Where are all the Ninjas coming from?

[lgm]

My question is where are all of these “Ninjas” coming from? Is it just that the idea of a Ninja is popular so people falsely claim to be Ninjas; are people learning the concepts of Ninja and thereby becoming Ninja; are there really that many Ninjutsu schools?

Modern-day "ninjas" are believed by most as scam artists, charlatans and fakes in the martial arts world. Ninjas and their martial arts had their ulitilitarian effectiveness in feudal Japan and I believe, they have become extinct as a species of martial system, since we don't hear of any contemporary authentic ones still plying their dreaded mercenary trade in the manner of their ancient tradition in feudal Japan in our modern societies. Today, they are as alive as the knights of the Round Table or the Three Musketeers of France and gladiators of Rome, but only in the movies, TV, pocketbooks and in cartoons. They are now a thing of our historic past.

Gene

[White Warlock]

Ninjas and their martial arts had their ulitilitarian effectiveness in feudal Japan and I believe, they have become extinct as a species of martial system, since we don't hear of any contemporary authentic ones still plying their dreaded mercenary trade in the manner of their ancient tradition in feudal Japan in our modern societies. Today, they are as alive as the knights of the Round Table or the Three Musketeers of France and gladiators of Rome, but only in the movies, TV, pocketbooks and in cartoons. They are now a thing of our historic past.

There are still those maintaining the studies, for tradition's sake. Japan has a government project to maintain the crafts (tea ceremony, pottery, martial arts, etc), in which they provide financial assistance to those groups, or individuals, who do so. I believe there are two ninjutsu schools that obtain such assistance, being they are able to present lineage and focus on 'traditional,' as opposed to modern. One of them, if i recall, is the Togakure Ryu, through Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi (officially recognized as a living national treasure). The other, i don't remember the name of and, indeed, i am not sure if there are any others.

[y2_sub]

It's a good thing to know that Japan is maintaining it's traditions , however , even though if they train in the traditional ways of ninjas -which I believe they don't- ninjutsu is impractical anymore , I mean , why sneak attacking someone when you can use a sniper rifle ??

[Willannem]

You still have to sneak to get into position to fire that rifle.

In feudal times, ninjas didn't go around claiming to be ninjas. It's funny how ninjas are coming out the closet, now.

Edited October 4, 2005 by Willannem

[Anbu Alex]

Ok im back first of all ninjas in fact did not go around calling themselves that. thats what the public at large called them second of all all martial arts have traditional value but people fail to realize that in the bujinkan at least stealth is applied in different way Hatsumi soke even said it himself that the art evovled with the times i mean he's a noted marks man 2. usining a sniper rifle is wwaaaaaaaay harder than you think and there are jobs where a weapon like that wouldnt work you forget that ancient japan had its own brand of snipers called ARCHERS which ninja's were historically good at 2 ninja's didnt were that all black suit in fact i read this book that said most samurai werent even that honorly they did the same gurrelia tactics ninja's did in fact most samurai were ninja or trained in the arts......i forgot wat i was going to say after that lol man it was good too

[White Warlock]

The comment you made about samurai is correct, in that they performed many surreptitious actions. Indeed, it was samurai that performed the actions which were later coined as ninjutsu. I find it difficult to communicate these points, and this usually opens up a can of worms... but you did it, so here it is.

[y2_sub]

Thx for the infos warlock

A Samurai trained as a ninja .. interresting

[lgm]

Ninjas and their martial arts had their ulitilitarian effectiveness in feudal Japan and I believe, they have become extinct as a species of martial system, since we don't hear of any contemporary authentic ones still plying their dreaded mercenary trade in the manner of their ancient tradition in feudal Japan in our modern societies. Today, they are as alive as the knights of the Round Table or the Three Musketeers of France and gladiators of Rome, but only in the movies, TV, pocketbooks and in cartoons. They are now a thing of our historic past.

There are still those maintaining the studies, for tradition's sake. Japan has a government project to maintain the crafts (tea ceremony, pottery, martial arts, etc), in which they provide financial assistance to those groups, or individuals, who do so. I believe there are two ninjutsu schools that obtain such assistance, being they are able to present lineage and focus on 'traditional,' as opposed to modern. One of them, if i recall, is the Togakure Ryu, through Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi (officially recognized as a living national treasure). The other, i don't remember the name of and, indeed, i am not sure if there are any others.

Are these two schools you mentioned actually practicing the same ninjutsu arts of old or just doing scholarly work to research and preserve a once-feared martial art of feudal Japan?

[lgm]

Ninjas and their martial arts had their ulitilitarian effectiveness in feudal Japan and I believe, they have become extinct as a species of martial system, since we don't hear of any contemporary authentic ones still plying their dreaded mercenary trade in the manner of their ancient tradition in feudal Japan in our modern societies. Today, they are as alive as the knights of the Round Table or the Three Musketeers of France and gladiators of Rome, but only in the movies, TV, pocketbooks and in cartoons. They are now a thing of our historic past.

There are still those maintaining the studies, for tradition's sake. Japan has a government project to maintain the crafts (tea ceremony, pottery, martial arts, etc), in which they provide financial assistance to those groups, or individuals, who do so. I believe there are two ninjutsu schools that obtain such assistance, being they are able to present lineage and focus on 'traditional,' as opposed to modern. One of them, if i recall, is the Togakure Ryu, through Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi (officially recognized as a living national treasure). The other, i don't remember the name of and, indeed, i am not sure if there are any others.

Are these two schools you mentioned actually practicing the same ninjutsu arts of old or just doing scholarly work to research and preserve a once-feared martial art of feudal Japan?

[fallen_milkman]

Togakure ninjusu has an almost unbroken (maybe unbroken) lineage back to the Koga and Iga clans, I believe. I highly doubt they train in exactly the same way or even the exact same things, but I wouldn't really laugh if Hatsumi or any of his pupils decided to call themselves ninja. It's all semantics anyways. Adaptation is the way of the ninja, and if they had to adapt their art, who are we to judge.

I have a thread in the Internal Arts section about a book I am reading written by a man who trained in Togakure ninpo/taijutsu (not sure of the correct term). So far so great, but I'll post up a full review when I am done with it.