Wisdom From The Last Ninja

I Could Tell You But... writes "The AP has a story about ninjutsu master Masaaki Hatsumi, last living student of Japan's last 'fighting ninja.' He offers advice from the heart of Ninjadom, like 'always be able to kill your students,' and describes the current popular ninja image as 'pathetic.' At age 76, students are speculating on his successor, who may for the first time be non-Japanese." From the article: "As I cautiously raise the sword with a taut two-handed samurai grip, my sparring partner gingerly points to Hatsumi. I avert my eyes for a split second - and WHAM! The next thing I know, I'm staring at the rafters. Keeping your focus is just one of the lessons thumped out on the mats of the Bujinkan Dojo, a cramped school outside Tokyo that is a pilgrimage site for 100,000 worldwide followers. They revere Hatsumi as the last living master of ninjutsu - the mysterious Japanese art of war practiced by black-masked assassins of yesteryear."

Re:Know what Really Pisses Me Off?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Look at the quotes in the article, it's meaningless blabber.

He who does not listen, does not hear.

Re:So THIS is how you are going to compete with Di

[s16le]

You know, maybe you belong on digg... with all the other idiots who end questions with periods.

Re:Ninja is replaced by Sniper

[MagicDude]

If killing is your only goal, then yes, a sniper rifle is just as good, and requires less training. However, suppose your goal is to kill the target, and then take his briefcase full of secrets. Shooting him from 500 yards will just cause attention to swarm around the target and you'll never get those missle silo sites. There's where you need a ninja to sneak in, dispatch with the bodyguard, slit the target's throat, slice off his hand above the wrist to get rid of the handcuff connecting the target to the breifcase, and then disapear into the night.

Re:Ninja is replaced by Sniper

[SquadBoy]

Yes?

And your point is?

You *do* understand that those are all good things, right?

I'm proud of you, Slashdot

[Weaselmancer]

This was modded Insightful, and not Funny.

Joking aside

[ndogg]

It is sad to see an art form like this die out. It's a little like seeing a species without a purpose die out. Sure it's a dinosaur, but it's still interesting to study and learn about.

If I were him, I, too, would probably lament the popular images of ninjas. Hollywood has definitely bastardized it, and disgraced the legend of the ninja.

Re:Know what Really Pisses Me Off?

[einhverfr]

No. they are not meaningless blabber. They are mostly obvious statements that people forget.

Yes, anything *can* be used as a weapon (which is why we need to recognize this regarding airport security and either design sensible regulations or require that everyone fly nude ;-) ). In my (very different) form of martial art, we have that one drilled into our skull from day one. Yes, timing is the most difficult aspect of martial arts.

But then most wisdom is obvious, if you can see it...

The last of his species. For obvious reasons.

[Opportunist]

Yeah, Ninjas are cool, Ninjas are mysterious, but face it: They're outdated. As outdated as the record industry, but they have a worse lobby.

While fighting as a sport, or for close combat, will continue to exist and has its right to exist, the art of sneaky assassination is no longer a business. If you want someone dead, hire a hitman. Easier to train, more numerous, thus cheaper.

It's simply a matter of technology. It's really no longer feasible to have a person get close to your target and have him strike there. Surveillance equipment makes it virtually impossible to get him close enough. Sneaky and stealthy or not, it's hard to beat a good surveillance system. Whatever you do, a heat or movement sensor will catch you.

Getting close enough to your target is also no longer as possible as it was. Bodyguards are well equipped. Communication is by far superior than it was 100 years ago. And to get into a bulletproof car, you also need more than just a can opener.

It's over. Killing is no longer really an artform. Everyone can do it. Just pull the trigger.

Re:Know what Really Pisses Me Off?

[colinbrash]

Every time some asian (or navtive american) says something whisy washy, a sizable group of people think it's wisdom. Look at the quotes in the article, it's meaningless blabber. "Asian say wishwash, people hear wisdom." There, now people will listen to you.

Expanding on this a bit...

[einhverfr]

I would like to expand on this a bit.

Even handguns are next to useless in sufficiently close quarters. Yes, you can hit someone with them, but even there, their weight makes them slow. If oyu are trained for unarmed combat, the only weapons really worth a darn in close combat (less than about 8 feet) is a knife of a good club. And even the club is often not a match for a bare hand (esp if the barer is untrained).

In any case, training in close combat is well worth what is put into it many times over.

