During the Edwardian period, jujutsu was promoted as a way to foster women's self defence, autonomy and health, initially in the United Kingdom and then elsewhere in the Western world.
In contemporary usage, "suffrajitsu" describes the suffragettes' techniques of visible 'self-defence, sabotage and subterfuge' against the police and other aggressors, whilst promoting the benefits of jujitsu as a 'free activity' and a form of self-defense for dealing with both domestic violence in the home, and public attacks to women.[1][2]
Etymology
The term "suffragette" was first used in 1906 pejoratively by the journalist Charles E. Hands in the London Daily Mail describing female activists working for women's suffrage, in particular members of the WSPU. The latter, however, embraced the term and used it to distinguish their own, radical and militant approach from that of more staid and law-abiding "suffragist" organisations such as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
Martial arts instructor Edith Garrud believed the term "Ju-Jutsuffragettes" originated from Health & Strength Magazine prior to 1910.[3]
The term 'Suffrajitsu' was coined by an anonymous English journalist in a widely republished article first issued in March 1914 and has subsequently been re-popularised by the Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons graphic novel series (2015).
Style of engagement and contemporary influence
Suffrajitsu drew upon the techniques of the Japanese jujutsu teachers in London during the Edwardian period. Women in particular were seen as ideal to engage in Jujitsu, as their smaller on average builds allowed them an advantage in allowing their opponent to underestimate them based on their being the 'fairer/weaker' sex and then using their jujitsu to topple larger opponents.
Outside of the training suffragettes received related to ju-jitsu, weapons were also frequently taken into account by their practicality, to prevent attack on their persons, both domestically and by the police. Members of the WSPU Bodyguard (see below) were issued with Indian clubs for use as weapons. Women learned to defend themselves with everyday items of clothing such as the hatpin, used by Edwardian women to hold their large hats in place which could at times reach up to 16 inches in length, either to disarm or maim. Flora Drummond, known as 'The General' for wearing a military style uniform, Helen Ogston, Teresa Billington-Greig and Maud Arncliffe Sennett were each known to carry around whips, to intimidate opponents.[2] At the Battle of Glasgow (1914), suffragettes engaged with police by deploying hidden barbed wire as a stalling tactic.[4]
Ju-jitsu was first demonstrated in London in 1892 by Tetsujiro Shidachi and later promoted in England by the Bartitsu founder and practitioner Edward Barton-Wright, who introduced Asian martial arts to the middle-classes between 1899 and 1902. Unusually for Edwardian-era "antagonistics" (combat sports) clubs, lessons at the Bartitsu Club were available to women as well as men.
Phoebe Roberts
In the interest of women practitioners and writing in the Daily Mirror in 1903, Evelyn Sharp called for 'women [to] take the special ladies classes offered by (former Bartitsu Club instructor Sadakazu) Uyenishi in Golden Square'. The specific classes being offered taught by Emily Diana Watts; who herself learnt from training at the Oxford Streetdojo of Uyenishi's former associate Yukio Tani, along with other 'lady instructors' like Phoebe Roberts (1887–1937) who also taught Judo alongside Uyenishi by December 1904 at the Golden Square school. Uyenishi, remarking on woman learning ju-jitsu, was quoted as noting that "Balance and quickness will always win, and women are always quick."[5] Coupled with the heightened position of Japan as a nation state after the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the victory over Russia in 1905 based partly on the word of the Japanese army claiming Judo was their secret weapon and hyperbolic claims of jujutsu teachers and sportswriters, there was an inclination in Edwardian English society to learn about 'jiu-jitsu', and the art was taught to young women at Girton College and Newnham College.[6][7][8]
By 1905 Watts began teaching self-defence lessons to other high society women such as Duchess Bedford and by 1906 began teaching Jujitsu classes at the Princes Skating Club, Knightsbridge, also publishing The Fine Art of Jujutsu. Other female students of this style included Marie Studholme who trained under Tani in 1907.[9] Ju-jitsu parties became all the rage, instructing upper and middle class in the art of self-defence in their homes, or at afternoon tea.[4]
In 1908, Edith Garrud took over women's classes at the Golden Square School when Uyenishi left England. Garrud also founded the 'Suffragettes Self-Defence Club' in 1909, a suffragettes-only Jujutsu club, which from 1911 moved to the Palladium Academy, in Argyll Street.
