Q. regarding budo taijutsu, ninjutsu

[S Dunn]

Hi all,

I am new to martial arts, and swords, but have been keenly interested in learning. I have found a dojo that is not too close, but is the only one in the area that seems to teach sword based skills.

On their website it claims to teach budo taijutsu, ninjutsu and defensive tactics. Could someone who is familiar with these disciplines explain what may be taught? The only clue I have is that the website shows pictures of students performing Tameshi Giri, Iaido and practicing with bokken.

I have sent an e-mail to the dojo, but have not heard back as of yet. Any insights would be appreciated.

[Dale Seago]

You're probably aware that three of the nine ryuha subsumed under the Bujinkan "umbrella" organization are, according to our kuden or oral tradition, ninjutsu schools. A couple of others were, again according to kuden, originally Chinese combat arts which were adopted as fighting methods by "ninja" in the Iga area in the 1500s, while yet another was a samurai military system which has some elements of ninjutsu as a part of its mokuroku or curriculum. It all gets really confusing because historically most of those we would today call "ninja" were of the samurai, or hereditary military class. And the popular idea of the "ninja" as some sort of "counterculture to the samurai" is pure myth: Ninjutsu was essentially a military subspecialty dealing with intelligence and unconventional warfare.

And the term "ninja" is actually fairly modern, a more common older term being shinobi. These specialists were actually highly regarded, even for a time after the sengoku jidai or "Warring States" era -- in fact there was a regulation regarding military service from the Tokugawa government in 1649 specifying that only daimyo of 10,000 koku or more were allowed to be accompanied to war by shinobi. (A koku is a measure of the amount of rice needed to feed one man for one year.)

Even if this is a Bujinkan school you're talking about -- and it probably is, since "budo taijutsu" is a term coined by our Soke, Hatsumi sensei -- it is extremely unlikely that it is teaching actual historic ninjutsu (apart from the physical combat skills and a few other things). I do know a Japanese shihan who received a menkyo specifically in ninjutsu years ago, but for the most part that's not what Soke is teaching. Rather, what he teaches (in terms of ninja-related stuff, if you choose to accept the kuden or oral tradition) is fighting skills used by the ninja as well as teaching from a "ninja" philosophical perspective (ninpo). Part of the reason for this appears to be that historic ninjutsu skills (apart from the physical combat skills) consist largely of things like intelligence gathering/espionage, unconventional warfare, etc. (Even the Togakure ryu ninjutsu fighting methods, including its swordsmanship, are geared toward things like escaping/evading arrest or capture.) The concepts and principles of these things have not greatly changed over the centuries, but specific tradecraft has; and I believe Soke would prefer to focus on what is still directly meaningful. I mean, why learn some ancient cipher system so that a messenger you send can carry a secure clandestine note when you can use PGP or other encryption in an email which, once decrypted, is "layered" in a way which appears to be talking about something else? Why learn to make traditional metsubushi blinding powders when, here in the States at least, you can carry a little canister of pepper spray and use it in exactly the same way? I could go on and on in this vein. . .

Iaido is not part of the Bujinkan curriculum, though there are iai drawing/cutting methods in its kenjutsu. While the sword is used in most of its ryuha, the only formal sword curricula I'm aware of are those of Kukishin ryu and Togakure ryu. (Sword use comes up differently in some of the other systems, such as in the Daisho Sabakigata of Takagi Yoshin ryu: These are jujutsu methods used where one or both combatants are wearing one or both swords and would like to gain the opportunity to use either his own or the other party's weapons while keeping them from being used on him.)

Which dojo is it? The URL might help me to help you figure out what's going on. While I certainly don't know everything about these arts, I do know a fair bit: This month marks 23 years of training for me.

[Dave Drawdy]

yeow! Very interesting. That is the first time I have seen all of that information put cogently in one place, not to mention authoritatively. I think this would be a worthy entry to our FAQ (if we ever get that put together).

Thanks much,
Dave

[S Dunn]

Dale, thanks for the information! I am really new to all martial arts, so historical perspective is always appreciated. It definately is a Bujinkan dojo, as the instructors were granted their levels by Dr. Hatsumi.

I will now have to do some more reading on Bujinkan, if you have any good sites to recommend, that would be appreciated.