Note that even with all the technology available today, unarmed combat is still taught to all our soldiers, and ninja-like skills are even taught to some of our special forces. The reason is that there is nothing more important than troops on the ground.

Finally, suppose you are in an area you are not allowed to carry weapons and need to defend yourself. Unarmed combat training is worth its weight, as is training in improvised weaponry.

Lack of Japanese interest in learning ninjutsu?

[TheNoxx]

"Son, why don't you get out more... you know, like train under that ninja that's been living in the moutains... it'd be a good way to keep in shape and honor your history."

"Ugh, DAD! that is so LAME!"

It's official, I will never have children as pleasing them is impossible. If you can't make a 13 year old boy happy with an apprenticeship to a real ninja, nothing ever will.

Re:Purple prose

[gstoddart]

the guy let go, apologized, and said after training for so long its just relfexive.

*laugh* At that point, that's not just training, that's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

NOBODY is that twitchy unless they're reliving something a little too often. :-P

Re:The last of his species. For obvious reasons.

[PeterBrett]

And killing someone silently hasn't changed one bit as preferably over shooting him with a sniper rifle (which you can not silence, no matter what Hollywood tries to tell you).

Depends on the calibre. You can kill someone very effectively with subsonic .22 rimfire ammunition, if you can get a good shot. And .22 hunting rifles are fairly inexpensive, and quite easy to get hold of. I've fired one -- it came with a suppressor as standard, and the only noise it made was a 'ping' as the hammer struck the firing pin.

Anyway, if you choose your spot carefully, you could easily get away with using a full-power 7.62 or even .338 calibre weapon. Don't underestimate the disorientating effect of a supersonic round passing a couple of feet away. By the time the security detail have stopped shitting themselves, you can be well on your way from your perch (anywhere within 600 yds will do, usually, and that's a hell of a lot of ground to search in anything other than a flat, barren wilderness). The problem's not the equipment, the skills or the risk of getting caught: the problem's having steely-cold will enough to look at someone's face through an optical sight, knowing that if you pull the trigger, that person's life will end.

And you wonder why the SS are so paranoid about assassination attempts?

Re:Some insight

[zenhkim]

> Someone mentioned that "ninjitsu is the art of assassination". An inaccurate statement.

Unfortunately, ninjutsu still remains largely misunderstood and grossly misrepresented in the public's mind. Years ago I was no different: when I was a young karate student, the ninja was commonly portrayed as the "evil" shadow warrior, always using stealth, ambush, trickery, and unfair battle tactics to destroy his enemies.

Then I discovered the writings of Stephen K. Hayes, student of Mr. Hatsumi, on the true nature and practice of the ninja arts. From the first of his books I read (Ninjutsu: The Art of The Ninja) I was deeply impressed by the depth and quality of his writing. He covered the historical background and cultural context of the ninja, explained the philosophical and spiritual foundation that ninjutsu is built upon, and stressed that a balanced approach to life was essential to studying the martial arts. ("If you constantly indulge in consuming large amounts of fattening food, inhaling clouds of nicotine-laden smoke, avoiding physical exercise or engaging in needlessly dangerous activities, there is no point in learning a martial art to defend yourself against an enemy. Your worst enemy is yourself.")

It is indeed a travesty that so many people today still have such a distorted view of the ninja, and it will be an even greater tragedy when Mr. Hatsumi is no longer with us....

Re:Some insight

[-noefordeg-]

This is just so ignorant and make believe...

Why don't we see those people fighting in Vale Tudo, Pride, UFC or similar tournaments?
Why? Because they don't have a chance in hell of beating people -trained- to fight in an effective way. If you include weapons, well, a gun will probably beat you every time.

I would love to see a 76 year old asian guy square it off with Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski, Frank Mir, Matt Huges, Rich Franklin, Emelianenko Fedor or Wanderlei Silva.

At a demonstration I sponsored in June, she was able to show quite convincingly how a very small woman is able to take down, bind and otherwise incapacitate an assailant a foot taller, and several tens of pounds heavier. The assailant in this case was a student of classical Okinawan karate with an aproximately equal skill level.
-That is just so much bullshit...
I just have to ask you: Why do you think the have weight classes in -real- fighting sports? Like in the UFC? Just think about it...
It's because when people of EQUAL skills fight, the only thing which makes a difference is the size! And here we have you claiming otherwise. That there is some form of super secret super ultra techniques which completely invalidates what everyone else knows and experiences.
I've trained different forms of martial arts for 6-7 years now, and also MMA! A small woman, fighting anyone heavier/bigger who's also well trained in -fighting-, will become completely obliterated. Anything else would be science fiction!

