» Sat Jun 11, 2011 2:26 am
Oddly enough, I've actually been thoroughly researching this very topic for years. I don't really consider myself a fan of ninjas or Japan in general. But for some reason, I've been really interested in learning who the ninja really were, what they really did and how accurate is their image in popular culture.
There's a raging debate over whether or not they were assassins, whether they used straight bladed swords or not, whether they still exist and even whether or not they learned distinct fighting techniques which are supposedly still being taught today.
As you can imagine, I came across a lot of bullcrap from clueless ninja fans but I eventually found a very good source on real authentic ninja research. There's a British author named Anthony Cummins who's done a really good job on gathering all the authentic historical documents written by actual ninjas themselves. And he's dispelled so many common myths about them and even exposed as total fruads several famous martial artists who claimed to know ninjitsu and to be modern ninjas.
But before I go on more about him and his work, it's probably best that I explain how I found his work to begin with.
I just randomly started studying ninjas on my own out of curiousity. That lead me to the surprising discovery that many people claim to be ninjas who teach ninja martial arts. That lead me to the Bujinkan lead by Hatsumi. Hatsumi claims to be the last true ninja. He claimed to have the lineage and ancient scrolls to prove it. And apparently, at least the Western martial arts community believed him (the native Japanese population seems to be much more skeptical of his claims). He then created a school known as the Bujinkan in the 1970s which taught anyone who wanted to learn supposed real and authentic ninjutsu.
One of those early students was an American man named Stephen Hayes who then brought those Hatsumi ninjutsu Bujinkan techniqes to America in the 1980s and played the leading role in spreading it here. The Bujinkan has since exploded and now has schools all over the world - all claiming to teach real ninjutsu.
But during the 1990s and early 2000s, people started to research ninjutsu and ninja history much more thoroughly. And there seems to be a consenus that the popular perception of ninjas is totally bogus.
Historical narratives for the origins of ninjas being impoverished peasents who developed ninjutsu to defend themselves from their samurai oppressors seems to be totally false. It actually turns out that ninjas actually were samurai. They were just samurai who were trained in additional skills such as espionage, scouting, outdoor survival and sabotage. So they would have been trained in all of the exact same martial arts tecniques as samurai but just had but just had some more training slapped on. And they would have served a lord just like samurai did. They seem to have been used primarily as intelligence gatherers on enemy lords.
The ninjas would have used the same weapons as the samurai, the same hand to hand and weapons techniques, they would have worn full samurai armor, they would have been nobility, etc.
There's no evidence of ninja clans who would just go around assassinating people for money. They were more like the CIA than hitmen.
So that means, Hatsumi's Bujinkan schools are really just teaching people standard samurai martial arts. The techniques that seperated ninjas from samurai such as explosives training, outdoor survival, scouting, etc, are not taught in the Bujinkan or any other self-proclaimed ninjutsu school.
They just dress up as ninjas and practice widely known samurai martial arts.
Hatsumi's lineage and the authenticity of his scrolls have also been severely questioned. He refuses to release them and the backstory of him and his master is very far-fetched.
Your friend is probably like the fake ninja on youtube named chosunninja. He claimed to be a Korean ninja whose family had received ninja training generations ago. He had hundreds of thousands of subscribers. But then Bujinkan people came and tore him down for years calling him a fraud and a lying idiot. Which is ironic because previously mention Anthony Cummins then came and totally exposed the Bujinkan and their master Hatsumi as being total frauds as well. Many lulz were had by me over that.
Here's some resources you can check out to learn more:
Anthony Cummins youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/TSOAS2008
Fake Korean ninja Chosonninja youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/ChosunNinja
One of the leading Bujinkan critics of Chosonninja and other fake ninjas - http://www.youtube.com/user/scottbaioisdead
Hatsumi wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaaki_Hatsumi
Him and his supposed authentic ninja techniques in action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA3zzmEkxnw - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7A-EJ_trFg
Wikipedia page on ninjutsu - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjutsu
Human Weapon episode on ninjutsu that buys into the ninja myths and Hatsumi's Bujinkan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOsZMFcWLHg&feature=channel_video_title
So in conclusion, it's highly doubtful your friend is a real ninja. Ninjutsu seems to have died off in at least the 19th century. No scrolls or authentic masters have been found.
Hope this post helped you out.
