There are still about 10 places left at the
Bartitsu School of Arms this August in London. The event is taking place on the evening of the 26th of August and all day on the 27th and 28th at a venue near Guy's Hospital, London Bridge. The school is a practical one and some basic fitness and skills are required.
Anyone interested in Bartitsu, or wanting to attend the School but needing to brush up their skills, is welcome to contact the
Battersea Bartitsu Study Group for more information. Participation in the Study Group is free and the atmosphere is friendly and informal.
Obviously I am more than happy to answer questions posters here might have about the Study Group.
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.
- E.W. Barton-Wright, lecture for the Japan Society of London, 1902
