Tony Wolf
16th December 2005, 22:42
I'm paranoid about breaking forum rules re. "blatant commerical advertising", but as the money raised through sales of this book is going towards a martial arts related charitable project, I hope that the moderators will indulge me.
The Bartitsu Compendium (Lulu Press, 280 pages) is the ultimate guide to everything you never knew you wanted to know about Bartitsu, which was perhaps the first eclectic self defence system to deliberately combine Asian and European martial arts. The method was founded in the late 1890s by an Englishman, E.W. Barton-Wright, who had studied the Tenshin-Shinyo Ryu, Shinden-Fudo Ryu, and Kano styles of jiujitsu while travelling in Japan.
Upon his return to England, Barton-Wright established his "Bartitsu Academy of Self Defence and Physical Culture" with the assistance of instructors from around the world including jiujitsuka Yukio Tani and Sadakazu Uyenishi, Swiss wrestler Armand Cherpillod, and savate/la canne master Pierre Vigny. With the intention of promoting Bartitsu as a gentlemanly art of self defence combining boxing, wrestling, jiujitsu, savate and French stick fighting, Barton-Wright also established himself as an early promoter of mixed-styles competitions, pitting his international champions against all comers.
Unfortunately, the fame and success of men like Tani and Vigny almost completely stole Barton-Wright's thunder, and after a brief but colourful heyday during the early years of the 1900s, Bartitsu was almost forgotten. It did have the distinction of being immortalised in the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote that Holmes had defeated his nemesis Professor Moriarty through his mastery of "baritsu".
E.W. Barton-Wright died in 1951 at the age of ninety, without ever having received the accolades due to him as the pioneering instructor of the Asian martial arts in the English speaking world.
The Bartitsu Compendium is the product of four years of research by members of the Bartitsu Society, a non-profit association of enthusiasts dedicated to studying and reviving this unique Victorian-era martial art. The book is a 280 page anthology of articles and essays on Bartitsu history and technique, with extensive biographical chapters on Barton-Wright, Cherpillod, Tani, Vigny and other luminaries of the martial arts in early 1900s London. It features contributions by modern writers including Graham Noble and historian Emelyne Godfrey as well as rare reprinted articles and never-before-seen translations, illustrated with hundreds of photographs and sketches.
All profits from the sales of the Compendium are dedicated towards creating a suitable memorial for E.W. Barton-Wright, adjacent to the original site of his "Bartitsu Academy" in London's Soho district.
If you would like to assist in this project, and to learn more about the mysteries of Bartitsu, the book is available for purchase online at http://www.lulu.com/content/138834 .
Tony Wolf
The Bartitsu Compendium (Lulu Press, 280 pages) is the ultimate guide to everything you never knew you wanted to know about Bartitsu, which was perhaps the first eclectic self defence system to deliberately combine Asian and European martial arts. The method was founded in the late 1890s by an Englishman, E.W. Barton-Wright, who had studied the Tenshin-Shinyo Ryu, Shinden-Fudo Ryu, and Kano styles of jiujitsu while travelling in Japan.
Upon his return to England, Barton-Wright established his "Bartitsu Academy of Self Defence and Physical Culture" with the assistance of instructors from around the world including jiujitsuka Yukio Tani and Sadakazu Uyenishi, Swiss wrestler Armand Cherpillod, and savate/la canne master Pierre Vigny. With the intention of promoting Bartitsu as a gentlemanly art of self defence combining boxing, wrestling, jiujitsu, savate and French stick fighting, Barton-Wright also established himself as an early promoter of mixed-styles competitions, pitting his international champions against all comers.
Unfortunately, the fame and success of men like Tani and Vigny almost completely stole Barton-Wright's thunder, and after a brief but colourful heyday during the early years of the 1900s, Bartitsu was almost forgotten. It did have the distinction of being immortalised in the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote that Holmes had defeated his nemesis Professor Moriarty through his mastery of "baritsu".
E.W. Barton-Wright died in 1951 at the age of ninety, without ever having received the accolades due to him as the pioneering instructor of the Asian martial arts in the English speaking world.
The Bartitsu Compendium is the product of four years of research by members of the Bartitsu Society, a non-profit association of enthusiasts dedicated to studying and reviving this unique Victorian-era martial art. The book is a 280 page anthology of articles and essays on Bartitsu history and technique, with extensive biographical chapters on Barton-Wright, Cherpillod, Tani, Vigny and other luminaries of the martial arts in early 1900s London. It features contributions by modern writers including Graham Noble and historian Emelyne Godfrey as well as rare reprinted articles and never-before-seen translations, illustrated with hundreds of photographs and sketches.
All profits from the sales of the Compendium are dedicated towards creating a suitable memorial for E.W. Barton-Wright, adjacent to the original site of his "Bartitsu Academy" in London's Soho district.
If you would like to assist in this project, and to learn more about the mysteries of Bartitsu, the book is available for purchase online at http://www.lulu.com/content/138834 .
Tony Wolf