I'm sure many people here know about Bartitsu, the "English MMA" from the early 20th Century (www.bartitsu.org if you haven't!)
I've seen a fair number of videos of Bartitsu players, and I can see a number of parallels between English fisticuffs and karate, specifically naihanchi and Choki Motobu.
Barton-Wright was teaching martial arts at the turn of the century, maybe a little early for the pinan katas, but certainly in Itosu's time. I wonder what BW would have thought of karate if it was more widespread back then? I think he would have approved, and I would not be surprised if he incorporated naihanchi, or even the pinans into his training.
Just imagine... standard attire for dojo training today might well be collar and tie and a rather fetching bowler hat!
(By the way, that walking stick work looks like great fun).
On a more serious note, BW was very pragmatic and much of what he taught (essentially old style boxing, jujutsu, savate and stickfighting) doesn't look a million miles away from what we do today.
so true. I'm extremely interested in the walking stick ethics, similar to Les Cannes from France which is a part of Le Savate
Yes he incorporate La Canne Vigny - Pierre Vigny being a Frenchman (or whas he Swiss?)