Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: Bartitsu and Sherlock Holmes

  1. #1

    Bartitsu and Sherlock Holmes

    We at the Bartitsu Society are putting out a documentary about Sherlock Holmes and the lost art of Bartitsu, to coincide with the release of the Robert Downey Jr.
    movie.
    The clip for the documentary is:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?=ZDNaC-2HW-A

    Hope you enjoy it. we shot it all over the world.

  2. #2

  3. #3

    Thumbs down Bartitsu etc

    My apologies. Third time's the charm.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNaC-2HW-A

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    new york,ny,U.S.A
    Posts
    3,230
    the style in the movie, was a blend of wing chun and jiu jutsu. didnt really look like baristsu. but cool that you did that.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    The state that resembles a middle finger.
    Posts
    3,274

    Bartitsu

    I like the philosophy about the fight range. Sounds a lot like mma fights usually start striking dis. and end in grappling.


    http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/20...su-kickboxing/
    Originally posted by Bawang
    i had an old taichi lady talk smack behind my back. i mean comon man, come on. if it was 200 years ago,, mebbe i wouldve smacked her and took all her monehs.
    Originally posted by Bawang
    i am manly and strong. do not insult me cracker.

  6. #6
    you said "tit", he he he...

    no srsly, it was a valid approach at hybridization, and seemed to encourage working "live" in regards to much of the teaching;

    although I don't know about his conceit regarding using a "gentleman's" art to ward off London's ruffians, scalywags and ne'er-do-wells...give those bounders a sound thrashing, and all that, what, what?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    The state that resembles a middle finger.
    Posts
    3,274
    haha considering this is the early part of the century we are talking about. The guy was way ahead of his time.
    Originally posted by Bawang
    i had an old taichi lady talk smack behind my back. i mean comon man, come on. if it was 200 years ago,, mebbe i wouldve smacked her and took all her monehs.
    Originally posted by Bawang
    i am manly and strong. do not insult me cracker.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Neo-Bartitsu!

    Sherlock Holmes' 'Lost' Martial Art Makes NYC Premiere
    July 21, 2011 7:18am | By Meredith Hoffman, DNAinfo


    CHELSEA — Self defense was never as noble as in the Sherlock Holmes novels.

    At least, that's the opinion of practitioners of Bartitsu, the "lost" martial art made famous by the author of the famed detective series, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Bartitsu fans will hold a workshop this weekend in what may be the first NYC performance of the so-called "gentlemanly art of self-defense."

    "It's great for me being a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes and for many years wondering what 'Bartitsu' was," said Rachel Klingsberg, a Bartitsu student and the event's organizer.

    She explained that Holmes' fighting style, written as "Baritsu" in Doyle's published stories, had puzzled scholars, who finally found in the 1980s that it was actually referring to the obscure martial arts form Bartitsu, but was missing the letter "t."

    Presented by the New York Nineteenth Century Historical Society, the workshop at 34 West 28th Street invites students to "use a walking stick, parasol, jacket, and other accessories for protection."

    "As far as we can tell, this weekend is the premiere of Bartitsu in New York City," said Klingberg, noting that the martial art form actually began in the late 1800s in England but never "made it to the New World."

    "The most challenging thing was using a parasol for self defense," she said, recalling her first stab at the sport a few months ago in New Jersey at the Steampunks Fair, an event where people don traditional 19th Century clothes.

    "I had to transition to using accessories as tools of self-defense."

    Klingberg explained that Bartitsu is highly popular for Steampunks, a group of people dedicated to 19th Century science fiction. The martial art has also received renewed interest from Westerners, with more practitioners popping up around the country, she added.

    "The first Sherlock Holmes movie showed him as willing to take on the bad guy in a physical and martial way. ...It caused interest in what technique he was using," she said.

    At this weekend's event, Klingberg said she encourages people to wear 19th Century attire, as part of the Bartitsu experience.

