Books on Ninjutsu?

ginshun

ginshun

2nd Black Belt
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I am looking for some more reading material on Ninjutsu.


Other that being able to trust stuff by Hatsumi and Steve Hayes, and staying away from Ashida Kim and Haha Lung is there any other general advise that you guys can give?

Suggestions for specific books are welcome. Authors to trust and ones to skip. Just some general guidelines would be nice. Anything that you consider absolutely essential??
 
Keep in mind that many things that were written in the 80's has turned out not to be all that accurate after all. Be particularly wary of all sources that depict ninja as oppressed freedom fighters. Also, "Ninjutsu - History and Tradition" was ghostwritten by Stephen Hayes.

"Path Notes of an American Ninja Master", "Understand? Good. Play!", "Essence of Ninjutsu", "Exploring the Essence of Martial Arts", "Sengoku Ninpo Zukan", "Stick Fighting" and "Ninja - The True Story of Japan's Secret Warrior Cult" are the ones I usually recommend.
 
Thank you.

Now, if only half of those were actually possible to find... :angry:
 
Though it might not be ninjutsu i generaly allways recomend the book "Art of War" from Sun Tzu such a good book :)
 
Linger said:
For good historical refrences too I recommend Stephen Turnbull's books.Ninja Ad 1460-1650 (Warrior, 64)
by Stephen Turnbull "
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I heard Turnbulls stuff was mostly wrong, is that true?
 
So far I have found Amazon and Ebay to be great sources for hard to find books.

I have to admit that "Essence of Ninjutsu: The Nine Traditions" By Hatsumi to be a great book to read over and again. And although it does not deal with Ninjutsu specifically, I have to recomend "Zen in the Martial Arts" by Joe Hyams. I find it an amazing fit for people who are interested in the psychology and philosophy of martial arts.

And I just checked, amazon has a lot of these books for sale.

Good luck!
 
I just received my copy of Tanemura Shoto's "Ninpou Secrets" in the mail this afternoon.

First thing I will say about it is it is THICK. It's about 10 inches long, the pages are rather thin paper and the print is small. Every page with text on it is packed, and pages demonstrating techniques with pictures are of good quality.

This was a relatively pricey book but I believe it to be the best book I have ever bought on any subject, bar none. If every book published on ninjutsu lived up to these standards I think we'd all be academic ninpou geniouses by now. You can order it from the genbukan website. I would recommend this book to anyone regardless of their training organization (That will be hard for some to swallow). It's loaded with information.

The way of the Ninja : Secret Techniques by Hatsumi Masaaki is also a good book, however you need to have been formally taught the kihon happou if you want to understand what is going on in the pictures of that particular book. It's packed with photos I'd say about 80% of it is full of 4 1/4page sized photos or full page photos. They are taken in a fairly artistic style (Long exposure times) but this also helps demonstrate the movement in the technique which still pictures can't represent. There is some philosophy in it and you'll need to work your brain muscles to understand what sensei is alluding to.

Hayes's books are not all that bad, I can't remember the name of the one, but it's basically a kihon demonstration manual. This was written in the 80's so it features very low kamae, exaggerated dakentaijutsu, etc. All in all I feel it is still a worthwhile book because low kamae and exagerated strikes ingrain (engrain?) the proper movements into you. (To stray off topic somewhat) Low kamae also develops leg muscles, positioning and proper breathing which will allow you to move in and out of normal 'shallow' kamae much faster, when you need to. If you never practiced deep ichimonji you'd never know that letting your knees collapse inward is a bad thing! You can't feel the problems in shallow kamae. You must be careful when reading about techniques in books by Hatsumi sensei because of this;what he is teaching is correct but it's also much more advanced than what we normally train in in North America. His kamae are almost invisible sometimes.

