Styles from Ninjutsu

[bushido_man96]

Thanks!

 

I was just thinking about how the Okinawan fisherman went to China and learned their martial arts and formed To-te and then changed into the 3 main styles of that era Naha-te, Shuri-te, and Temari-te, which then got changed by the practitioners to all these other styles. This is just the history as I was taught.

 

I guess what I really wanted to know was how Ninjutsu came to be. I'm not learning it, I'm just interested in it. I'll probably do it sometime. It looks too cool not to.

I don't think that Okinawan MAs came from China. They may have Chinese influence, but to assume that Okinawan fisherman learned Chinese arts, and that formed the roots of the Okinawan styles, I think is off. Okinawans had a system of their own, and they probably were influenced some by China.

[Chikara]

Sorry I'm being so confusing. I just don't know what order to put this thing in. I mean, which came first? Ninjutsu or the other styles or both at the same time? Ok, I think I came up with a better way. Does Ninjutsu employ all styles of Japanese/Okinawan martial arts? Or just a select few?

P.S. I was asleep when I posted the last msg. I'm no good at communicating late at night.

[Chikara]

Okinawans had trade routes with China. There's one in particular that I'm having trouble remembering the name to. There was one named Kusanku (means diplomat in Japanese), who went to China and learned martial arts and brought it back. Yes, I know the Okinawans came up with Kobudo, farming weapon martial art.

But, as I said, this is what my sensei told me. I'm too busy to research at the moment, but I will later.

[bushido_man96]

Does Ninjutsu employ all styles of Japanese/Okinawan martial arts? Or just a select few?

Looking at Ninjitsu in this way is not really the most efficient path to take. What you want to look at is what Ninjistu would have incorporated as far as tactics went for the weapons and empty hand fighting techniques. So, you would be looking more at a skill set much like what the Samurai would have used, except possibly not as extensive, because the Ninja was not a battlefield unit. So, they would have had a system to train in swordsmanship, along with their ranged weapons of choice. As for their fighting styles, they would probably have been very focused in hand strikes and attacks used for stealth, like from behind to attack the neck/throat, but most of the times, smaller arms like daggers or dirks would have been used in accordance with these.

[Chikara]

The reason I asked was because there are people who believe that the original Ninjutsu is lost completely, and others believe it was broken down and alive and booming today.

[bushido_man96]

There are many who think the original is lost. It may well be, too. I don't really know too much about it, so I can't comment for certain.

[Chikara]

Oh well, it's still an awesome style anyway. I think their best attribute is that they can pick up anything of any shape to use as a weapon. Also, they were the 007's of feudal Japan! How cool is that!

[TheArtofDave]

I would also think that deception would achieve them in their missions. To make one thing seem as it if was, when it was the complete opposite would be a great disadvantage to your enemy, and put you in a great position of power.

Also I remember reading an article that suggested the ninja uniform was not what we came to know it as today. It was a perpetuated marketing ploy to keep the myth alive. This interests me greatly as to see what kind of feudal uniforms they would have had.

[JusticeZero]

Gods only knows, but most likely, all or almost all of the component arts were variant lineages of classical jujutsu.

[tallgeese]

Considering their mission, I doubt they had any sort of real "uniform". More likely, they wore whatever aided in their cover identity, or allowed them to blend into the rest of the population the best.

Black clothed and masked individuals do tend to lift suspicion. Probably something they wanted to avoid.

I'd agree with Justice as well, whatever they did as far as unarmed work probably was a form of JJJ. Again, I doubt they initally had any uniform standard of unarmed training. Most likely it was whatever background training a particular individual had with formal instruction focusing mainly on esponage and stealth which was apparently their primary job description. All else was likely secondary in importance.