The Martial Arts of Bartitsu
With his wide repertoire of self defence systems and his professional background as an engineer, Barton-Wright was well-placed to analyse, critique and combine the various arts at his disposal. He recognised that no one method was sufficient to cope with every possible exigency of self defence, and so intended for the Bartitsu practitioner to be well-rounded, able to shift between different skills and styles as the moment required
Bartitsu therefore resolves itself into this: if one gets into a row and plays the game in the recognised style of English fair play – with fists – the opponent will very likely rush in and close, in order to avoid a blow. Then comes the moment for wrestling in the secret Japanese way. Instantly the unwary one is caught and thrown so violently that he is placed hors de combat, without even sufficient strength left to retire unassisted from the field … the art of walking-stick defence is taught for a variety of purposes. It may be used safely against an opponent armed with a dagger – in which case the latter has no chance at all – against a quarterstaff, against kicking, boxing, etc. (Barton-Wright, 1902)
Bartitsu was conceptually divided into a series of four ranges, those of the stick, the foot, the fist, and of close-combat. Practitioners were encouraged to become familiar with the four major martial arts taught at the Club, each of which corresponded with one of the four ranges, and to develop enough proficiency that they could use any one style against the other if need be.
In order to ensure as far as it was possible immunity against injury in cowardly attacks or quarrels, they must understand boxing in order to thoroughly appreciate the danger and rapidity of a well-directed blow, and the particular parts of the body which were scientifically attacked. The same, of course, applied to the use of the foot or the stick. Judo and jujitsu were not designed as primary means of attack and defence against a boxer or a man who kicks you, but were only to be used after coming to close quarters, and in order to get to close quarters it was absolutely necessary to understand boxing and the use of the foot.” (Barton-Wright, 1902)
The greatest emphasis was placed upon Vigny stick fighting and an eclectic combination of ko-ryu jiujitsu and possibly some Kodokan judo, with boxing and savate used to bridge the gap between the preferred ranges of stick-play and grappling.
Vigny Stick Fighting
Pierre Vigny’s stick fighting art utilised a specially designed “self defence walking stick”, made of polished malacca cane – similar to rattan – tipped with a solid silver ball as a handle. His critique of the style of canne fighting taught in most of the established French stick fighting academies was that, in borrowing most of their techniques verbatim from sabre fencing, they left the lead hand exposed to attack. One of the crucial differences between a sword and a stick was that the latter weapon lacks a hand guard.
The street-oriented Vigny system took this into account, offering a range of guards in which position and distance from the opponent protected the weapon wielding hand. The Vigny style also included a wide range of strikes, thrusts, disarming techniques, throws, the use of the stick as a bayonet in double-handed attacks, etc.
The key principle of Vigny’s art can be defined as “control the initiative”, either by invitation or by executing a pre-emptive strike to control the opponent’s movements and anticipate their reactions.
Boxing and Savate
Barton-Wright was well aware of the advantages of reach, and also of the likelihood that no-holds-barred combat was likely to enter grappling range. In designing Bartitsu he allowed for all contingencies, realising that a determined or lucky opponent might penetrate the stick fighting range and disarm the defender, or indeed that the defender might not have a stick or umbrella handy at the moment of truth. Under these circumstances the Bartitsuka was to resort to savate and boxing defences in the first instance.
As taught at the Bartitsu Club, both skills were modified to make them better applicable to actual street fighting:
Another branch of Bartitsu is that in which the feet and hands are both employed, and which is an adaptation of boxing and Savate. The guards are done in a slightly different style from boxing, being much more numerous as well. The use of the feet is also done quite differently from the French Savate. This latter, Mr. Barton-Wright explained, is quite useless as a means of self-defence when done in the way Frenchmen employ it. (“The Latest Fashionable Pastime: The Bartitsu Club”. Black and White Budget magazine, 29-12-1900)
Jiujitsu and Judo
Barton-Wright defined the guiding tactics of Bartitsu 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, whether neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, knee, ankle, etc. to strain which they are anatomically and mechanically unable to resist. (Barton-Wright, 1899)
His own jiujitsu training was mostly in kata-based ko-ryu forms of the art. While in Kobe he had studied at the dojo of the Shinden-Fudo ryu, alongside a Dutch anthropologist, Dr. Herman ten Kate, who was another of the very first Europeans known to have studied the Japanese martial arts. Later he travelled to Yokohama and studied at a Tenshin-Shinyo Ryu dojo, and finally made his way to Tokyo and enrolled at the famous Kodokan school founded by Dr. Jigoro Kano, the founder of modern judo.
