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Wisdom From The Last Ninja
I Could Tell You But... writes "The AP has a story about ninjutsu master Masaaki Hatsumi, last living student of Japan's last 'fighting ninja.' He offers advice from the heart of Ninjadom, like 'always be able to kill your students,' and describes the current popular ninja image as 'pathetic.' At age 76, students are speculating on his successor, who may for the first time be non-Japanese." From the article: "As I cautiously raise the sword with a taut two-handed samurai grip, my sparring partner gingerly points to Hatsumi. I avert my eyes for a split second - and WHAM! The next thing I know, I'm staring at the rafters. Keeping your focus is just one of the lessons thumped out on the mats of the Bujinkan Dojo, a cramped school outside Tokyo that is a pilgrimage site for 100,000 worldwide followers. They revere Hatsumi as the last living master of ninjutsu - the mysterious Japanese art of war practiced by black-masked assassins of yesteryear."
"always be able to kill you students" is brilliant advice... I know I'll be taking that one to heart when I'm lecturing... that'll show them for being late/taking phone calls/ talking over me. :)
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Sure, he can beat his students, but what about pirates?
Their numbers continue to rise (according to the *AA anyway)...
. . . about Real Ultimate Power?
if you're ever curious about anything relating to ninjas and you want a straight, no bs answer, you can always ask a ninja.
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
Yeah, I'll be sure to stay prepared to kill my students. Fat programmers with aspergers can never be too careful.
When I was a young boy, I awoke every morning to the delicious smell of pancakes. My mother, and father's dojo contained within it a hot griddle perfect for making pancakes, waffles, and a multitude of other pancake-like breakfast pastries. I remember them well -- The pleasant, care-free days of my childhood in the dojo were often spent peering into the kitchen with eager anticipation as my mother prepared pancakes my family.
.. the ultimate pancake. My journey took me to the many islands of my homeland, many days away from my dojo. My hunger for pancakes became my teacher, and foolishly I let it control the path that I walked upon. My feet, sore from travel, ached as my heart and stomach did, until I came to a realization. My duty was clear. I needed to take a stand and accept my love for the art of the ninja AND my love for pancakes. It was not wrong for me to love both. I love one as a dear friend, and one as a lover. Yes--My mission was clear--I must become a ninja, a secret assassin hired by the imperial family BUT I MUST ALSO ENJOY THE OCCASIONAL PANCAKE.
As I grew older, and began my journey to spiritual enlightenment, the memories of my pancake-eating youth filled my heart and dreams with warm, fluffy goodness....Ahhh, yes..the sweet, sweet memories... The day I ate 10 pancakes... The day I placed a warm pancake between my fleshy loins and performed the forbidden dance... The day pressed a pancake to my buttocks and encouraged my dog to come eat.. Indeed, much of my childhood was spent in pure innocence -- An innocence only pancakes can provide. It was heaven. A heaven, filled with pancakes, where I sat at the throne of God, with my hand-maidens Aunt Jemimah and Mrs. Butterworth seated beside me. An indestructible triumvirate made of flour, eggs, sugar, milk, water, and love.
By the age of 15, the path of my life became unclear and confusing. Torn between my duty my village and my love for pancakes, I foolishly left home in search of karaguchi ah-nowakadesu
My adoration for breakfast cakes has placed me within an awkward position. Many ninja refuse to recognize me as their brother. I defend my father's land, but I am looked upon as weak and undisciplined. I tell them, "But, brothers! Listen to my plea! The pancakes do not weaken me, nor do they make me disobey the rule of my sword. They fill me with love." But alas, they do not understand...For the mind of a ninja is complex.
My only earthly desire is to be accepted for who I am. Yes, I am a NINJA--But I also enjoy pancakes. Will you accept me? If you were approached by a ninja who requested a pancake, would you submit to his will?
Look at the quotes in the article, it's meaningless blabber.
He who does not listen, does not hear.
May the Maths Be with you!
