Bartitsu: the first Asian/European "MMA"

[Devon]

It's not widely known that the first documented MA/combat sport to combine Asian and European fighting styles was actually created by an Englishman, E.W. Barton-Wright, in the year 1899. That's nearly fifty years before Kajukenbo, seventy years before Jeet Kune Do and ninety years before the MMA phenomenon took off.

"Bartitsu" combined two forms of ko-ryu jujitsu, Kodokan judo, scientific boxing, French savate and walking-stick fighting into a "gentlemanly art of self defense" that was also tested in mixed-style competition against champion wrestlers. Barton-Wright's Bartitsu Club in London pioneered the concept of women's self defense classes and the art was also written into the Sherlock Holmes stories.

If Bartitsu had survived, the international MA scene of the past 100 years might have been very different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu for details, and if anyone is interested, I'd be happy to get a Bartitsu discussion underway on this Forum.

Devon

 

[arnisador]

Anything with stickfighting in it is OK by me!

 

[Devon]

Cool!!

Bartitsu stick fighting was based on a system that had been devised by a Swiss master-at-arms named Pierre Vigny, who was the chief instructor at the Bartitsu Club. Vigny had reformed the more artistic and sporting forms of French stick fencing into a street-practical method that made use of a strong malacca (rattan) cane tipped with a heavy silver ball handle.

The Vigny/Bartitsu system employed variations on two main fighting stances, the front (or right) guard and the rear (left) guard. Both positions were high guards, with the weapon-wielding hand protected by position and distance from the opponent. Likewise, most of the parries were performed with the hand uppermost to minimise the risk of the opponent's weapon striking the defender's hand.

Major targets were similar to most stick fighting styles and included all areas of the head, the throat (with butt strikes), the hands and wrists, knees and shins and the ribcage (when employing the double-handed "bayonet grip"). Vigny/Bartitsu stick fighting also included a number of tripping and throwing techniques which were probably based on a combination of jujitsu and European wrestling styles.

One characteristic tactic was to control the initiative either by an invitation (the defender deliberately exposing a target to draw the opponent's attack) or by a feint, in order to get the opponent to extend his weapon arm in attack or defense. The Vigny/Bartitsu stylist would then immediately check and press the opponent's extended arm at or below the elbow to control their balance, setting up a counterstrike and/or trip/throw.

Devon

 

[Devon]

Another interesting aspect of Bartitsu was that it closely paralleled Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do approach, in the sense of being a process of experimental pressure testing and cross-training rather than a formalized style in its own right. Given another couple of years, Barton-Wright might have devised a more specific curriculum for Bartitsu; as it was, the art was left open-ended.

In a sense, we could look at Bartitsu as being the art of using boxing against savate and jujitsu, jujitsu against savate and boxing, etc. It's fluid but it has sharp edges.

 

[Devon]

I've had a PM commenting on the relationship between Bartitsu and the Sherlock Holmes stories, and figured I'd address it here ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baritsu is the best summary available online. Briefly, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was probably referring to a 1902 newspaper report about a Bartitsu demonstration, which mis-spelled the name as baritsu, and that was the reason why baritsu became known as the martial art of Sherlock Holmes.

The rather sad irony is that if he'd spelled the name correctly, the huge fame and popularity of Sherlock Holmes might have saved the real martial art of Bartitsu from obscurity. If that had happened, and if Bartitsu itself has become more popular during the early 1900s, then the history of the martial arts in Europe and in English-speaking countries over the past 100 years might have been very different.

 

[Mr. E]

Here is another article on Bartitsu.

http://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2006/jmanlyart_wolf_0506.html

I remember watching a Sherlock Homes program a few years ago when Holmes comments on how he saved himself from Moriaty. It seems that just before he said it, the actor gave a small wince. I have to wonder if it was because he knew the truth about the art and the name.

 

[Devon]

On the topic of Western martial arts that were studied at the Bartitsu Club back in 1901, as well as the arts of boxing, savate and Vigny stick fighting, the Club also hosted a group of fencing historians led by captain Alfred Hutton and Egerton Castle. These fellows were active in the reconstruction of ancient methods of swordplay, including the use of the European two-handed sword, rapier and dagger fencing, etc.