    "We do discourage people from wearing high heel boots...it could be difficult to practice," said Klingberg, who said 17 people have already bought tickets for the event. "But at least half of the people will be in traditional Victorian attire."

    Mark Donnelly, a longtime fighter and the author of over 20 books, will lead the workshop, which runs between 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Donnelly earned the title Professor of Arms for founding the Society for the Study of Swordmanship in 1998, and said he first discovered Bartitsu through other forms of fighting arts.

    "I'm interested in historical combat," explained Donnelly.

    "I also teach 'neo-Bartitsu,' like how to use your cell phone defensively, not because it's a weapon but because it's in your hand," said Donnelly. "This is purely a self defense system. An object either becomes an encumbrance or an asset."

    Students can register online beforehand or at the door when they arrive — just be prepared to pay $45 a day for the experience.
    Because nothing screams steam-punk like Bartitsu cell phone techniques.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    桃花岛
    Posts
    5,031
    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    Because nothing screams steam-punk like Bartitsu cell phone techniques.
    Man, I'm missing the boat here.

    I know steam-punks, I could gussy up some truncheon forms, put on a waist coat and call it Bartitsu.
    Simon McNeil
    ___________________________________________

    Be on the lookout for the Black Trillium, a post-apocalyptic wuxia novel released by Brain Lag Publishing available in all major online booksellers now.
    Visit me at Simon McNeil - the Blog for thoughts on books and stuff.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,519
    This is just another lineage of jiujitsu, that's all. He might lay claim to it, but it is purely jiujitsu. No Wing Chun, just jiujitsu. Not BJJ, but the Japanese version.
    Jackie Lee

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Outer Beringia
    Posts
    892
    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Chiang Po View Post
    This is just another lineage of jiujitsu, that's all. He might lay claim to it, but it is purely jiujitsu. No Wing Chun, just jiujitsu. Not BJJ, but the Japanese version.
    Not "purely jujitsu." Barton-Wright's approach was to blend boxing, wrestling, stick arts and anything else that came to hand into a well balanced self defense system. The development of bartitsu ended in its infancy, but the idea was novel for its time.
    "Look, I'm only doing me job. I have to show you how to defend yourself against fresh fruit."

    For it breeds great perfection, if the practise be harder then the use. Sir Francis Bacon

    the world has a surplus of self centered sh1twh0res, so anyone who extends compassion to a stranger with sincerity is alright in my book. also people who fondle road kill. those guys is ok too. GunnedDownAtrocity

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    Slightly OT

    What a great piece of history...
    Edith Garrud: a public vote for the suffragette who taught martial arts

    The woman who introduced jujutsu to the suffragette cause is honoured with a plaque on her London house

    Rachel Williams
    guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 June 2012 16.00 EDT



    Garrud depicted in a 1910 Punch cartoon. Photograph: Arthur Wallis Mills

    The horrors of forcible feeding endured by imprisoned suffragettes on hunger strike are relatively well known; the image of rubber tubes being rammed down women's throats as they were held or tied down is a hard one to shake. Less widely documented have been the efforts made to protect the movement's leaders from arrest in the first place: of the 30-strong elite "bodyguard" trained to resist the police using the martial art jujutsu, and of the woman who taught them – Edith Garrud. But this Saturday, Islington council will unveil a People's Plaque, voted for by residents, at the house where this little-known suffragette lived in Thornhill Square, London.

    One of the western world's first female martial arts instructors, Garrud, who died in 1971 aged 99, is thought to have learned jujutsu in the late 19th century. She began working with suffragettes between 1908 and 1911, eventually at her own women-only training hall, a room at the Palladium Academy dance school in Argyll Street.

    When the government passed the notorious "Cat and Mouse Act" in 1913 – under which hunger strikers were released only to be rearrested when they had regained their strength – the Women's Social and Political Union responded by setting up a dedicated unit to protect Emmeline Pankhurst and other leaders from arrest.