Everything you ever wanted to know about ninjas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLWGgul_mZU
OK, you're right. Sniper rifles aren't very good in close combat unless your opponent is agreeable to the propostion of meeting you under a street light by the railroad near Queens Blvd. and 74th Street intersection, wearing a red coat with a green hat.
Anyone can kill with a gun. % year old, to 100 year old . Plus the farther the range the more detationed from the kill.
It takes a real man to drive a sword into somebody.
By man, I mean psycho.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Ninja is actually the art of bullshit. Seriously, the stories surrounding 'ninja' were part of the edge the ninja had. Talk up a good story, and no one will mess with you. Misdirection and cheap shots under the auspices of "quickest kill" led to its current incarnation.
"Anybody who tells me I can't use a program because it's not open source, go suck on rms. I'm not interested." (LT 2004)
Chuck Norris will be chosen as successor.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Exactly what I was thinking. While I think ninja's are totally awesome like every other mammal on the planet, I think we all agree that not all nerds are also mammals.....
Oh, god damn it. I just had a terrible vision of RMS in skin-tight ninja gear carrying out an assasination mission in Redmond. I think my only option is to commit seppuku at this point.
Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
While any monkey can use a firearm, it will not protect you against a trained assassin that observes your movements and launches a suprise attack.
Getting shot without knowing where the fuck it came from sounds pretty surprising to me...
smoke screens are known anti-sniper tactics.
So is an umbrella... Hence the birth of Smart Bomb.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Did anyone else see the occasional italicized letter in that? I'm a lazy bastard or else I would go find them all and whip out my own smithy code decrypting skillz.
total classic
If killing is your only goal, then yes, a sniper rifle is just as good, and requires less training. However, suppose your goal is to kill the target, and then take his briefcase full of secrets. Shooting him from 500 yards will just cause attention to swarm around the target and you'll never get those missle silo sites. There's where you need a ninja to sneak in, dispatch with the bodyguard, slit the target's throat, slice off his hand above the wrist to get rid of the handcuff connecting the target to the breifcase, and then disapear into the night.
"Timing is the most difficult," he adds, while casually deflecting a gleaming metal sword swung at his neck by a veteran student. After the turning the blade on the attacker, Hatsumi gives his arm a slight twist, eliciting a baleful yelp.
I really despise prose like this in newspaper articles. I find it hard to believe that that is an exact account of what happened, so it just destroys the article's credibility and makes it seem like the writer is just trying to write a third rate action novel.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
Hatsumi is the only living student of the last "fighting ninja," Toshitsugu Takamatsu, the so-called 33rd Grand Master who was a bodyguard to officials in Japanese-occupied Manchuria before World War II and fought - and won - 12 fights to the death.
...Rumors of Takamatsu's death still abound to this day, but scholars estimate it occurred sometime after, but before the end of, his thirteenth fight to the death.
I have studied under Hatsumi, years ago. Before a lot of the current 'purpose built' combatives were created for military and govt. use, he and his instructors would train select U.S. govt. and military personnel.
Someone mentioned that "ninjitsu is the art of assassination". An inaccurate statement.
Ninpo Taijitsu (a very rough translation would be ninja combat), as taught under the Bujinkan, consists of several different schools. Stealth, sword combat, locking/holding/throwing, striking, etc. are some examples of the different schools, each with their own head instructor.
There is a famous story from the '50s (?, maybe '60s) where the Japanese National Judo Champion (at the time he was also the world champion) essentially 'called out' Hatsumi and ninpo taijitsu as a 'fraud'. Said champion was invited to face off with Hatsumi. Hatsumi proved he was no fraud, and shortly thereafter the Judo champion became one of the senior instructors at the 'judo' school of the Bujinkan.
Hatsumi is the real deal. I've seen him run along the top of chain link fences. At one seminar, a 250+ lb. Marine spoke up and said "Ok I know you're good, but really...in combat - what are you going to do to me?". Hatsumi sqared off with the Marine, and had him on the ground and incapacitated very rapidly. No ego, no bravado - just a teacher who understands that you must be able to demonstrate that what you teach will work for real.
