Bartitsu?

[haggholm]

When Sherlock Holmes met his arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem, he died—but popular outcry persuaded Conan Doyle to revive him with an early retcon, explaining his survival thus, in Holmes’s words:

When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went. With my face over the brink I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock, bounced off, and splashed into the water.

The baritsu that Holmes refers to was most likely¹ a real martial art called Bartitsu, a portmanteau of its inventor’s name, Edward Barton-Wright, and jiu-jitsu (in more modern Romanisation, jujutsu). Naming it by a portmanteau was highly appropriate. Bartitsu was created in 1898 or so as an amalgam of

• British boxing (‘scientific boxing’, as it was grandiosely called at the time; though bare-knuckled);
• savate (French kickboxing, with shoes);
• la canne (lit. ‘the cane’; French stick-fighting);
• and of course jujutsu, which Barton-Wright had learned in Japan.

You can read more about Bartitsu at Wikipedia or many Bartitsu websites, and you can read my own review of the first class here. Me, I’m just trying to decide whether I want to stick with it. It was fun, and will presumably continue to be fun. It’s on Saturday afternoons at 3 pm…when I am already down at the Academie Duello, since my fencing is from noon to 2 pm—I would not sign up if it meant adding another day, or another commute, to my martial arts hobbies; this does neither. On the other hand, that’s another two hours of my Saturday to dedicate, and another $40/month to my already-substantial martial arts bill.

Decisions, decisions…

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¹ We may never know, of course, but I feel that no discussion of Bartitsu is quite complete without mentioning Conan Doyle if for no other reason than that the association is so firmly entrenched. In any case, marketing claims that Bartitsu is the martial art that Sherlock Holmes was famous for mastering are silly. It’s mentioned once, misspelled, in the entire Sherlock Holmes canon. On the other hand, it is often remarked that he is a skilled shot, stick fighter, and most especially a very gifted boxer. That was the martial art of Sherlock Holmes.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

On the other hand, since Holmes said that "baritsu" had more than once been very useful to him, we could read his proficiency at boxing and stick fighting as further examples of baritsu expertise ...

... depending on how seriously we take playing the game.

The "martial art of Sherlock Holmes" is generally useful as a pop-culture handle, but it also reflects the fact that if not for that one cryptic reference by Conan Doyle, the actual martial art of Bartitsu might never have been revived.

[petter-haggholm.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, since Holmes said that "baritsu" had more than once been very useful to him, we could read his proficiency at boxing and stick fighting as further examples of baritsu expertise ...

Ah, but most of the Sherlock Holmes stories were written not merely before baritsu was mentioned, but in fact before Bartitsu was ever first amalgamated! Thus not only his learning, but in fact most of his use of boxing and stick fighting significantly predate the formation of Bartitsu. He could have learned it before it was mentioned, but not before it was invented.

In fact, if we take the “baritsu = Bartitsu” equivalence for granted, we seem to have spotted an anachronism. While the reference to baritsu was in The Empty House, which was written in 1903, the use was in The Final Problem, written in 1893, 4–5 years before Barton-Wright came back from Japan and formed the Bartitsu Club. I gather it was set in 1891 if we are to trust Wikipedia, pushing the incongruity to at least six years). In fact, since Barton-Wright lived in Japan circa 1893-1897 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_William_Barton-Wright&oldid=367668603), so not only had he yet to return from Japan to form Bartitsu; he hadn’t even gone there and learned jujutsu yet. Funny that I never thought of this before…

Perhaps Conan Doyle, very vaguely familiar with the reputation of Bartitsu, intended to make a reference to what he thought of as an indigenously Japanese martial art (Japanese system of wrestling), where a specific importation or formation date would not have occurred to him as significant.

The "martial art of Sherlock Holmes" is generally useful as a pop-culture handle, but it also reflects the fact that if not for that one cryptic reference by Conan Doyle, the actual martial art of Bartitsu might never have been revived.

This may very well be true. I don’t really know much about the history of the revival, so I didn’t want to emphasise it.

[(Anonymous)]

That's what I meant by "playing the game", which is the phrase used in Sherlockian scholarship for "explaining" Conan Doyle's various anachronisms and continuity errors. In this case, while it's obvious that C.D. had Bartitsu in mind when he had Holmes suddenly reveal his "knowledge of baritsu", the mis-spelling and anachronism re. Barton-Wright's martial art allow Holmes/Bartitsu enthusiasts to come up with creative explanations. My favorite is that Holmes himself had secretly invented "baritsu" during the 1880s and that he later allowed his top student, E.W. Barton-Wright, to go public with a modified form of the art.

It's all in fun, and an amusing sideline to the study of Bartitsu as a historically real system.

[petter-haggholm.livejournal.com]

Excellent. I was already familiar with the game in the loose sense that I knew it existed and what it was, but I’ve never actually read up on any of the material.

[(Anonymous)]

The eccentric history of the game itself is detailed at http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2088/did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist . This recent series of posts on the Bartitsu Forum comprise a short story detailing how Holmes and Barton-Wright collaborated in the creation of Bartitsu:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bartitsu_Forum/message/10843
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bartitsu_Forum/message/10844
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bartitsu_Forum/message/10845
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bartitsu_Forum/message/10846

[petter-haggholm.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you.

Out of curiosity, anonymous one, are you someone I know from Academie Duello or Bullshido, or just some random surfer via Google?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm DdlR on Bullshido (I have a Google notification set up for Bartitsu references).

[vancouvermoose.livejournal.com]

"Bartitsu" sounds like a martial art for bartenders, or possibly baristas.

I am an admirer of aikido.

[petter-haggholm.livejournal.com]

Bartitsu sounds kind of silly, I agree, but then it’s a portmanteau, and I really like the word portmanteau, so linguistically it evens out.

I’m not an admirer of aikido, personally—most clubs don’t seem big into sparring, which means lack of quality control and breeds poor technique (or rather, technique that works very well specifically on an uke who is co-operating). (Notable exceptions include the Shodokan school.) Cf. this post (http://petter-haggholm.livejournal.com/106776.html).