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."

Comments

wow, ninjas

[joe 155]

"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. :)

Students?

[daeg]

Sure, he can beat his students, but what about pirates?

Re:Know what Really Pisses Me Off?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Look at the quotes in the article, it's meaningless blabber.

He who does not listen, does not hear.

Re:Ninja is replaced by Sniper

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

To the death

[Mashei]

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.

Some insight

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Some insight

[Serzen]

Also size and weight matter no matter what people tell you. If you are going up against someone 100lbs heavier than you with an equivalent skill level you will probably lose. These are just the facts. Anyone who does serious sparring against resisting opponents knows this.

I've two very good friends who are into the Bujinkan, a husband and wife team. He just recently was awarded the right to teach, and has opened a school where he is co-instructor with a much more senior member, one who has taken the "sword test" referred to in TFA. She, on the other hand, is a relative novice, and is lucky, on a good day, to measure in at 5'3".

At a demonstration I sponsored in June, she was able to show quite convincingly how a very small woman is able to take down, bind and otherwise incapacitate an assailant a foot taller, and several tens of pounds heavier. The assailant in this case was a student of classical Okinawan karate with an aproximately equal skill level. Her husband did the same on a man, again, markedly out massing him, who is well trained in akido and Shindo-muso-mu (I might be spelling that wrong).

SIZE is not the determining factor. TECHNIQUE is. Regardless of how well your opponent resists, it is, simply put, child's play to defeat an opponent, even one of equal or greater skill, if you adhere to basic principles of technique. I can say from long experience that the victory goes not to the best trained, but to the one who fails to make mistakes.

To think that a 76 year old man is going around throwing around guys half his age with ease is silly. They're either cooperative opponents or so incredibly untrained they may as well be cooperative.

To make such judgements without knowing the facts is silly. You talk about serious sparring, but if you're willing to make outrageous statements like this, I highly doubt that you take what you are doing that seriously.

Re:Some insight

[OnanTheBarbarian]

I've trained with Ninjutsu guys and with Mixed Martial Artists and Brazillian Juijutsu practioners. I have to agree with the grandparent poster - if a tiny guy half your size is throwing you around, you aren't much of a fighter.

I think the stories about Hatsumi aren't complete rubbish. But there is a bit of a difference between some exceptionally skilled tiny guy surprising a 250lb Marine (who may have very little experience with any kind of serious standup grappling) and the same guy getting onto a mat or ring with a Judoka, BJJ or MMA fighter, collegiate wrestler, and so on - even a more reasonably-sized one. What's more to the point is that the exceptional skill level of someone like Hatsumi or the founder of Aikido (O-Sensei - I couldn't spell his name to save my life) might be rather moot as compared to the skill levels in the people that they can _teach_ in a reasonable amount of time.

That is, most people I've met who had pure Ninjutsu or Aikido or any of the 'tricky' arts just really couldn't carry off their techniques against a half-decent, remotely resisting opponent. They could carry out their techniques well in the dojo against each other, but were obviously very well programmed to avoid doing the 'wrong thing' as an attacker. I think, ultimately, after 10 or 20 years these guys might be able to execute perfectly timed throws and joint-locks against attackers that aren't carrying out well-telegraphed, linear, predictable attacks, but I'm being generous here, as I've never met a practioner from those arts who could handle themselves well in this situation who didn't have extensive cross-training in some other art.

On the other hand, I've never run into anyone who had studied Judo, BJJ, boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, etc. for any length of time, who couldn't carry out the techniques that they knew very well against an opponent who really wasn't 'letting them hit/throw/tap them'. Obviously, many of these people have weaknesses (the boxers don't get a miraculous defense against getting taken down), and some of the techniques might be sloppy. But a wrestler who misses the double leg takedown has plenty of alternatives (and is used to using them), and the boxer who misses with the jab is pretty used to that and has another one on the way in about a quarter second, but the aikido or ninjutsu person who misses the 'graceful, deadly throw or strike' ususually winds up pretty flummoxed.

If you're depending on brilliantly misdirecting the energy of a cloddish 250lb puncher into a graceful throw, but find that instead the cloddish 250lb puncher managed to fake a one-two or whip a foot inside your ankle during the procedure, the science tends to break down. Now you're suddenly brawling with someone twice your size - a moment in which many of these reedy little guys start to wish that they'd spent a little more time in the weight room.