Captain Hutton wanted to use this research to revive the use of the military saber within the British Army, but this was doomed to failure as the Army was already well into the process of phasing out the sword in favor of the simpler methods of bayonet fighting. In practice, Castle and Hutton seem to have spent most of their time training actors in historical sword fighting techniques for use in stage combat.

 

[Langenschwert]

Club also hosted a group of fencing historians led by captain Alfred Hutton and Egerton Castle. These fellows were active in the reconstruction of ancient methods of swordplay, including the use of the European two-handed sword, rapier and dagger fencing, etc.

Hutton and Castle were the main players in the first attempt at recontruction. Their works are useful reads (which is why I've ordered them). It's amusing that Castle clung to the Victorian ethos of viewing their contemporary fencing as the pinnacle of the art, as the product of an evolution from lesser to greater. However, it appears that the more he studied "old sword play", the more he appreciated it.

Here's an article on the bunch:
http://www.thearma.org/essays/BritLegacy.htm

Best regards,

-Mark

 

[Devon]

Hutton actually produced a short monograph on jujitsu, presumably drawing from his time spent with Tani and Uyenishi at the Bartitsu Club.

The Hutton/Castle cabal were the most active (possibly only) reconstructors in England, but members of the French Fencing Academy were doing much the same thing at the same time. Unfortunately, their library was completely destroyed during WW2 so we have comparatively few records of their activities. The best surviving account would be George Dubois' "Rapiere et Dague" (1910), which presented the rapier and dagger fencing method reconstructed/developed by Dubois and Albert Carre.

There's an old French newsreel of an elderly Dubois teaching their R&D method (it was actually more "foil and dagger") to a group of kids in Paris, available as a free download from the BritishPathe.com website.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

It is to bad that it did not survive the test of time. I am sure it would have been very interesting to train in.

 

[Devon]

Hi Brian,

I imagine that Bartitsu would have evolved pretty quickly into something that resembles modern MMA, but that it would have maintained the self defense focus as well.

Just an additional note that Bartitsu is being revived by members of the international Bartitsu Society, at two levels; "canonical" or "classical" Bartitsu, which is a reconstruction of the stick fighting and jujitsu sequences detailed by Barton-Wright in his magazine artlicles back around 1901, and "neo-Bartitsu" which is a sort of individualistic "Jeet Kune Do" approach to early 1900s fighting styles. AFAIK no-one is offering ongoing training yet, but the Bartitsu Society guys do put on occasional weekend seminars, etc.

 

[Devon]

A demo of a Bartitsu walking stick fighting ankle hook and takedown.

 

[Taiji Rebel]

 

[Taiji Rebel]

Another link to investigate if you are into the history of such arts:

The Victorian Gentleman’s Self-Defense Toolkit

For many today, the term “gentleman” is apt to conjure up the ridiculous image of an affected, overdressed fop with a monocle, struggling to secure a place in high society. Yet, throughout past cen…

outofthiscentury.wordpress.com

 

[Tez3]

You could just join the club. The Bartitsu Club - The Home of Bartitsu

 

[punisher73]

Bartitsu was featured in the recent movie Ip Man: The Awakening. It was done by the British "bad guys".

 

[Taiji Rebel]

Another link to investigate if you are into the history of such arts:

The Victorian Gentleman’s Self-Defense Toolkit

For many today, the term “gentleman” is apt to conjure up the ridiculous image of an affected, overdressed fop with a monocle, struggling to secure a place in high society. Yet, throughout past cen…

outofthiscentury.wordpress.com

This extracted quote made me laugh long and hard

“The rowdy is a mere wild beast that has strength and practice in natural rough-and-tumble fights, and yet a gentleman, if he knows the way, has the advantage over such a ruffian. I say to all gentlemen that your advantages are three over the ruffian: First, you have a flexible body, not stiffened by labor, but capable of being trained to anything; second, you have an intellect that will make you the superior in a contest that requires subtlety; third, you have means to pay for the best teachers, while the rowdy must teach himself, and nature does not teach how to strike a straight blow. Many gentlemen have said to me that they are not strong enough to give them any chance in such a fight. I have told them that it is not a matter of strength, but address, and especially of knowing how to strike a blow. A rowdy may be able to strike you ten times in a fight, and yet not hurt you severely, if you know how to parry and dodge, while, if you can get in a single blow, you may be able to take all the fight out of him at once.”