Bartitsu - Modern Martial Art in England in 1898

[pressureguy]

I have never heard of Bartitsu until yesterday and am fascinated by non-

typical martial arts.

Here is a piece of an article about it:

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Bartitsu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Bartitsu stick fightingBartitsu is an eclectic martial art developed

in England during the late 1890s and early 1900s.

In 1898, Edward William Barton-Wright, a British railway engineer

who had been living and working in Japan, returned to England and

announced the formation of a "New Art of Self Defence". This art, he

claimed, combined the best elements of a range of fighting styles

into a unified whole, which he had named Bartitsu.

As detailed in a series of articles Barton-Wright produced for

Pearson's Magazine between 1899 and 1904, Bartitsu was largely drawn

from various ko-ryu ("old school") forms of Jiujitsu, with the

addition of tactics and combat techniques from British boxing and

wrestling, French Savate, and a combat stick fighting style that had

been developed by Professeur Pierre Vigny of Switzerland.

In 1902, Barton-Wright wrote:

"Under Bartitsu is included boxing, or the use of the fist as a

hitting medium, the use of the feet both in an offensive and

defensive sense, the use of the walking stick as a means of self-

defence. Judo and jujitsu, which were secret styles of Japanese

wrestling, he would call close play as applied to self-defence. 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: 261)

(end of cut and paste)

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This is fascinating. I wonder what could have been because it wasn't until the 1960's that Bruce Lee got credit and some respect for mixing fighting styles into a system of its own.

Edward William Barton-Wright did his version of an ecclectic martial art in 1898, a time where martial arts were as foreign as visitors from outer space would be to us.

If things would have gone a little different, the martial arts might have been introduced to western society as something that "non-orientals" could do as well over 60 years sooner than they did (give or take 10 years). He did seem to get some notoriety as his style was mentioned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Cherlock Holmes' novel "The Adventure of the Empty House" (1903).

I wonder what things would be like in the martial arts world had he become as popular as Bruce Lee.

By the way, I would highly recommend reading the rest of the article at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu

There are several links at the bottom of that page that will give you more info in addition to a longer version of the story I listed in the previous post.

pressureguy

[UseoForce]

Cool...any interest in western martial arts is great in my opinion!

[Rick]

Wow, that was pretty interesting. It sounds like a well-rounded basic form of defence for all of those "old-school" fighters out there.

Rick