You asked for the URL for the dojo, not sure on the rules here for hotlinking, so;

www dot seirendojo dot com

Steve

[Dale Seago]

Aw, shucks (head lowered, tugging forelock, toe scuffing floor), thanks!

What I said above doesn't discount the idea of "ninja clans" entirely, situations where many people across a broad area would have specialized in shinobi skills; it's just that, even if rural, they actually were mostly of the samurai class (or were trained and led by samurai). This bit from Eiko Ikegami's The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan hints at the sort of thing that could have ultimately led to the "ninja counterculture" idea, as the adjoining Iga and Koga regions have been said to be the homes of most of Japan's "ninja families":

Given the complexity of late medieval class relations, it is not entirely surprising that the Warring States period witnessed the emergence of some powerful large ikki organizations that incorporated people from different social classes. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, these larger ikki organizations sometimes included both the ikki of kokujin lords (samurai in the full sense) and those of villagers (dogo and lesser farmers) when they tried to set limits to the warring provincial powers. The most famous example of this kind of comprehensive ikki is probably the ikki of Yamashiro Province. In December 1485, thirty-six kokujin lords of the Yamashiro Province and 'peasants of all the province' gathered for a meeting during which they attempted to drive out the troops of the two shugo daimyo, which had been battling over the region. The ikki demanded the immediate evacuation of all the shugo daimyo troops from the province, proclaiming the area to be self-governing. Although the leadership of the ikki was in the hands of the allied kokujin samurai lords, the so organizations of the villages throughout the province also played a critical role in sustaining it. Miura Hiroyuki once called the Yamashiro ikki 'the people's parliament of the Warring States period.' Despite its great reputation in Japanese history, the Yamashiro ikki was far from an isolated case. It is known, for example, that Iga Province in the mid-sixteenth century was governed by a federation of local so villages consisting of kokujin and dogo. The Iga federation was administered by ten magistrates, but important matters were discussed at meetings of the entire membership of the ikki.

There are further hints in Pierre Francois Souyri's The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society:

In the sixteenth century, other regional communes, although smaller in scope, managed to last for several decades. One example was Oyamato. In this small region in Ise Province, in the upper Kumozu River basin, the inhabitants signed two documents in 1494. The first, signed by 350 heads of peasant families in the villages, was a five-article constitution laying out principles concerning rural life, such as 'You must not rob from others their right to cultivate the land: you must not steal.' In the second document, written a month later, forty-six jizamurai of the Oyamato region formed a collective to ensure power in the region: 'If anyone acts badly, inside or outside Oyamato, he will be judged and sentenced.' The warriors' league seized administrative and judicial control, and its authority was based on the charter signed by the 350 peasants. The two social groups had formed a united front. Although the low-ranking warriors had their own system of cooperation, they had to respect the agreement with the peasants, without which the region's autonomy could be challenged, as it had been in the Yamashiro commune several years earlier. Oyamato, once an estate, now became an autonomous society, independent of outside hierarchical control, with a double structure: the assembly of the forty-six low-ranking warriors and the general peasant assembly. The two groups had a relationship of power and domination, but without either a suzerain or absolute power.

The regional commune in Iga Province seems to have been a sort of geographic extension of Oyamato's political and social structure. Its twelve-article constitution was written around 1560. The communities of the Iga River basin had been defending themselves since around the beginning of the sixteenth century. The neighboring region of Koga in Omi, similarly organized, had no fewer than 30 fortification works. In Iga, local power was exercised by the jizamurai, sixty-six of whom had taken vows. Entrenched in their small fortresses, they collectively administered the territory and made laws. Talks were usually held in a Buddhist temple, the Heirakuji, but the basis of the regional commune was a federation of village communes, which wrote a 'constitution.' The following are some excerpts:

"In keeping with the union sworn by the members of the league, any attempt by foreign troops to invade the province will be repelled. If an alert is signaled by the watchmen who are guarding the fortified passes, the inhabitants must sound the alarm in each village and immediately go on alert. In this case, food and arms must be contributed and the fortified positions along the routes defended without a loss of strength. Men between the ages of seventeen and fifty will be mobilized. If the campaign lasts a long time, the men will work in shifts. In each place, captains will be designated among the warriors, and the people of the communes must obey them. In the temples and monasteries in the region, the older monks will pray for the prosperity of the country while the younger monks will go to fight. The text of the vows, in which the vassals of the samurai in the communes swore to obey their master and follow him to the end, whatever the fate of the ikki, will be posted in all villages....