Crap!!

Re:Some insight

[JemalCole]

At a demonstration I sponsored in June, she was able to show quite convincingly how a very small woman is able to take down, bind and otherwise incapacitate an assailant a foot taller, and several tens of pounds heavier. The assailant in this case was a student of classical Okinawan karate with an aproximately equal skill level.

At a demonstration sponsored by David Copperfield a few years back, he was able to show quite convincingly how a very small woman is able to turn into a tiger, and a totally-not-planted audience member (wink, wink) can be sawed in half. And put back together! Seriously, it was amazing.

Physics doesn't stop being physics because you play-fight a lot with your friends. To quote the greatest fighting movie ever, "It's a simple question of weight ratios." Smaller fists don't hit with the same force as bigger ones. Smaller muscles don't have the same strength as bigger ones.

SIZE is not the determining factor. TECHNIQUE is. Regardless of how well your opponent resists, it is, simply put, child's play to defeat an opponent, even one of equal or greater skill, if you adhere to basic principles of technique.

Yeah, that's why real martial arts have all gotten rid of weight classes. Cause, you know, technique is all that matters. Oh wait, even the UFC has weight classes. Dumbass.

Speaking of technique, do you all remember UFC 2? This "Ninja" Scott Morris ("We don't really know a lot about this guy, except that he's a ninja.") squared off against a kick-boxer, Pat Smith. Three or four elbows to the face later, the ninja is crumpling to the floor with his nose newly flattened and the kickboxer hasn't broken a sweat. Seriously, he broke this guy's orbital bone and took out some teeth. I don't know if all ninjas are frauds, but that guy was. Hey Scott, where's your shuriken now?

I can say from long experience that the victory goes not to the best trained, but to the one who fails to make mistakes.

Nice mumbo-jumbo, confucious, but wouldn't the one who makes the least mistakes be the one who trained the best? Go back through the fortune cookie fortunes you've glued to the mirror on your vanity and find something that makes sense.

Re:wow, ninjas

[Lemmy Caution]

That's why you should distrust the idea of tradition. After all, all those secrets were once innovations - gussying them up in the austere robes of tradition hides the fact that there was experimentation and trial-and-error in their origins. The "art" is really what happens when a "science" gets stodgy and cautious.

Re:Some insight

[angel'o'sphere]

Only the competition based systems (judo, boxing, brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, etc.) can perform. Says the one who only does,, what? fighting?

So, you still live, otherwise you could not post....

So, how many fights did you survive so far? I mean, all your opponents are dead, aren't they?

Hm, what is allowed in Kickboxing? And what is not? Is it "allowed" to grap the head of your opponent? To throw him down with the aim to break his neack? To sling you legs around his neack to try to break it?

I guess it is not, how ever Kickboxing is a serious fighting, no boy fighting, isn't it?

OTOH, ppl practicing martial arts, never do fights Judo and Karate only does "sports" fights with very limited subset of techniques, guess what: in fights the harmless techniques are allowed, not the deadly ones. Aikido never does fights ... we only practice. Guess why? All Aikido techniques are potential deadly.

Ofc, you could disagree, there are splinter schools of Aikido that do fights, e.g.

However: http://www.aikidojournal.com/article.php?articleID =107 [aikidojournal.com] read this inteview with one of the greatest living Aikido and Sword masters .... it answers the interesting question why modern fighting schools (those that do teach fire armes, e.g. have no man versus man fights)

angel'o'sphere

Re:Some insight

[angel'o'sphere]

If Bujinkan was all that good they'd BE the Judo or BJJ champs

Oki, I quit, my last post for today ;D

So, you did read that Bujinkan is a Ninjutzu school? Yes? So, you got, that they don't do Judo and they don't do Karate either?

So, you are well aware that they don't participate at Judo competitions? So: please tell me, how can one be Judo champion if he does not participate on Judo competitions? I mean: after all Chuck Noris easyly could do an Ushiro Mawashi Geri Kikome (Or in other words a (reverse) roundhouse kick) against every Judo champion easyly. Nevertheless he seems not willing to do so ... hm, I guess he is fraud as well?

angel'o'sphere