    Martial arts expert Tony Wolf, andauthor of a book about Edith Garrud aimed at teenage girls, says there was a "direct progression" from this job to that of official trainer of the bodyguard. "Members [of the bodyguard] had to be athletic and willing to face injury and arrest. She trained them in jujutsu at secret locations throughout London, and also taught them how to use wooden Indian clubs, which were concealed in their dresses and used as weapons against the truncheons of the police." Garrud, who was just 4ft 11in tall, seems to have embraced the spotlight, even before the bodyguard was formed. In 1910 she produced an illustrated article explaining how woman using the jujutsu methods had "brought great burly cowards nearly twice their size to their feet and made them howl for mercy."

    "Woman is exposed to many perils nowadays, because so many who call themselves men are not worthy of that exalted title, and it is her duty to learn how to defend herself," she wrote, in the same year a Punch cartoon depicted policemen cowering before her.

    But Tony Wolf cautions against romanticised images of suffragettes throwing officers around. "The bodyguard had some remarkable tactical victories using decoys and disguises," he says. "But the grim reality is that they were heavily outnumbered by the police and were often injured."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Ontario
    Posts
    22,250
    Great find Gene !
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    ttt 4 2013

    There's an amusing slideshow if you follow the link.
    19th Century Festival Brings Victorian Fashion, Martial Arts to Park Slope
    April 26, 2013 7:20am | By Leslie Albrecht, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

    PARK SLOPE — Hang on to your hoop skirts — Park Slope is going back in time.

    The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and Third Street will host the 19th Century Extravaganza this weekend, a festival designed to transport visitors to 1800s New York, with corseted ladies and top-hatted gentlemen in period garb and hands-on demonstrations of Victorian era pastimes.

    "The idea is to create an immersive historical environment where people can learn at their own pace aspects of 19th century life in New York City," said Samuel Sobek of the New York Nineteenth Century Society, the group that organizes the event.

    Visitors can participate in a variety of bygone activities, such as an outdoor drawing session where an instructor will teach 19th century art techniques and a live model will pose in a vintage costume. Period music will be performed and there will be tastings of home-brewed beer and a model flying machine contest.

    A fashion show will have models outfitted in "steampunk" styles, an aesthetic movement drawing on 19th century design with a science-fiction twist, and "Lolita" outfits, a Japanese trend inspired by frilly girls dresses, Sobek said.

    One of the most popular sessions last year was the demonstration of "bartitsu," the martial art used by Sherlock Holmes. Participants will have to sign a waiver if they want to take a crack at bartitsu, but Sobek said he's not expecting any injuries.

    The fighting technique was designed for ladies and gentlemen to defend themselves against street crime, Sobek said.

    "It's an indigenous Western martial art that uses objects the well-to-do have on hand to defend themselves, like canes and umbrellas," Sobek said.

    The 19th Century Extravaganza runs from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday April 28 at the Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and Third Street. It's free and open to the public.

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,946

    More on Bartitsu

    Same pic, and I like the term 'sufferajitsu' more.



    THE MARTIAL ART THAT (SORT OF) WON BRITISH WOMEN THE RIGHT TO VOTE
    By Fiona Zublin

    WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
    Because they were fighting … with walking sticks.

    Some British women literally fought for the right to vote. Edith Garrud, at all of 4-foot-11, was demonstrating outside the House of Commons when a policeman told her she was obstructing traffic. She faked a handkerchief drop — a classic move — then flipped the policeman over her shoulder and onto the ground. Into the crowd she went, the queen of jiu jitsu. Or, more specifically, Bartitsu.

    But let’s back up to the late 1890s, when Bangalore-born Englishman Edward William Barton-Wright returned to his home country from Japan. He had studied martial arts in two cities there and knew an opportunity when he saw one: He created his own self-defense system, one that melded jiu jitsu with boxing, stick fighting and wrestling. It was a martial art, of course, but it was an Edwardian gentleman’s art too, with a walking stick serving not only as a prime mode of defense but also as a stylish accessory.