Hatsumis instructor, Takamatsu, was (for lack of a better term) a real life 'ninja'. He was an agent/assassin/etc. for hire that worked for various warlords in the late 1800s.
Do some searches on Hatsumi and Takamatsu - I believe you guys will find some very interesting reading.
Sadly, when Hatsumi leaves us the Bujinkan will probably never be seen again in its current form, with one true Master overseeing all of the various schools that comprise Ninpo Taijitsu. It will truly be the end of an era.
Regards,
Former (novice) student of the Bujinkan
It's actually the art of stealth and endurance. Nin can mean concealment, sneaking in or endurance. While jutsu is technique. While much of Ninjitsu will be covered by crazy myth of ninjas leaping from trees etc. the essence of the concept still stands: It's a highly specialized form of danger avoidance in warfare for evading the enemy. Basically Ninjas are form of individual Maneuver warfare.
The concept itself is thought to have come from the Chinese assassins in the warring states period - the Moshuh Nanren. It's also said that the concept is also based on Sun Tzu's chapter on spies. Where spies also being translated as "gap men" (k'ai ho) or those that sneak through the enemies gaps (avoiding strengths like in maneuver warfare).
The most interesting aspects of this Asian thought is the cultural influence it has had on Asian warfighting. If you read some of the history of Japanese tactical patrolling in World War 2 you'll find some pretty deceptive patrolling techniques that were based off Ninjitsu training. A military author called H. John Poole has written about this. It's thought that the concept of stealth, assassination and danger avoidance travelled along the silk route to places like Vietnam and Indonesia. In the Vietnam war the VietCong used to train in similar ninja-like techniques in stealth walking, sensory enhancement and so on.
The best modern example is in the Indonesian military where they have a subset of the special forces (KOPASSUS) called Gadapaksi. They are also known as the "ninjas" as they specialize in night time assassinations and abductions. If you read any of the literature on the East Timorese or even the West Papuans the Gadapaksi are mentioned as terrorizing the local populace.
I've always thought that the whole base concept of the Ninja is brilliant. Pretty useful across a whole domain of study. Could be used from warfighting to black hat hacking.
Yes?
And your point is?
You *do* understand that those are all good things, right?
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
... is a ninja -with- a long range rifle. Or worse yet, a whole pirate ship full of them.
Pirate sniper ninjas. Think about it.
While any monkey can use a firearm,
Firearms are one of things that are easy to learn, but very difficult to master. When doing long range shooting, you don't just casually place crosshairs and pull trigger. You spend time practicing. Learning your weapon. You handload your bullets (and art in it's own right) to exacting tolerances and test out multiple powder types and charge levels to get the best grouping you can from your gun. When taking a long shot, you must have a bullet-drop table (or a good idea of it) and adjust your hold over depending on the yardage. At ranges of a few hundred yards, the slightest of movement will appear as a huge "bouncing" of the crosshairs. Most people train to exhale before aiming and not take another breath until the shot is taken (minimizes movement). Most people also practice dry firing just as much as live ammo, to notice and try to minimize "flinch", which is basically an anticipation of the recoil and an attempt to brace the rifle right before firing (it's slight, but can make a big difference).
Yes "any monkey" can pull a trigger, but becoming an accomplished long range shooter takes a lot of time and effort.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
It is sad to see an art form like this die out. It's a little like seeing a species without a purpose die out. Sure it's a dinosaur, but it's still interesting to study and learn about.
If I were him, I, too, would probably lament the popular images of ninjas. Hollywood has definitely bastardized it, and disgraced the legend of the ninja.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Yeah, Ninjas are cool, Ninjas are mysterious, but face it: They're outdated. As outdated as the record industry, but they have a worse lobby.
While fighting as a sport, or for close combat, will continue to exist and has its right to exist, the art of sneaky assassination is no longer a business. If you want someone dead, hire a hitman. Easier to train, more numerous, thus cheaper.