Those mobilized peasants --- who are particularly successful and able to seize an enemy position on the border will be rewarded with the status of samurai. Anyone who is persuaded to enter into secret relations with foreign armies and to help them penetrate the province will be arrested immediately by the league. The inheritance of the traitor in question will be confiscated, his name struck from the registers, and his property consigned to the temple. Revealing the communes' situation to the enemy is considered a similar crime, and the punishment will be the same as that as that for traitors: death with public exhibition of the head....

The affairs of Iga having been well settled, we now see fit to unite our forces with those of Koga. Therefore, common assemblies between the two parties will be held outside at the border between the two countries. Thus is it decreed and signed."

The main concerns of the leaders of the league of communes in Iga were defense and war. The province was at war with the Miyoshi and with small-scale lords in neighboring Yamato Province. In Iga, the fighting had been constant, it seems, since the late thirteenth century. In the Kuroda estate, for example, studied in detail by Ishimoda Sho, banditry was endemic, and akuto attacked the Todaiji monastery in the late Kamakura period. During the civil war of the fourteenth century, local samurai formed regional alliances (gunnai ichizoku), which were transformed into organizations that in the sixteenth century assumed all local powers. The strength of the regional commune was in the military leadership of the peasants by low-ranking warriors. Although the social difference between the former and the latter was clear, it was it was not insurmountable, for the Iga commune also promoted heroic fighters.

The Iga league of communes lasted much longer than did the one in neighboring Yamashiro Province. The reason was probably the particular configuration of the area, a mountain basin relatively distant from the major routes. Oda Nobunaga finally put an end to the league by invading the province with his troops in 1581. Despite the difficulty of conquering a population that was completely mobilized for war and had very effective guerrilla fighters, Nobunaga and his artillery crushed the 'people of Iga' with cannon fire and dismantled all their small forts. The indomitable survivors kept up a sporadic guerrilla resistance for several years, but Tokugawa Ieyasu finally was victorious when he made them specialized auxiliaries in the lower echelons of his bakufu army. The structure of the regional communes in Oyamato, Iga, and Koga was apparently both horizontal and vertical. At the local level, jizamurai and peasants were organized within the community framework of the village. These communes were linked to other, similar ones to form a federation. But the jizamurai also provided hierarchical collective control of the region as a whole. These forms of organization were reminiscent of the 'valley communities' of the Swiss Waldstetten in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The pact of 1291, considered to be the founding act of Switzerland, was a 'peace charter' among local communes to prevent outside aggression, similar to the ultimatum made by the Yamashiro rebels to the Hatakeyama armies in 1485 and the twelve-point charter of the Iga commune around 1560. Regional communes of various sizes existed for different periods of time in Kai, Omi, Settsu, Izuni, Tanba, and other provinces. The existence of these federations on the scale of a region or province kept any centralized power from controlling the provinces of central Japan.

Rather off the topic of swordsmanship per se, but I hope people will find this interesting.

[Dale Seago]

Originally Posted by S Dunn

I will now have to do some more reading on Bujinkan, if you have any good sites to recommend, that would be appreciated.

Okay, I looked at the website. It's probably not a bad place to get you started as long as you keep in mind that the instructor is a shidoshi-ho or junior grade instructor, meaning he's somewhere in the 1st through 4th dan level and teaching under the auspices of a shidoshi or licensed instructor at 5th dan or above. ("Shidoshi" is not a standard Japanese term, BTW -- it was coined by Hatsumi sensei specifically for use in the Bujinkan.)

I was worried about the Iaido photo until I read that it was from a Iaido demonstration at their dojo, which is not quite the same as saying it's a photo of one of their students or instructors.