The requirement for suffragette self-defence was reinforced by events such as the Black Friday Raid, wherein plain clothes police officers had allegedly physically and sexually assaulted unarmed women attempting to force entry to the House of Commons during a "Raid on Parliament" protest action.[10]
Even after the dissolution of the more violent tactics used by the WSPU in 1914, in 1918 when Christabel Pankhurst was running for office for the Smethwick seat at the General Election, her supporters used jujutsu to deter protestors rallying against her running for the seat.[11] With the founding of the Budokwai in 1918, Jujitsu and Judo began to attain non-political and international followings and were increasingly taught once again primarily as sport or for self-defence. The first female practitioner, Katherine White-Cooper, entering the Budokwai in April 1919.[9]
Recreational activity or 'The Soft-Art'
Suffragetto board
Jujitsu was promoted as a way not only to help defend women but to for their mental and physical health and well-being. The suffragette movement (like the feminist movement to other contact and non-violent sport later on[12]) promoted its recreational usage;[4] The 1908 board game Suffragetto introduced a then-highly political topic into the domestic sphere, framing and engaging the issue in a more positive light for a wider audience.[13] In this manner, self-defence could be marketed as a sport, hobby or entertainment rather than being pejoratively labelled by the wider society as an aggressive or niche activity for women. Performers and publicists like the strongmanEugen Sandow, promoted Jujitsu for women in his magazine on physical culture as a form of 'rational exercise' which supported 'feminine grace'.[14][15] Given a heightened interest in national health due to a national report revealing health issues in the United Kingdom, it was also in the national interest to increase public participation in sport. Indeed, in 1913 Edith Garrud's dojo was used as a base for militant suffragettes fleeing from pursuing policemen; hiding their protest implements and changing into jujitsu uniforms gave them the veneer of respectable sportswomen.[7]
Promotion through the arts
One way of promoting jiu-jitsu to the public was through theatre productions incorporating the style, with female participants performing and demonstrating the style's particular benefits when 'a light slim girl ... was able to throw heavy male opponents with the utmost ease.' In 1904, Roberts and Watts performed with Tani and Uyenishi at Caxton Hall to promote the style, in the guise of stage entertainment, Roberts later performing for the Japan Society in 1906 at the Kew, Regents Park and in 1908 at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. Roberts eventually toured Barcelona demonstrating Jujitsu for female audiences.[7]
Ju-Jutsu as a Husband-Tamer (1911)
Garrud demonstrated Jujitsu for the WSPU in 1909, and in January 1911 choreographed the fight scenes for the play What Every Woman Ought to Know. In August Garrud wrote about using jiu-jitsu as a form of self-defence in Health and Strength magazine. [16]
"ju-jutsu has over and over again been proved to be the most effective means, ... because it is easy to learn, and because it is, quite apart from its combative value, a splendid exercise; it is the very thing for women as well as men to take up thoroughly." — Edith Garrud, July 23, 1910
1907 – in which a woman played by jujutsu instructor Edith Garrud is pursued by two "ruffians" and ultimately defeats both of them with her martial arts skills
1911 – features a sequence in which the protagonist is defeated by "Miss U.I. Throwe" in a jujutsu match, after which she hands him a calling card reading "Votes for Women!"
Militancy in WSPU and The Bodyguard
Jujitsu was initially demonstrated and promoted as a style of self-defence, but after the death of women like Mary Jane Clarke and the Conciliation Bills fiasco, the WSPU began to employ more militant forms of protest such as midnight raids on parliamentarians homes as well as nationwide arson and bombing campaigns, albeit the latter two categories of action were only carried out against unoccupied properties.[17]
Punch cartoon depicting militant suffragettes
In response to the Cat and Mouse Act of 1913, the WSPU formed what was termed variously the 'Bodyguard', 'Jiujitsusuffragettes' or 'Amazons'; a group of about 30 suffragettes tasked with protecting suffragettes who had been released from hunger striking in prison from being re-arrested. In order to be eligible to serve with the Bodyguard, women had to be in good physical condition, trained in self-defence and willing to risk their safety and freedom in service of their cause. The organisation engaged Edith Garrud to teach them how to prevent bodily harm against themselves from the police.
