A User’s Guide to the Bartitsu Society Website 2.0

The original Bartitsu Society website – www.bartitsu.org – was established by James Marwood in October of 2008, and that site served as the premiere online resource for the contemporary Bartitsu revival until it suffered a catastrophic technical failure in April of 2019.

The recovery, restoration and reconstruction process was a laborious task, but by January of 2021 the great majority of the items posted on Bartitsu.org between 2008-2019, including all of the significant technical and historical articles, had been reconstituted at www.bartitsusociety.com.

During the reconstruction the archived posts unavoidably became chronologically disordered and most of them now begin with a note recording the date when they were originally posted.

This event highlighted the fragility of electronic media and inspired the production of a third volume of the Bartitsu Compendium, in order to further preserve the best of the research presented here since the publication of the second volume in 2008. The Bartitsu Compendium, Volume III was published in December of 2022.

We hope you enjoy the Bartitsu Society website 2.0!

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“The Repair Shop” restores Yukio Tani’s portrait

This episode of the BBC’s Repair Shop series features the painstaking restoration of a 1930s oil portrait of former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani, which had hung for many years on the wall of the venerable London Budokwai martial arts school. Tani had been among the dojo’s original instructors and taught there until his death aged 69 on January 22nd, 1950.

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Yuki Tani watches catch-as-catch-can wrestling in 1926

A few seconds of footage of former Bartitsu Club instructor Yukio Tani watching a catch-as-catch-can wrestling championship in Finsbury Park, Middlesex. Tani would have been around 49 years old at the time this film was shot; about a decade later he suffered a debilitating stroke that ended his athletic career, though he recovered well enough to be able to coach judoka and jujutsuka from the sidelines of the famous London Budokwai.

In 1913 Tani had starred in a short silent film called Ju-Jitsu to the Rescue, now believed lost; he also (very likely) appeared on camera demonstrating Japanese unarmed combat as part of a display at London’s Kensington Palace Field in 1928 and as part of the audience watching a Budokwai judo and kendo demonstration in 1937.

Aside from a short 1905 documentary film starring Tani’s fellow Bartitsu instructor Sadakazu Uyenishi – now believed lost except as a reconstruction from the cinematographic stills featured in Uyenishi’s book – these short snippets are the only known moving images of Bartitsu Cub instructors.

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“Guards of Bartitsu” with Oliver Janseps

A Christmas treat from German Bartitsu instructor Oliver Janseps, teaching the fundamental guards of the Vigny/Lang stickfighting style.

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“The Suffragette That Knew Jiu Jitsu”

A fairly well-researched presentation on Edith Garrud’s role in the jujutsu training of the WSPU Bodyguard unit, contextualised with some background on Barton-Wright’s Bartitsu.

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“Bartitsu Basics – How to thrust with a cane & the hand guard”

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Experimental Vigny/Bartitsu stick sparring

Nice to see these fighters experimenting with a variety of tactical guard positions throughout and with some grappling/disarm options towards the end of their bout.

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Bartitsu with Team TE-MA Combat

Experimental Vigny/Bartitsu stick sparring from Team TE-MA Combat, with an active group class shown below. Nice to see a variety of guard positions (front, back and double-handed variations) as well as ambidextrous attacks being employed.

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“Parry and Fight Back” in the Vigny style with Oliver Janseps

Another useful video tutorial in the fundamentals of Vigny cane fighting from instructor Oliver Janseps, this one detailing the parry/riposte dynamic against high and outside/inside body line attacks.

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“How to start Bartitsu – la canne Vigny” with Oliver Janseps

This new video tutorial focusses on basic moulinet strikes in the Vigny style.

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“Fight Like Sherlock Holmes” in Germany

Images from a recent seminar by Alex Kiermayer and Christoph “Bear-Knuckle” Reinberger.

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