Barton-Wright’s first articles on Bartitsu presented a selection of ko-ryu paired kata, making frequent use of atemi-waza (striking techniques such as uraken, the back fist strike, as well as headbutts and pressure-point attacks). Most of his throwing techniques involved either tripping the opponent, twisting his head and neck or manipulating his elbow joint; notably absent are the variety of hip and shoulder throws that came to characterise judo. There is some evidence to suggest that the pictures used to illustrate these articles were taken while Barton-Wright was in Yokohama, perhaps before he had been exposed to Kano’s judo curriculum.
There is little doubt that when Uyenishi and Tani arrived in London to teach at the Bartitsu Club and to compete in prize fights as professional music hall wrestlers, they began to steer the jiujitsu curriculum towards competitive jiujitsu. Their own books on these subjects, Tani’s “Game of Jujitsu” and Uyenishi’s “Text-book of Jujutsu as Practiced in Japan”, were entirely devoted to sporting applications of the art. However, the books published by their own students, such as William Garrud’s “Complete Jujutsuan” and W. Bruce Sutherland’s “Jiujitsu Self Defence” demonstrate that they also taught the full complement of more combative, self defence oriented techniques.
{Originally written by Tony Wolf 26/10/06]
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By Joachim Christ, Monday, 28th September 2009 @ 5:56 pm
Please could you forward me an address of where I can study Bartitsu in the UK my E-mail is joachimchrist@yahoo.co.uk thank you !
By James, Tuesday, 29th September 2009 @ 8:53 am
Hi Joachim, that email address is bouncing. Where abouts in the UK are you?
By karate uniform, Sunday, 8th November 2009 @ 5:34 pm
I’ve never heard of Bartitsu before, but after reading this, it sounds like a form of mixed martial arts…perhaps even more effective since they use weapons.
Do you have any links to videos about Bartitsu?
By Tony Wolf, Sunday, 8th November 2009 @ 6:59 pm
There is a basic technical DVD on Bartitsu, reviewed at http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/2009/04/introductory-bartitsu-dvd-review/ . The Bartitsu Society is currently producing a full-length documentary on the art.
Tony
By Mauricio, Wednesday, 27th January 2010 @ 9:08 pm
Hi, could someone please explain me about bartitsu fighting style, I mean I have trained kickboxing and mma and the style in bartitsu interests me because of the stance and the form in which one punches and kicks differs from what I have learned, and if its effectiveness is more suitable in different places.
By James, Wednesday, 27th January 2010 @ 10:57 pm
Hi Malau,
You’re right, the punches and kicks are different to those you are probably used to. The punches are from the older Scientific Boxing style which generally calls for vertical fists and straight punches. The kicks are from Savate. You can find a lot more info at the mailing list, or via the DVD Tony mentioned above.
By Teekanne, Saturday, 1st May 2010 @ 4:09 pm
isn’t schwingen (kind of austrian wrestling) a part of bartitsu too?
By James, Saturday, 1st May 2010 @ 4:21 pm
It is true that Armand Cherpillod ran Schwingen classes at the Bartitsu Academy, however we don’t know that this was ever included in the Bartitsu “syllabus”. Certainly Cherpillod was a key member of the club and there some interesting accounts of his cross-training with Yukio Tani.
By Manj, Saturday, 22nd May 2010 @ 10:58 am
Hi ,where could I get lessons ? Currently based in south Warwickshire.
By Bartitsu Society, Monday, 24th May 2010 @ 7:25 pm
Hi Manj,
see the classes listed at http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/bartitsu-today/ .
If there are no classes near you, you might consider setting up your own study group.
Cheers,
Tony