Stick fighting by Hatsumi sensei is available very cheaply on amazon, around 10 dollars. It's worth its weight in gold. In fact, you might as well just buy all of Hatsumi's less expensive books off of amazon, they all go for around or under 15 dollars US. With the more expensive ones determine what you are looking for in a book before buying it.

As for non books, but videos, the Jinenkan organization has impressive videos of the various ryuha they study. They aren't so philosophical, however simply watching the movements can really make you think about why things are done the way they are. They are very high quality videos.
 
Don't forget that there are plenty of deliberate errors in the Quest/Hatsumi videos, that are made to ensure that people will be unsuccessful trying to learn it all just by watching a tape.
 
Ninja books are hard to find, becuase of the mystery and secrecy surrounding the art anyone who recieves a book on "true" ninjitsu must eat it immediately after finishing it in order to preserve the secrets :D
 
Nimravus said:
Don't forget that there are plenty of deliberate errors in the Quest/Hatsumi videos, that are made to ensure that people will be unsuccessful trying to learn it all just by watching a tape.
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Yup, that would sure make me want to train in this style, an instructor that missleads people HAS to be a good source....
 
Nimravus said:
Don't forget that there are plenty of deliberate errors in the Quest/Hatsumi videos, that are made to ensure that people will be unsuccessful trying to learn it all just by watching a tape.
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My teacher has actually mentioned this before.

I guess I can see the point in it. That way somebody can't just read a bunch of books and watch a bunch of tapes, and then claim that he is a ninjutsu master and start training other people. Well, I suppose he still could, but anybody who had actual training would be able to tell the difference. Pretty sneaky actually.

and I do have already have a few of the books mentioned, and I can agree that "Zen in the Martial Arts" by Joe Hymes and "Stickfighting" by Hatsumi are both excellent.

Thanks for all the replies, and keep it coming.

And please Andrew and Nivramus, I would just assume this thread not turn into a pissing match. Andrew, if you don't like the way things are done in ninjutsu, then don't train in it, and leave us alone.
 
-MOD NOTE-

Please keep the conversation Polite and Respectful.

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MT Moderator
 
Nimravus said:
Don't forget that there are plenty of deliberate errors in the Quest/Hatsumi videos, that are made to ensure that people will be unsuccessful trying to learn it all just by watching a tape.
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I've have heard people quote Hatsumi soke as saying the videos are "advertisements" or training aids for those who already have been taught. Any person trying to "learn" from a video is an idiot IMO.

I would think though that it is not the same for the Tai Kai and Daikomyosai videos though but I don't know.
 
I agree.

I find the Quest videos to be more of a showcase / advertisement for Bujinkan training. I view them as entertainment. It would be very hard to learn anything from them besides a general idea about each ryu or weapon.

The taikai vids I've seen though, do help to transmit more of a feeling of what training is actually like, and are more educational in that sense.
 
I agree. I find the Tai Kai Videos to be the most instructive. You get a real sense of the feeling I find with the tai kai videos.

I also agree that the videos should be a training aid and not a source. Ultimately who is it that has the better body, the person doing 8 minute abs, or the person going to the gym?

I've tried to learn from videos and I have always found it a pointless pursuit. At least for myself.

However as study aids go, I highly recomend the Tai Kai Vids.
 
All Taikai videos are worth having, if for nothing else then at least as a chronicle of the development of the Bujinkan, but I don't think you can equate that kind of training with the type we all attend regularly.
 
ginshun said:
My teacher has actually mentioned this before.

I guess I can see the point in it. That way somebody can't just read a bunch of books and watch a bunch of tapes, and then claim that he is a ninjutsu master and start training other people. Well, I suppose he still could, but anybody who had actual training would be able to tell the difference. Pretty sneaky actually.
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As I understand, the reason is not so much about claiming to be a master and starting to train other people, moreso, it is about not allowing the skills to fall into the hands of those with bad hearts, that may use what they learned for evil purposes. At least that is my understanding.

Additionally, you just cannot learn Budo from a video. Budo must be felt.
 
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