About Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu, sometimes misspelt Ninjitsu in the west needs some clarification and is often misrepresented. Ninjutsu is a genuine part of what we train in in the Bujinkan and has many verifiable roots in Japanese history see, Wikipedia for a good explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjutsu
The Ninja were or are, people who train in the art of Ninjutsu.
There are today several groups of people in the UK and Europe claiming to teach Ninjutsu with very tenuous links to any real Ninjutsu. Their instructors trained a few times with Soké Hatsumi (as far as I know the only living Grandmaster of Ninjutsu schools) many years ago. This is not sufficient to understand the complicated nuances feeling and flow of Ninjutsu.
To understand Ninjutsu properly you have to understand where and how it fits in with everything including Koshijutsu, Koppojutsu and Kukan, Hatsumi has been demonstrating and teaching this and many important things in recent years.
So please be aware of these clubs and choose your teacher carefully. You may be training along time so use your time constructively and train with people who still train with Hatsumi, this is important.
Ninjutsu has developed and evolved over many hundred years and passed down to the next carefully selected person so it is important to train with the direct heir of this transmission or at least someone who trains regularly with the grandmaster.
To master ninjutsu takes many years, decades in fact, it is difficult to perceive what is and isn’t good at an early stage so spread yourself around and practice well with lots of different people and go to train in Japan if possible.
Examine what you are learning and who from, look around and train with many different people, if your instructor doesn’t want you to train at different clubs be suspicious. In the Bujinkan there is a common feeling as information flows down from Hatsumi and is disseminated in classes and at seminars, there are many good teachers around teaching genuine Ninjutsu, if you want a hand finding one then please feel free to contact us.