It's simply a matter of technology. It's really no longer feasible to have a person get close to your target and have him strike there. Surveillance equipment makes it virtually impossible to get him close enough. Sneaky and stealthy or not, it's hard to beat a good surveillance system. Whatever you do, a heat or movement sensor will catch you.
Getting close enough to your target is also no longer as possible as it was. Bodyguards are well equipped. Communication is by far superior than it was 100 years ago. And to get into a bulletproof car, you also need more than just a can opener.
It's over. Killing is no longer really an artform. Everyone can do it. Just pull the trigger.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I was hanging out one night with some friends, talking about nothing in particular, and somehow I was on the topic of possible secret government hybrid projects. I mentioned they could create real life freak mutant turtles, four of them. One of the guys there said they wouldn't be freaks, our generation would worship them as demigods. I look back on my pop culture obsessed generation and realize, my god, we really would worship four half-man, half-mutant turtles as demigods.
"Sufferin' succotash."
The other month I watched this series of documentaries where a single samurai repeatedly took on dozens of ninjas at once, winning every time!
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Every time some asian (or navtive american) says something whisy washy, a sizable group of people think it's wisdom. Look at the quotes in the article, it's meaningless blabber. "Asian say wishwash, people hear wisdom." There, now people will listen to you.
I would like to expand on this a bit.
Even handguns are next to useless in sufficiently close quarters. Yes, you can hit someone with them, but even there, their weight makes them slow. If oyu are trained for unarmed combat, the only weapons really worth a darn in close combat (less than about 8 feet) is a knife of a good club. And even the club is often not a match for a bare hand (esp if the barer is untrained).
In any case, training in close combat is well worth what is put into it many times over.
Note that even with all the technology available today, unarmed combat is still taught to all our soldiers, and ninja-like skills are even taught to some of our special forces. The reason is that there is nothing more important than troops on the ground.
Finally, suppose you are in an area you are not allowed to carry weapons and need to defend yourself. Unarmed combat training is worth its weight, as is training in improvised weaponry.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
"Movie-style ninja, BTW, have a much longer history than the movies (although the term "ninja" does not appear to have been popularized until the 20th century). Ninja shows, ninja houses (sort of like American "haunted houses" at carnivals), and ninja novels and stories were popular by the middle of the Tokugawa period. The "ninja" performers may have created the genre completely out of whole cloth, or they may have built on genuine lore derived from old spymasters. Either way, however, it's clear that much of the lore underlying both modern ninja movies and modern ninja schools has both a long history AND little basis in reality outside the theatre."
"I used to tell students that the question of ninja was, from a historian's standpoint, still somewhat open. I think I'm going to take a much stronger line from now on, and point out that there are no historically credible claims supporting the historicity of a tradition which somehow concludes with modern schools of ninjustsu."
Somewhat related is this post makes the argument that the supposedly ancient history of karate (and possibly other martial arts) was manufactured in the 19th century for political reasons related to the colonization of Okinawa by the Japanese.
"It's Dot Com!"
A few weeks of generic military rifle training will teach anyone all they need to know to use a rifle effectively. The US Army does a pretty effective job teaching rifle skills in basic training
The mere fact that you would say that shows that you have absolutely, positively, no idea what you're talking about. Basic is going to (hopefully) teach you how to NOT shoot yourself when handed a gun. Anything more than that is going to come later in training, and only if you wind up in a specialization that requires that ability.
Could I hit a target every time at 1000 yards? Probably not. You solve that problem by making sure you have more than one round at your disposal. You don't need to hit a target with every shot as long as you have a full clip. Three-round groups don't hurt too much either.
Well, if the target were twenty feet wide, and conditions were right, you might be able to pull it off. Maybe. But a thousand yards is an awfully long ways out there. Most civilian ranges don't go out that far. Also, the M-16 rifle is loaded using "magazines" not "clips". Oh, and if you'd ever had any real training you'd know WHY a three-round burst would be virtually useless against a target at a thousand. Hint: it's called muzzle rise.
