th & 9th of October, 2011. The beautiful DeKoven Center, originally a 19th century university campus, is located at 600 21st Street in Racine, Wisconsin.

What is Bartitsu?

In the year 1899, an English gentleman named Edward William Barton-Wright created the “New Art of Self Defence” that he called Bartitsu; a combination of low kicking, jiujitsu, fisticuffs and walking stick fighting, designed to beat the fearsome street gangs of Edwardian London and fin de siècle Paris at their own dastardly game.

Bartitsu was the first “mixed martial art” to combine Asian and European fighting styles. It was later incorporated as “baritsu” into the Sherlock Holmes stories, and was used by Holmes to throw his arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty, to his doom from the top of Reichenbach waterfall.

What will we learn?

This seminar provides an intensive, practical grounding in this fascinating system, first taught circa 1900 at the Bartitsu School of Arms and Physical Culture in London’s Shaftesbury Avenue.

Canonical Bartitsu refers to “Bartitsu as we know it was”; the self defence skills and sequences that were specifically presented as Bartitsu by Barton-Wright and his associates between 1898-1902. Neo-Bartitsu refers to the modern application of the art, continuing Barton-Wright’s martial arts experiments in the 21st century; it is “Bartitsu as it may have been and as it can be today”.

We will begin with warm-up exercises taken from the 19th century “physical culture” repertoire before exploring the underlying principles and tactics of Bartitsu, via lessons in the unique combination of fighting styles that made up Barton-Wright’s arsenal of tricks.

The seminar will include:

• a selection of the original self defence sequences represented in Barton-Wright’s classic article series, “Self Defence with a Walking Stick” and “The New Art of Self Defence”

• practical examples of both the canonical and neo-Bartitsu blends of jiujitsu, scientific boxing, low kicking and stick fighting

• discussions on the fascinating history and revival of Barton-Wright’s New Art of Self Defence, the “hold-up” tactics of 19th century street gangsters and the counters developed by self defence masters of the period, and the jiujitsu training of the Bodyguards of the radical Suffragette movement.

This introductory seminar is suitable for participants of all experience levels, though prior intermediate-level training in martial arts, boxing, fencing and/or stage combat will be an advantage.

What should I bring?

Please bring suitable exercise clothing, including shoes; a sturdy cane (crook handle preferred), or strong, smooth dowel approx. 36″ long. Fencing masks, boxing gloves and judo gi jackets are useful, but are not required.

Enrollment

$100.00 per participant until September 17th, with the possibility of the price coming down as more participants enroll before the deadline. Once the deadline of September 17th is past, the fee stays at $100.00 per person.

A bag lunch and water will be supplied for each participant free of charge.

For further information please contact the organiser, Mr. Mario Baleywah, at handmbaleywah@att.net .