Active members of the Bodyguard employed hand-to-hand combat when necessary to protect their charges, but by preference employed techniques of distraction, evasion and misdirection in collaboration with the large, semi-underground network of WSPU sympathisers.
The Bodyguards' most well known hand-to-hand combats engagements with police officers were the "Battle of Glasgow" on 9 March 1914, during which about 30 Bodyguards battled a much larger contingent of police constables and detectives on the stage of St. Andrew's Hall before a shocked audience of some 4500 people, and during their "Raid on Buckingham Palace" on 24 May 1914, when club-wielding suffragette Bodyguards fought police in the streets while attempting to access Buckingham Palace and present a suffrage petition to King George.
The Bodyguard group was disbanded shortly after England declared war against Germany at the outset of the First World War, because the WSPU no longer required protection when they discontinued their militant activism and instead turned to supporting the war efforts.
The 2015 feature film Suffragette, which includes a brief scene in which radical suffragette Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter) teaches a self-defence class
Season 3, Episode 5 of the Drunk History (UK) TV comedy show (2017) features a Suffrajitsu segment starring Jessica Hynes as Emmeline Pankhurst
The 2018 independent documentary No Man Shall Protect Us: the Hidden History of the Suffragette Bodyguards
Season 5, Episode 5 of the Drunk History (US) comedy TV show (2019) features a Suffrajitsu segment starring Tatiana Maslany as Emmeline Pankhurst and Kat Dennings as Bodyguard Gertrude Harding
The 2020 and 2022 Netflix movies Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2, both starring Millie Bobby Brown in the title role as a martial arts-trained detective in Edwardian London, co-starring Helena Bonham Carter as her radical suffragette/martial artist mother and Susie Wokoma as jujutsu trainer Edith Grayston.
The 2023 graphic novel The Bodyguard Unit: Edith Garrud, Women's Suffrage, and Jujitsu
United States
In the United States, Japanese instructors such as Yae Kichi Yabe in Rochester, New York began teaching jiu-jitsu to Americans. Women recognized that jiu-jitsu training was not only effective as a means of self-defense but had political implications as well. President Theodore Roosevelt was a vocal advocate of jiu-jitsu training as a way of fostering manliness in American men and preparing United States soldiers for battle. In 1904, Roosevelt hired jiu-jitsu instructor Yoshitsugu Yamashita to train him in the Japanese art of self-defense and made a public display of his training for the press.[18][19] Feminists annoyed by the posturing of men like Roosevelt, insisted that women were just as capable of learning jiu-jitsu. To prove their point, Martha Blow Wadsworth and Maria Louise ("Hallie") Davis Elkins hired Fude Yamashita, a highly skilled jiu-jitsu instructor and the wife of Yoshiaki Yamashita, to teach a jiu-jitsu class for women and girls in Washington, DC in 1904. The participants of the class included Grace Davis Lee, Katherine Elkins, Jessie Ames, and Re Lewis Smith Wilmer.[9]
Also in 1904 the Physical Training for Women book was released by journalist H. Irving Hancock, based on the Tsutsumi Hōzan-ryū style. The work whilst only showing basic partnered stretches, was taken up for self-defense against 'mashers',[20] with journalist Priscilla Leonard writing how Hancock relayed that 'In Japan the women are not weaker, and in this country they have no right to be [either]'.