Honestly, grandparent said everything that needs to be said about long-distance marksmanship. Parent is a cocky grunt that never had any real training with a precision rifle. Anyone who would brag about making Expert with an M-16 in the Army, in regards to long distance shooting, is proclaiming to the world they have no idea what they're talking about.
A few weeks of generic military rifle training will teach anyone all they need to know to use a rifle effectively. The US Army does a pretty effective job teaching rifle skills in basic training. I had never handled anything other than a b-b gun as a kid, and by the time rifle training was done in basic, I qualified expert with the M-16.
Could I hit a target every time at 1000 yards? Probably not. You solve that problem by making sure you have more than one round at your disposal. You don't need to hit a target with every shot as long as you have a full clip. Three-round groups don't hurt too much either.
This is known as spray and pray. Fairly effective at about 20 m almost a lottery at 50m and hopelessly outgunned against a marksman of any calibur at 100m. The longest snipe was 2,430m by Master Corporal Arron Perry of the Canadian armed forces on a moving target (a moving target as well). At that range regaurdless of the rifle you use you will be pwned by a trained sniper and snipers aren't easily trained.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Man with hand in pocket, feel cocky all day...
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Chuck Norris is the reason there's only 1 ninja left - he killed the rest & he's saving the last one for a special occasion.
I'm yet another person who's Bujinkan and who has studied under soke Hatsumi.
He and ninpo taijutsu are far, far from black-clad (ok ok we're black clad) assassins of the night. Soke himself is very enlightened, cheerful, and playful. The Bujinkan has affected me a great deal spiritually boosting me and making me a better person. To see the start contrast of "ninjutsu" and actual ninpo taijutsu, try and pick up some copies of Sanmyaku, which are essentially the Bujinkan magazines full of kind and wise words.
I've also read comments here saying that his mentor, Takamatsu, was more of a ninja assassin, which is also bollocks. He was a man of his time and engaged in much life-and-death combat, but was not some evil assassin. I can only hope that the motion pictures of Takamatsu make their way into the world and everyone has a chance to see the man in motion, not just rusty old pictures.
You learn some pretty good combat and stealth techniques, but you also learn heart and peace and none of this is anything like the "ninja assassin" bullshit (which ironically, was why I first joined the Bujinkan, whoops).
This is slightly off topic but really the legands of wonder fighters have about as much reality as Crouching Tiger etc.
... Standards and Practices !
Show up in the Octagon and see who walks away. It's pretty simple. The _proven_ methods of combat are mutai, jujitsu and just plain pounding the crap out of the other guy. The Gracies with Royce Gracie as the lead dominated the early days showing Brazillian Jujitsu as the most effective combat method. As time has passed there have been advances in defense and the striker - grappler thing is much more even now.
I would like to see Hatsumi strut his stuff but it's just a myth. There have been quite a few so called amazing martial artists humiliated in short order.
PenGun
Do What Now ???
There is a documentary film about Toshitsugu Takamatsu, with Masaaki Hatsumi in it as well. It's a Japanese film, the title in English is "Takamatsu Toshitsugu, the Last Real Ninja". It's based upon a black-and-white movie filmed in the '60s that shows Takamatsu Sensei teaching Hatsumi Sensei in a park. Takamatsu Sensei demonstrates unarmed techniques and weapon techniques from the nine schools, with comments in Japanese (subtitled in English) by Hatsumi Sensei. A torrent for this film was uploaded to Secret Cinema http://www.secret-cinema.com/ a while back. It's dead now, but I am busily working on getting it back up again, so if you're interested check Secret Cinema for it in the next few days.
The longest snipe was 2,430m by Master Corporal Arron Perry of the Canadian armed forces on a moving target (a moving target as well).
Note that, although that's an amazing feat in and of itself, it was Perry's second shot on the target. US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Carlos N. Hathcock's 2500 yard confirmed kill with a .50 caliber Browning rifle (the previous record holder) was made on the first shot.