By the way, beating most traditional Karate guys is not exactly rocket science, as they tend to be very fast and strong, but exceptionally predictable, linear and quite vulnerable to grappling.

I don't buy the whole 'UFC = reality' argument, but it's a lot more real than most of the proofs that traditionalists presented before the UFC. It's interesting to note that the traditionalists tended to make arguments that they'd totally destroy their opponents in any UFC-type fight right up to the point that they had the chance to prove it, and decided later that their art was all about

(a) not fighting on thin mats,
(b) deadly eye pokes and throat strikes,
(c) surprise and/or fighting in street clothes, or
(d) spiritual stuff after all.

Re:Ninja is replaced by Sniper

[CHESTER COPPERPOT]

"it's just an art of assassination."

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.

Re:Ninja is replaced by Sniper

[SquadBoy]

Yes?

And your point is?

You *do* understand that those are all good things, right?

But what would really suck...

[RoffleTheWaffle]

... is a ninja -with- a long range rifle. Or worse yet, a whole pirate ship full of them.

Pirate sniper ninjas. Think about it.

Re:Ninja is replaced by Sniper

[MBGMorden]

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.

Expanding on this a bit...

[einhverfr]

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.

Re:Purple prose

[gstoddart]

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.

First of all, the guy writing the article admits he's no martial artist and is somewhat starry eyed.

Second of all, it doesn't sound all that far fetched. If they're really training with real bladed weapons (not for the novice), that could be exactly what happened. I've seen demonstrations by some old (and old-school) martial artists which aren't that far from this.

Some little, tiny, old asian man tells two strapping young black-belts to come at him with wooden swords -- in a shockingly short period of time, both young hearty blackbelts are staring up at the ceiling wondering how they could have done things differently.

A friend was at a martial-arts film festival in Toronto, and they pulled him up on stage for a demonstration. A 60-year old man who had been in a bunch of films said "come at me" -- several witnesses confirm in slightly less than 1 second, my friend was spun around, *lightly* struck on the head, *gently* thumped to the floor, and placed into rather painful an arm bar -- by a man who was both amazingly fast, and very dilligent about not breaking the volunteer. He applied just enough pressure to demonstrate he could have done more, but didn't even leave him with a bump, bruise, or any lasting pain.

I don't remember the exact set of near-beatings which were applied, but the speed was something to behold. My friend assures me he doesn't really know what the heck happened -- just that the arm-bar was enough to assure him the guy applying it could have broken his arm has he chosen -- the only thing he knows is it was all over before he was sure it was ready to begin.

Seriously, if this guy has been doing this quite so long -- dodging a sword, taking it from you, and twisting your arm into an uncomfortable position isn't exactly a stretch to believe.

Don't believe me? Walk into an Aikido dojo and ask for a demonstration. You might see things in a different light. A modern master is amazing -- an old school master from the last of the REAL old school masters -- something utterly amazing to behold. Especially the ones who use things with sharp edges and the like.

As schamltzy as the reputation of martial arts is in film, and as much as you don't like the prose in the article, you should be aware of the fact that anyone who has been doing martial arts for *that* long is probably an exceedingly quick sonofabitch. And, chances are, when a bunch of young guys travel from all over the world to train with you, you're probably pretty amazing.

Cheers

Comments from yet another Booj'

[hkb]

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).

Re:Ninjas? Pirates? Meh!

[Nexx]

Uh, no.

During the Sengoku period, during which the separation of Samurai as a class happened, the Ninja were reviled as those who killed without showing their face in battle. They were most certainly not Samurai, but were a class of ashigaru, which were essentially a class below samurai. They were allowed the longsword and surnames, but as a class of footmen, they ranked below the samurai.

Contrary to your belief, everyone was allowed a "weapon", but only the samurai were allowed the long sword. The Chonin (commoners) were only allowed the wakizashi.

There were no kings in Japan. Only the emperor, shogun (when appropriate), and various daimyo. Also, the samurai were not of the police force; those duties were carried out by members recruited from the chonin class, supervised by a machibugyo, who is more of a "civilian" overseer than a member of the forces.

The samurai class were definitely in politics, as they were members of the ruling class, but usually only the highest houses were politically active.