Suffragettes+Jujutsu

=                                             = =//      Suffragettes      Jujutsu//= In November 18, 1910, in response to the Prime Minister who quashed a women’s voter bill, 300 suffragettes marched on the House of Commons. In a public relations disaster for the government, police were caught on film assaulting unarmed women attempting to march past. Militant suffragettes eventually upped the physical level of their own campaigns and smashed shop windows, burned and even bombed on occasion. Edith Garrud, wife of William Garrud, taught jujutsu to the Woman’s Social and Political Union “bodyguard” and used her school as a hideout when the heat was on from the police. William Garrud was well-known as a health and strength and self-defense instructor and owned his own gymnasium before he became associated with the Tani/Miyake school in London in the early 1900s.

Although it is unfortunately impossible to pinpoint their origin, this picture was almost certainly published in a London magazine circa 1909-1913. Between those dates, and given the presence of tatami mats on the floor, it is highly likely that it was shot in one of three locations. The first candidate would be jujitsu instructor Edith Garrud's own dojo (training hall) at 8 Argyll Place, Regent Street, which advertised classes for women and children; the second would be the Golden Square dojo that Edith and her husband William had taken over from former Bartitsu Club instructor Sadakazu Uyenishi when the latter returned to Japan circa 1908.