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Kokin Ninpo, Old and new metheods of training
I had a student ask me at the end of class recently how past and present training methods might be different.
He then asked about what the methods might have been 300+ years ago -were they the same, or because battle was imminent in those times, were the methods for learning the art different?
I think the student raises an interesting question - do you learn the secrets of an art simply because you "lived" through it, or were the methods of passing on the knowledge similar to today?
This question strikes me as an interesting one because it sounds just like one I asked Sensei once back in Tokyo around 1994 when I was working on a graduation paper for my Philosophy of Asian Art class. I was very interested in the histories of our Bujinkan Ryu like most others in our art, but I was lucky, I was training several days a week with Soke and on the other days I met with many of the Shihan to practice the “basics”. Hatsumi Sensei answered many of my questions, either directly or indirectly. He was a great resource when it came to learning Japanese history, a true “living encyclopedia”.
I do not claim to have a photographic memory or super retention either so I will not try to say what Sensei’s answer to the above questions would be, but I can give my opinion after training with him in Japan for over a decade.
Of course any educated yet independently minded individual can reason that technique and training methods were in some ways very different, yet at the same time some things are still very much the same. Learning how to handle the weapons and commonly known strategies of the time will naturally change as technology improves but the outlook towards life, righteousness, love and the knowledge of when to act as a warrior has not. This is very much the feeling that Sensei often stresses. Many times we are training with such weapons as a Nyo-Ibo or “Nagato’s Toothpick” defending ourselves against a spear wielding adversary.
Now come on, does this seem practical from a modern standpoint?
Maybe not technically but what would be correct? Do you know how you are going to die? When you are going to die? Why you will die?
No!
So why train at all, especially if you can just be shot with a gun!
All training in a sense is unrealistic. But the training does many other things for us. We learn that we can be attacked anywhere, at anytime and for no reason. It is only with the skill of a qualified instructor that any progress can be made. This is the only way the feeling for the Godan test can be learned.
In the above-mentioned example many things are going on. If your instructor is skilled with the Yari or spear he will most likely open you up like a strainer with it before you ever lift the Nyo-Ibo up. Unless you are Nagato Shihan.
The training teaches us the dynamics to use anything as a weapon, to use kyojitsu as our strategy and follow righteousness as a motivator.
The kata of our arts are another example. If these forms have been taught to the student by an instructor who understands Sensei’s feeling and Taijutsu then they can be useful guides to start the training for the day. But still even to this day many instructors are forcing themselves in to ridiculous patterns that do not seem right. Koku is a good example. This form is the very first Kata in the beginning of the Gyokko Ryu. I am sure many of you know this form. Now how many of you ever seen it and said “Wow, Holy Sh*%!” most likely none of us. But Sensei covered it many times in my training and I was even able to pull off pieces of it in sparring matches and mixed martial arts tournaments. You can make anything work if you train right, but that is not what it is all about, it is not a sport we are practicing, this was something I had to keep in mind as I went through my “Musha Shugyo” and challenged myself in many fights, some in a ring and some out.
It was easy to learn how to fight because I always knew where my opponent would be and even better who he was. But out of the ring I learned how to survive. This is like the difference between Bujutsu and Ninjutsu.
Bujutsu or training for the battlefield is very similar to ring fighting. Numbers of men or strength, type of weapons, battlefield conditions or “arena type” all have known qualities that can be measured and calculated which in turn can be trained for.
Ninjutsu or Ninpo deals with the unknown and the unexpected.
This I had to learn from Sensei the hard way, and it always comes with a fall from grace, for everyone. You can not “train” in Ninjutsu. You learn how to survive by surviving. Not in the sense of going out into the woods with nothing but a pocketknife type of thing but how to survive life. How to develop the “FudoShin” or immoveable spirit.
In the dojo or training hall of one of our past grandmasters there was a rule, to know the wisdom of patience in times of inactivity. This is the very essence of Ninpo.
During the Edo period, a time known for it’s maintaining peace in the land and almost eliminating the art solely out of disuse, The Toda clan kept our Bujinkan traditions alive by keeping the heart of our art intact. It survived all the times of peace and through the violence of the 1st and 2nd World Wars, thanks to the grandson of the famous Iga-Ninja Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu, Takamatsu Toshitsugu. Another good example to help with our question.
Takamatsu Sensei learned the art from his Grandfather when he was only a child for a maximum of 3 to 4 years. Then Toda Sensei passed away in the arms of the young Takamatsu when he was still only 14 years old. He was the sole inheritor of the Toda family’s martial arts at only 14!!!
What could he have possibly learned in only four years and at such a young age.
I say it was the heart of our traditions. It took him many more years and many battles to become the legend he became.
Hatsumi Sensei clearly says in his book Hiden Ninja Submission on page 43;
“Dento….Dento to iite mo genzai tsutaerareteiru dento no katashiki nante, seizei hyakunen mae no mono ni sugimasen. Jidai to hito ni yotte katashiki wa ikurademo henkashiteimasu.”
“Tradition…if you can call it that, or the forms that are taught presently are at the most only 100 years old and no more. Forms or Kata change limitlessly according to the times and individuals.”
So I guess to answer the question initially asked is that some things are the same and some things are different. But that is what makes this art so great. The only thing that does not change is change itself. Shizen Gyoun Ryusui.
In my own dojo I teach many things that are not commonly seen in other Bujinkan dojos and my Taijutsu has even been called “Shootesque” and Judo-like because of my experiences in the ring fighting world. But that is the way I learned to fight with my Bujinkan Taijutsu and that is the way I will teach it. But the heart behind what I teach comes straight from Sensei. Which comes straight from Takamatsu Sensei, which comes straight from Toda Sensei and so on and so on.
Try not to look at each other as strong or weak, or skilled and unskilled. It is all an illusion and only those who like to label others are the ones who are truly misunderstanding our art, no matter what their rank is. That too is meaningless.
Sensei said at the end of the SRS video “tsuyoi kara koroserareu, yowai kara koroserareru, ma dochi ka to iiu to uun ga iikara ikirareru ga iin jyanai ka”
“You can be killed because you are strong, you can be killed because you are weak, Hhhmmm, If I had to chose one I think I’d go with You can survive because you are lucky!”
I hope this helps all beginners in understanding our art, it is a difficult one but with patience and effort it can be grasped. It is different from other arts like Karate, Aikido and Judo but if you “keep going” in time the wisdom of the Bujinkan will shine bright in your heart.
Shikin Haramitsu Daikoumyo
Sean Askew
Bujinkan Kokusai Renkoumyo
ATTACHED PHOTO FILE: Sean attending training with Hatsumi Sensei in 1986.
Sean (14 years old at the time) is in the second row sitting to the right of Stephen K. Hayes.
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