Sherlock Holmes' martial arts 1890s - real life Vs fiction?

Bartitsu was a martial art form brought to Europe from Japan by Edward William Barton-Wright (1860-1951). Barton-Wright, an engineer, had spent considerable time in Japan during the 1880s and was keen to teach Britons non-aggressive self defence that did not require guns. He established a self defence club, called the Bartitsu Academy of Arms and Physical Culture, in Shaftesbury Ave London in 1898.

Like jujitsu, bartitsu used the weight and strength of the enemy being outbalanced by the hero. In a long article called "How to Pose as a Strong Man" published in Pearson's Magazine in 1899, Barton-Wright carefully analysed the mechanical and leverage principles involved - feasible even for an insurance clerk or a bank teller. Emelyne Godfrey showed that Barton-Wright’s exotic yet practical brand of self defence was much needed in 1890s Britain and certainly filled a gap in the market. Bartitsu was admired specifically because it used minimum aggression.

Baritsu needed only a walking stick, an overcoat and a knowledge of weights and balances. Barton-Wright was the gentleman with the very impressive moustache in the centre photo.

Meanwhile we will leap over to popular literature. By the 1890s Arthur Conan Doyle had created a monster with the adventures of his hero, Sherlock Holmes. So he killed off Holmes in The Final Problem (published 1893) at the hands of his arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty. The method chosen was rather ghastly and final - Holmes plunged to his death over the Reichenbach Falls while fighting.

However public opinion being what it was, Arthur Conan Doyle must have had a change of heart. In his book The Adventure of the Empty House (published 1901), Sherlock Holmes was brought back to life. Baritsu (note the different spelling) was the martial art that was used to explain how Holmes had managed to avoid falling into the falls with Professor Moriarty. Conan Doyle was himself a very keen boxer and had no trouble describing baritsu, in this 1901 book.

This came as a surprise to me, since I assumed Sherlock Holmes was a very intellectual fictional character. But the Bartitsu Society reported something very different.  As an athlete, Sherlock Holmes apparently focused on those exercises which strengthened the muscles and improved his cardiovascular system. He walked, hiked, wrestled and swam. He was an early advocate of both Hatha Yoga and scientific weight-training.  As a child in Yorkshire, he was informally schooled in traditional Gaelic stick fencing and was a natural at bare-knuckle fisticuffs. As an adult, Holmes was an expert singlestick player, boxer and swordsman!

Undoubtedly the Second Boer War (1899–1902) was a horrible time for the British and the reintroduction of a clever and successful Sherlock Holmes must have been good for the national morale. But it didn’t save Barton-Wright’s self defence academy which went into bankruptcy. Barton-Wright tried other adventures but none was hugely successful. He faded out of the limelight and eventually lived into obscure old age.

I can never tell if life imitates art or vice versa. Even if Barton-Wright was buried in a pauper’s grave unmarked and unlamented, bartitsu or baritsu became the basis for real martial arts that did so well in Europe in the 20th century.  But it was the fictional Sherlock Holmes' mastery of the mixed martial art that became legendary, not the real life academy in Shaftesbury Ave.

Masculinity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature was written by Emelyne Godfrey and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011.