I'm afraid you're not going to pick up much of any real value regarding the Bujinkan from websites. Better just get on in there and start training. I can recommend a few supplemental videos to you:

1) Kobudo no Kihon -- has the fundamental taijutsu kihon which everyone in the Bujinkan is expected to learn

2) Ken, Tachi, Katana -- Kukishin ryu kenjutsu waza shown applied with three types of sword used historically in Japan

3) Ninja Biken -- Togakure ryu kenjutsu fundamentals

You will NOT be able to learn these things from the videos, but they're good reference material for someone who is actually training with an instructor. you can find them at www.budomart.com

[S Dunn]

Dale, thanks again for all the information. I spoke to Jason at the dojo and will be going out to visit next wednesday. It will be very interesting as 2 students will be testing for their first level, so will give me a real idea of what I will need to accomplish. Also, the dojo's Shidoshi from the main dojo will be there to administer the test.

I found out some interesting news, in that there is someone in my town who trained at this main dojo (Kageyama Dojo), and has acheived the rank of 2nd dan. Is someone like this able to teach as well? I was curious to contact this person to see if they offer training, or at least could be used to supplement training offered at the dojo.

[Dale Seago]

Originally Posted by S Dunn

I found out some interesting news, in that there is someone in my town who trained at this main dojo (Kageyama Dojo), and has acheived the rank of 2nd dan. Is someone like this able to teach as well? I was curious to contact this person to see if they offer training, or at least could be used to supplement training offered at the dojo.

He wouldn't be able to teach in a formal sense unless he's licensed as a shidoshi-ho. Once he's at 5th dan, he ain't gotta be nobody's -ho no mo'.

On the other hand, it seems likely that he'd appreciate a local person or few he can practice with between his sessions at the dojo.

[S Dunn]

Will definately give him a call and see if he is interested in a training partner should things work out at the dojo visit. Also, I visited your bujinkansf website. I really liked the FAQ section, it clearly lays out the basics concepts.

[S Dunn]

Just thought I would provide an update. I have joined the Seiren dojo, and have begun my journey of a thousand steps! The first class was not too bad, although the muscles are somewhat sore. Spent some time working on my ichimonji stance for one kata, and have been practicing that, and counting to ten in Japanese.

Also, picked up Hatsumi sensei's book "Ninjutsu; History and Tradition" and have "Ninja, Invisible Assassins" on order.

Thanks to all for their insight and help.

Steve

[Dale Seago]

Congratulations on getting started!

The books I'd most recommend personally are these three by Hatsumi sensei from Kodansha International:

http://www.kodansha-intl.com/books/h...770028051.html

http://www.kodansha-intl.com/books/h...770029966.html

http://www.kodansha-intl.com/books/h...770021984.html

As you train, you'll keep going back to them and finding "new" things there -- even years from now.

[J.Walton]

Steve,

I also want to say congratulations on starting your training in the Bujinkan! I train in Richmond Va. at the Bujinkan Shima Dojo. Since your interested in sword work, your coming into our new theme of the year for 2007 which will be Kukishin ryu. So you'll be exposed to some sword this year coming up. Congrads again!

J.Walton

[S Dunn]

Originally Posted by J.Walton

Steve,

I also want to say congratulations on starting your training in the Bujinkan! I train in Richmond Va. at the Bujinkan Shima Dojo. Since your interested in sword work, your coming into our new theme of the year for 2007 which will be Kukishin ryu. So you'll be exposed to some sword this year coming up. Congrads again!

J.Walton

Thanks! All a bit daunting in the beginning, especially since I have never taken a MA course before. The approach within the bujinkan definately does not seem to be your typical martial art, or at least the perception that I had. Did not know that '07 will be kukishin ryu. Does this mean that this will be a focus point in the dojo's, or that there will be special seminars on this (or both)?

[Dale Seago]

Originally Posted by S Dunn

Thanks! All a bit daunting in the beginning, especially since I have never taken a MA course before. The approach within the bujinkan definately does not seem to be your typical martial art, or at least the perception that I had. Did not know that '07 will be kukishin ryu. Does this mean that this will be a focus point in the dojo's, or that there will be special seminars on this (or both)?

Likely both. Hatsumi sensei sets specific themes, Bujinkan-wide, for each year's training; so you should find Kukishin ryu being emphasized in your dojo. This year's training has centered around Shinden Fudo ryu.