I post the new thread because I am interested in how long people think that it should take to get to black belt. I read on this site the other day that it took Peter King only 4 years to go from 5th Kyu to 5th Dan. I find that amazingly quick, especially when we see how long it takes to reach that grade if one was doing Aikido, Judo, Karate etc.
I know when Tanemura Sensei broke away from Hatsumi Sensei the first thing he did was put together a grading curriculum in book form, and I found as a student of the Genbukan that this was a fantastic help for my students and myself as a teacher.
Tanemura Sensei also had very strict guidelines for achieving each grade and one could not just turn up on seminar and gain your next dan.
I know I failed gradings under Tanemura Sensei, because I was not good enough. And I respect him for having the courage for doing this. I think that sometimes it is very hard to say to your students "Sorry but you failed your grade". These people are often friends, and if you are teaching martial arts for a living, its quite possible your students may leave.
I believ that Manaka Sensei also has a strict grading sylabus.
I know according to the TO-SHIN DO manual that training twice a week takes 4 years to reach Shodan. In the manual, which was sent to me to teach my students by An-Shu Hayes, the manual actually lays out exactly what each student should be learning week by week and what things they should know. This means that all students wearing say a yellow belt are all equal in skill and knowledge.
it seems to me that belts are given out so freely in the Bujinkan, and therefore does this then mean that people of the same rank may be totally different in skill.
Peter King is now 15th Dan, yet is he as good as Doron Navon, or Stephen Hayes who were training in the early days.
I know there will be many people rushing to defend the Bujinkan, but I ask this question purely to find out what people think. I appreciate that Hatsumi Sensei has a unique way of teaching his students, but would students of the bujinkan prefer a grading sylabus laid out by Dr Hatsumi stating what is needed for each grade or is the Ten Chi Jin Ryaku No Maki enough. Of which I have heard there are at least 3 versions.