    BLOWS CAN BE MADE SO FORMIDABLE THAT, WITH AN ORDINARY MALACCA CANE, IT IS POSSIBLE TO SEVER A MAN’S JUGULAR VEIN THROUGH THE COLLAR OF HIS OVERCOAT.
    EDWARD BARTON-WRIGHT, ‘SELF-DEFENSE WITH A WALKING STICK’

    “Bartitsu was what we would think of today as a cross-training system,” says Tony Wolf, author of Suffrajitsu, a graphic novel about the suffragettes’ use of martial arts. Bartitsu was designed to give its students jiu jitsu skills “as a sort of ‘secret weapon,’ ” Wolf explains. When Barton-Wright introduced his system, Japanese combat was taught in only one place in the Western world: his school on Shaftesbury Avenue.

    In his 1902 essay “Self-Defense With a Walking Stick,” Barton-Wright sang the praises of the accoutrement’s effectiveness as a weapon: “Blows can be made so formidable that, with an ordinary Malacca cane, it is possible to sever a man’s jugular vein through the collar of his overcoat,” he wrote, before detailing potential moves in various situations. He also cautioned that certain blows should be made with care when being shown to a friend. Athletes, politicians, military men and other prominent members of London society flocked to train under Barton-Wright, digging his combination of familiar fighting skills and seemingly exotic hand fighting.

    Even Sherlock Holmes got in on the craze — though Bartitsu enthusiasts will point out that Arthur Conan Doyle misspells it as “Baritsu” and has Holmes use the method in 1894, several years before Barton-Wright invented it. Bartitsu — or an approximation thereof — shows up occasionally in adaptations of the Holmes stories, often not mentioned by name but reflected in the fight choreography’s hat-and-umbrella antics mixed with boxing and various martial arts. Sure, it may seem silly when, in character as fiction’s favorite sleuth, Benedict Cumberbatch or Robert Downey Jr. begins throwing kicks and dodging blows, but Conan Doyle started Holmes off by including his martial arts background in the literary canon.

    Beyond the fictional detective and real-life luminaries, though, were multitudes of fitness professionals, men and women who learned and transmitted Barton-Wright’s martial art. One of these was Edith Garrud, whom with her husband, William, trained under Barton-Wright. The couple took over the running of jiu jitsu master Sadakazu Uyenishi’s London dojo when he returned to Japan in 1908; by 1910, Edith was teaching self-defense to suffragettes in Kensington and posing for photo shoots. She trained the suffragettes’ bodyguard unit, an all-female team familiar with hand-to-hand combat whose members were charged with protecting prominent women campaigners from arrest and who often came to blows with the police. But, says Wolf, “it’s important to carefully distinguish between that romantic badass image and the reality of their history.” He notes that Garrud, Emmeline Pankhurst and the other suffragettes would have been regarded as violent insurgents at the time. Today, Garrud is more of a historical footnote — and a reminder that self-defense systems can be extremely effective in the real world.

    Though Barton-Wright’s club lasted only a few years — it had closed down by 1903 — his promotion of jiu jitsu had a lasting impact on British society, which was crazy for martial arts until the advent of World War I. And Bartitsu is still with us, thanks to a cadre of fighter scholars who’ve resurrected Barton-Wright’s texts alongside a “neo-Bartitsu” drawn from the work and training preserved by the master’s students. Wolf is one of those, and he’s not alone — he estimates that there are 50 clubs currently active in Europe and the Americas, training would-be Bartitsu masters inspired by Holmes, Garrud, Barton-Wright and good old-fashioned curiosity. “Our challenge today is to continue [Barton-Wright’s] experiment,” Wolf says. “If we can avoid dissolving into steampunk-hipster irony, then I think we have a fighting chance at doing that.”
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •