Bartitsu: Sherlock Holmes’ Martial Art

In 1903, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle inserted a certain style of fighting into the canon of  Sherlock Holmes stories. Unfortunately, he spelled it wrong. It is Bartitsu, but he scribed it as “baritsu”.

Bartitsu is a conglomeration of several martial art and self-defense disciplines, developed in England between 1898–1902. It combines the elements of boxing, jujitsu, cane-fighting, and French kickboxing/savate. A gentleman’s style of honorable fighting. This certainly must have appealed to Doyle as something his hero would teach himself, since he would find himself in many awkward situations that might require surprising skills in getting oneself out of mischief.

The developer of this new martial art—and the extraordinary mustachioed gentleman from the image above—was Edward William Barton-Wright, a British engineer and physical fitness enthusiast.

As you can see from the montage of photos, the cane fighting is reminiscent of fencing, but because it is the use of a cane (and now you know why Holmes often carried a cane without the need for it to support his stride). With a foil or saber in fencing, the idea is to stick your target with the point. Since a cane wouldn’t have one (unless it concealed a blade in its handle), it still can be used to beat the criminal about the head, ankles, and stomach to incapacitate them. You can see how this would be useful and otherwise none-threatening.

In a fight for your life, you’d use any tools at hand. In the lower portion of the image above, you can see how a gentleman would use his overcoat to cover the opposition’s weapon or head so that you could get the better of him.

And in some of the other photos, the western man is training with an Asian expert in jujitsu, the art of throwing one’s opponent and incapacitating him with a twist of their wrist or arm once they are down (it’s more complicated than that, of course, but you get the gist).

Holmes was already a marksman, a boxer, and, no doubt, an excellent fencer, but this was a discipline whereby he could use all his talents to best effect.

Most of the 20th century forgot about bartitsu, but it has experienced renewed interest since 2002. I don’t know if this is from Holmes fans, or fans of martial arts, but now you know. You, too, can learn to fight like the Great Detective.