Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes

[BaronVonDingDong]

baritsu Bartitsu Compendium, and the formation of numerous Bartitsu groups and seminars across Europe and North America.

Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes (Freelance Academy Press, 2011), an hour-long documentary that brings vividly to life the story of Barton-Wright, and traces his legacy as it passes between figures as diverse as Holmes, Jigoro Kano, the suffragettes, and even former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzak Rabin.


While this definitive biography is narrated for us over rich period illustrations, the real strength of the documentary lies in the expert interviews that unpack the historical context from which Bartitsu emerged - as well as the anxieties on which it hoped to capitalize. Chief among these was the class antagonism that pervaded every aspect of British life, as the rapid industrialization and mass expansion of urban areas throughout the nineteenth-century lead to a flood of rural workers coming into cities to live in close and uneasy proximity. New social frictions, combined with widespread poverty, lead to a rise in violent crime - or, at least, the perception of a rise in violent crime - that was answered by the formation of an organized police force, and by a perpetual concern among the middle-classes about the unstinting criminality of the urban poor.


While the institution boasted the best instructors - adding the cane-master Pierre Vigny and wrestler Armand Cherpillod
Haganah Jewish self-defence forces in Palestine (hence Yitzak Rabin).


http://www.freelanceacademypress.com/bartitsu.aspx

[Conde Koma]

fantastic review! i'm definitely going to get myself a copy!

[meat monkey]

Sounds cool, just one thing, if I may:

"and traces his legacy as it passes between figures as diverse as Holmes, Jigoro Kano, the suffragettes, and even former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzak Rabin."

This seems to suggest or imply that Sherlock Holmes is a real person (or that the other two are also fictional? :P). I am just nit-picking here really, it otherwise sounds like a fascinating read!

[BaronVonDingDong]

Permit me to nit-pick your nit-pick - it's a documentary, not a book! :)

[meat monkey]

Well played sir, well played.


Godammit!

[Ashkuff]

I've gotta say, as a documentary filmmaker myself, THIS SOUNDS SO F****** COOL.
Also, was this whole post a promo blurb they gave you?
Or did you write it yourself?
Either way, awesome.

--- Ashkuff | http://www.ashkuff.com | How to venture out of “armchair” scholarship, and into action? One anthropologist tackles occultism, violence, and more! He gets spooked and roughed up a lot.

[DdlR]

Pardon my elbow, but no, the review is Baron VDD's own work; the promo. blurb is available on this site .

[neuxtreme]

Sounds interesting, good job.

[Eddie Hardon]

[DdlR]

The DVD is rated 0 (international) and plays on both European and North American systems.

I believe that the publishers are negotiating with a UK company re. distribution there. They will presumably work out a package deal to keep the consumer costs as low as possible.

[Matt Phillips]

Tony, I'm curious if you touch on the issue of Yatarou Handa's JiuJutsu in the film

[DdlR]

No, that was one of the topics that veered into the realm of "too esoteric/specialised/etc." for our intended audience. The Bartitsu Forum message archive is still the best resource for info. on the Handa school.

[Matt Phillips]

Yes, I recently joined.

[corto-maltese]

Bartitsu gained a popularity among Victorian/Holmes enthusiasts, various steampunk and historical fencing groups, that want to spread their training programme and win more students. Bartitsu club itself exited from 1899 till 1902, only 2-3 years and after that Bartitsu method died out. There is no existing teaching lineage, today Bartitsu instructors are mostly historical fencers and movie fight choreographers. Bartitsu "theory", presented at official "Bartitsu society" webpage and various MA forums, is based on a fake lineage and incorrect, personal suggestions, not on the real historical facts. This "theory" has nothing to do with an excellent research of (1990s period) British Jiu-jitsu historians about Bartitsu. Today nobody carries walking stick on a daily basis, except you are an elderly man over 70. If you want to develope yourself in a reality based and modern self-defence methods - STAY AWAY from Bartitsu and its instructors.

[DdlR]

The fact that Bartitsu effectively died out in 1902 and has been reconstructed over the past ten years is the whole theme of this documentary and is accepted as a basic fact in studying this subject. There is no claim of any lineage at all, so I'm curious about your reference to a "fake lineage".

Here's a quote on the subjects of lineage and reconstructionism taken from the documentary interview with Harry Cook, who was one of the 1990s-era British jiujitsu historians you referred to:

"The best thing about Barton-Wright is that he's dead! It sounds funny when you put it like that, but it's true. How can you resurrect Bartitsu? You have the articles Barton-Wright wrote for Pearson's Magazine, you have comments made about him by various people at various points in his life, you have the books and articles produced by his students. That's about it. It gives you a kind of a general outline - which is good - but there's a lot of room in there to adapt and modify as you wish, and there's nothing wrong with that, of course, because that's exactly what Barton-Wright did! So in that sense, you're following a fine tradition.

If Barton-Wright was alive, he might do things or say things and you'd say, "oh, I don't want to do that". You'd have to break away from him to do that. And that would be OK again, I think, from his school of thought."

For the record, the modern Bartitsu revival is a collective effort to continue - not necessarily to complete - the experimental cross-training process that Barton-Wright left as a work-in-progress back in 1902. It's open-ended and different people take it in different directions, just as Harry Cook suggested.