American suffragists drew inspiration from the tactics of the British militant suffragettes. Some American women directly participated in the actions initiated by the WSPU and a few even became members of the Bodyguard. Chicago reformer Zelie Emerson was recruited to join the movement by Sylvia Pankhurst who was on a speaking tour in the United States at the time. In 1913, Emerson traveled back to the United Kingdom with Pankhurst and was arrested multiple times for breaking windows to advocate votes for women. Emerson was arrested, sent to prison, and went on hunger-strike. After directly experiencing police brutality and having her skull fractured by police truncheons on two separate occasions, Emerson decided to join the suffragettes in drilling in the use of clubs, boxing, and jiu-jitsu.[18]
Most American suffragists tried to avoid any association with the militant tactics of the British suffragettes. There was no formal organization like the Bodyguard among suffragists in the United States. However, according to historian Wendy Rouse who has studied the origins of the women's self-defense movement in the United States, some American suffragists did advocate self-defense training for women and some groups of suffragists organized small groups to train in secret. Especially after their direct experiences with violence in the 1913 women's suffrage parade, American suffragists recognized that the police would offer them little protection. They began to recognize the value of jiu-jitsu training for their own self-defense.[18] New York suffragist Sofia Loebinger told reporters that she admired the British suffragettes who practiced jiu-jitsu: “Strong situations need strong women, and I am heartily in favor of the movement.” She expressed the belief that “boxing would be a good thing for women if only to teach them to concentrate their minds on one thing at a time. The ballot, for instance.”[21]
Elkins in 1918
In 1918, American society also began to promote Judo and wrestling as being fit for women's self-defense against the 'mashers' rather than a 'masculine' sport like boxing, with organizations like the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) promoting the sports. Women's Judo in Hawaii particularly flourished, with Hilo promoter Miss Harrison, and with Maui promoters including Floy Robinson, Kennette Griffith, Myrtle Nelson, Emma Cawdry, and Elva Class and the first female black belts including Shizuko Murasaki, Matsue Honda, and Yasue Kuniwake. Suffragettes and upper-class socialites often viewed learning martial arts as engaging in female empowerment, unlike boxing whilst working-class women used combat sports, mostly wrestling in vaudeville productions and self-defence where necessary. However most women until the 1940s viewed learning jiu-jitsu as 'manly', something which could scare off prospective marriage partners if the women built up too much muscle, diminishing their 'figures' and 'womanly charms'.[9]
Further reading
Meine Selbsthilfe Jiu Jitsu für Damen (My Selfhelp Jiu Jitsu for Women), Attinger (1901)
Physical Training for Women by Japanese Methods, G.P. Putnam's Sons (1904)
The Fine Art of Jujitsu, William Heinemann & Co (1906)
The Life and Adventures of Miss Florence LeMar, the World's Famous Ju-Jitsu Girl, Florence leMar (1913)
Suffragette Escapes and Adventures, Katherine "Kitty" Marshall (Unpublished, 1947)
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and policies were tightly controlled by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Sylvia was eventually expelled.
Submission grappling, also known as submission wrestling, submission fighting, no-gi jiu-jitsu or simply grappling, is a fighting style and combat sport that focuses on ground fighting and submission techniques. It is a hybrid discipline that incorporates elements of various martial arts such as various wrestling styles, judo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Submission wrestling is practiced both as a competitive sport and as a training method for self-defence and mixed martial arts (MMA).
Bartitsu is an eclectic martial art and self-defence method originally developed in England in 1898–1902, combining elements of boxing, jujitsu, cane-fighting, and French kickboxing (savate). Dormant throughout most of the 20th century, Bartitsu has experienced a revival since 2002.
Edward William Barton-Wright CE, FRSA, MJS was an English entrepreneur specialising in both self defence training and physical therapy. He is remembered today as one of the first Europeans to both learn and teach Japanese martial arts and as a pioneer of the concept of hybrid martial arts.
Florence "Flossie" LeMar was the stage name of Florence Gardiner (1890–1951), an athlete and entertainer who toured throughout New Zealand and Australia during the early years of the 1910s.
Wah-leong "Wally" Jay, was an American martial artist who primarily studied and taught jujutsu and judo. He was the founder of the Gendai Budo martial art Small Circle Jujitsu.
German Ju-Jutsu is a martial art related to traditional Japanese Jujutsu, developed in Germany in the 1960s using techniques from Jujutsu, Judo, Karate and various other traditional and modern martial arts. Its governing body in Germany is the DJJV. Its competitive sport aspects are coordinated internationally by the JJIF ; Ju-jutsu under JJIF rules is a part of the World Games and World Combat Games. The system is taught to the German police forces.
Sadakazu Uyenishi also known as S. K. Uyenishi and under the stage name Raku, was a jujitsu practitioner, a professional wrestler and a figure of London Edwardian establishment from 1900 to 1908. He was one of the first Japanese jujitsu practitioners to both teach jujitsu and to compete using the art outside Japan. Uyenishi is credited with introducing jujitsu to the British army and police and with opening the first jujitsu dojo in the U.K known as the School of Japanese Self Defence.
