Go check it out at Mokuren Dojo where Pat was kind enough to host it this month. He did a special theme issue on “Warriors of Peace and Justice” and received a nice response.

There are many quality posts, but here are a few that caught my eye:

Patrick Parker included an older Nonviolent self defense that matched this month’s theme. I love the photo he links to, check it out!

Chris also hopped into the wayback machine to post his thoughts on Conflict Resolution: A Casualty of Non-Violent Martial Arts. Pretty amusing in that he immediately takes a shot at any art that doesn’t free spar as being “inadvertently harmless.” I found myself nodding my head in agreement at first, but then I began to think of exceptions, such as some forms of silat, combatives, etc.

Dave Shevitz posted on Jury Duty and Ki Tests, which I thought was an interesting look into the deliberation room through an aiki filter.

I found some common ground with Eric Frey this time after reading his How to Spot a Punch Coming a Mile Away post. I once had an excellent boxe-francaise instructor that I finally had to agree to disagree with because I simply refused to focus on my opponent eyes when kickboxing.

The next Carnival (#6) will be hosted by Black Belt Mama so be sure and get your submittal in by February 23. Submit your post here.

I will link to it here when it is posted, but we are looking at a December 15 submission deadline and a December 17 carnival posting date. Don’t forget, readers can nominate posts they’ve read and enjoyed as well; you don’t have to be a blogger to participate!

I think this is a great step forward for the carnival and I hope other bloggers will also consider guest-hosting. It’s a win-win situation for all our participating bloggers and their readers because it allows readers to take a quick look at the best posts of the month in the martial blogosphere.

Remember, though, if you submit a post, you need to link to the carnival when it is posted because that’s the only way this thing really works. So go ahead and

Submit posts to the next edition of the Carnival of Martial Arts.

You can also check out past editions of the Carnival of Martial Arts via the submission link above or by clicking on the “Carnival of Martial Arts” tag below.

Please note that the downloads are optimized for printing, rather than reading online, but it should still be a good experience. I don’t know offhand how some of the current ebook readers will handle the more graphics-intensive downloads, but if it’s a problem, print it out on a good printer and you’ll have a nice read.

I had originally hoped that the sale of reprints would subsidize the purchase of future rare books to reprint in turn, but the time and cost of making a reprint compared to the miniscule return is simply not worth it.

Therefore, I cut the paperback reprints prices and enabled free downloads in order to better disseminate this information, which was the goal to begin with.

Click here or on the reprints tab at the top of the page to see all available titles.

Lundin arrived in the U.S. in 1893 and was touring as a strongman by 1894. For decades following, he toured the U.S. and other countries as an exceptional wrestler. Lundin documents his associations with the most famous wrestlers of his time, such as Farmer Burns, Frank Gotch, Mitsuyo Maeda (Konde Koma), Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Tom Jenkins, George Hackenschmidt, Jim Londos, and many others.

Lundin describes the differences between the “shooting” matches and the “works” that came later. He tells who could wrestle and who couldn’t, and discusses everyone from Olympians to those who made their living purely as entertainers in the rasslin’ ring.

Included is Lundin’s account of his defeat of Mitsuyo Maeda, the man responsible for Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Unfortunately, the cover photo renders poorly on the sale site, but it actually looks fine, more like is seen here.

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Q - What is Bartitsu?

A - An eclectic martial art founded in the late 19th century by E.W. Barton-Wright. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu for the basics, http://www.bartitsu.org for a more thorough summary and buy the Bartitsu Compendium for the whole story. The Bartitsu Forum message archives, Files and Photos sections are also full of information and the best place to get involved.

Q - What is the Bartitsu Society?

A - An informal, international community of Bartitsu enthusiasts who communicate via this email list. Since 2002 we have been active in the research and restoration of Barton-Wright’s “New Art of Self Defence”. Our major project to date has been the publication of the Bartitsu Compendium in 2005 and our major interests include:

* the early history of European jiujitsu

* the eclectic Japanese/European self defence methods developed between 1899 and the early 1920s, and the lives of their founders and practitioners

* street gangsterism, the suffragette movement, “physical culture” exercise programmes and other Victorian and Edwardian-era social phenomena, as related to the martial arts

Q - What is the difference between canonical Bartitsu and neo-Bartitsu?

A - Canonical Bartitsu refers to “Bartitsu as we know it was”; the specific self defence techniques and sequences demonstrated by E.W. Barton-Wright and his colleagues between 1899-1904. Today, canonical Bartitsu is practiced as a mark of respect for Barton-Wright and as a form of living history martial arts training. It also serves as a common technical and tactical “language” amongst contemporary Bartitsuka.

Neo-Bartitsu refers to “Bartitsu as it might have been” and to “Bartitsu as it can be today”; to modern, individualised interpretations of the art, potentially including sport, self defence and performance applications. We are currently developing the second volume of the Bartitsu Compendium to provide resources towards neo-Bartitsu. In any case, we hope that neo-Bartitsu forms will hold to the spirit and feel of the c1900 methods.

Q - What is the Barton-Wright memorial project?

A - E.W. Barton-Wright died penniless in 1951, and was buried in a “pauper’s grave” in Kingston Cemetery, Surrey, England. In 2006, Bartitsu Forum member Phil Giles discovered the exact location of B-W’s grave-site. All proceeds from sales of the Compendium and Kirk Lawson’s Bartitsu DVD have been dedicated to creating a suitable memorial for B-W as a pioneering martial arts innovator. We have nearly reached our target figure!

Q - How can I get involved?

A - Easy! Post your questions, ideas and comments to the Bartitsu Forum (and by all means, an introductory post will be welcome). The Forum is an active and notably positive venue for communication on all matters Bartitsuvian.

You don’t have to be blogger join in the discussions on the forum, though, so check out some of the discussions and see if it’s the kind of place you’d like to throw in your two cents. I’d especially like to thank Dojo Rat, Nathan at TDA Training, and BCP at Striking Thoughts for giving a shout out.

It doesn’t scale down to this size really crisply, but you get the idea. The goal was to keep the original look and feel, but clean it up and draw the colors out some, which was painstaking, but worked. In fact, the original cover was so dark and dim that I had always thought the red was just a banner flowing through the text. It wasn’t until I started cleaning it up that I realized it was an arm!

Anyway, if everything goes right, we could be looking at having this ready in a week or two.

I am pleased to welcome you to the first edition of the Carnival of Martial Arts. To avoid playing favorites, the submissions below are presented in the order of receipt. (more…)

Hopefully this carnival will allow readers (and bloggers!) to discover new blogs they might enjoy. Be sure to submit an entry to be one of those discovered blogs. The first carnival (edition 1) will be published here on July 23, 2007, and the submissions deadline is July 21, 2007. Any bloggers looking to host future editions are welcome to contact me.

Carnivale has long been associated with martial arts, so I hope the Carnival of Martial Arts will be a success for all involved.

Submission Form

First on the list will be the earliest English-language source for Kodokan judo, Jiu-Jitsu or Jiu-do: Selection from Kodokwan Method by K. Yamanaka, published in 1918. Not only groundbreaking, but one that is still relevant to judo today (that is, if you take out the leglocks and other techniques it lists that are banned in today’s competition judo!)

Until then, content will be added below for your enjoyment, so