Kyūshin-ryū is a form of the martial art Jujutsu consisting of striking, throwing and grappling techniques. It was developed by the Samurai in feudal Japan as a method of dispatching an armored opponent using unarmed techniques. According to the Densho of various schools and historical records, these systems of unarmed combat began to be known as Jujutsu during the Muromachi period (1333–1568).
Jujutsu, also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponents. It was coined by Hisamori Tenenuchi when he officially established the first school of jiu-jitsu in Japan. A subset of techniques from certain styles of jujutsu were used to develop many modern martial arts and combat sports, such as judo, aikido, sambo, ARB, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and mixed martial arts.
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members of the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. In 1906, a reporter writing in the Daily Mail coined the term suffragette for the WSPU, derived from suffragistα, in order to belittle the women advocating women's suffrage. The militants embraced the new name, even adopting it for use as the title of the newspaper published by the WSPU.
Edith Margaret Garrud was a British martial artist, suffragist and playwright. She was the first British female teacher of jujutsu and one of the first female martial arts instructors in the western world.
Tomita Tsunejirō, born Yamada Tsunejirō, was the earliest disciple of judo. His name appears in the first line of the enrollment book of the Kōdōkan. Tomita, together with Saigō Shirō, became the first in the history of judo to be awarded the rank of Shodan by the founder of judo, Kanō Jigorō, who established the ranking system that is now commonly used in various martial arts around the world. Tomita was known as one of the "Four Kings" of Kōdōkan judo for his victorious efforts in competing against jujitsu schools. He was awarded 7th dan upon his death on January 13, 1937.
Gertrude Menzies Harding (1889-1977) was a suffragette born on a farm in rural Canada. She migrated to London, England in 1912. Once there she quickly joined militant suffragette movement, being one of only a handful of Canadian women to do so. Harding was known as one of the highest-ranking and longest-lasting members of the Women's Social and Political Union.
Atemi Ju-Jitsu, in Japanese: Atemi (当て身) Jujutsu (柔術), also called Pariset Ju-Jitsu, was established in France in the 1940s by the late Judo and Ju-Jitsu legend Bernard Pariset to revive and preserve old martial techniques inherited from Feudal Japan.
Suffrajitsu: Mrs. Pankhurst's Amazons is a graphic novel trilogy published by Jet City Comics, portraying the adventures of an all-women secret society of bodyguards who protect the leaders of the radical suffragette movement during early 1914.
Katherine "Kitty" Marshall was a British suffragette known for her role in the militant Women's Social and Political Union and as one of the bodyguard for the movement's leaders who had been trained in ju-jitsu.
William Garrud (1873–1960) was a British jujutsu instructor. Garrud was introduced to jujutsu in 1899 alongside his wife Edith. They studied under Japanese jujutsu masters Yukio Tani and Sadakazu Uyenishi and later opened their own London dojo. In 1914 Garrud, wrote The Complete Jujitsuan which became a standard work on jujitsu, judo and self-defence and has been republished at least seven times. During the First World War Garrud trained the Volunteer Civil Force in Jujitsu. Edith and William Garrud continued to work as instructors until 1925, when they retired.
1 2 3 Twentieth-Century: The Cases of Phoebe Roberts, Edith Garrud, and Sarah Mayer, Mike Callan, Conor Heffernan, Amanda Spenn, The International Journal of the History of Sport, Volume 35, Issue 6: New Historical Work on Women and Gender, 2018, pp. 530–553
↑ Christabel Pankhurst and the Smethwick Election: Right-Wing Feminism, the Great War and the Ideology of Consumption,Nicoletta F. Gullace, Women's History Review, 23, No.3, June 2014, p. 336
↑ See Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women's Self-Defense, Martha McCaughey, 1997 and Barbara Deming, Revolution and Equilibrium, 1971
↑ A slang term in use from 1872, being a man who makes indecent sexual advances towards women, especially in public places. OED online
↑ Greeley-Smith, Nixola (11 April 1911). "Suffragettes Will Cultivate Muscles and Fight Like Amazons for Her Ballot". Evening World. New York. p.3.
External links
suffrajitsu.com: promotional website for the Suffrajitsu graphic novel trilogy, with historical information on the real-life Bodyguard team that inspired the fiction
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