Lets put things into perspective a bit.
Tradition has it that the ancestors of the people we would latter call the ninja were once the rulers, generals, priest etc of Japan. Unfortunately these people were defeated in battle by Heike troops in the 10/11th century. In reality this is probably little different to how England once controlled by the Saxons were defeated by the Normans, or previous to that how the Romano British were defeated by the Anglo-Saxon.
So is it not unlikely that the people of Japan, once defeated took refuge in the mountains of Japan, namely the Joshinetsu plateu, where Iga and Koga area are to be found.
Now its also likely that the ancestors of the ninja did study some form of what we today would call religion. what exactly they studied however would probably be hard to define, just like how its hard to understand Christianity a thousand years ago. But it has been suggested that these people practiced a mix of Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto and traditional folk belief.
Lets face it living in the mountains of Iga, these people must have come into contact with various mystics, generals, tacticians, healers etc that either lived there. or were fleeing their country and hence adopted that knowledge, spiritual or otherwise to help them deal with the oppresive times they lived in.
History however also shows us that when ever there are religions in opposition there is often aggresion. Even when one of those religions does not threaten the mainstream religion of the time. Hitler managed to murder 6 million people, many of them Jewish, and there is of course at the moment a war going on to destroy anything that is not Muslim also known as Jihad (Holy War). Thankfully only perpetrated by a few individuals. Not to mention Ireland, The Spanish Inquisition and the witch hunts of Europe.
Of course I also realise that behind these religious wars, religion is often only used as an excuse, as there are often other hidden objectives, but none the less people who have different views, we rarely try to understand. Instead we tend to target them for reprisal. whether you call it homophobia, racism, sexism, or anti Stephen Hayesism.
It is therefore highly likely that the ancestors of the ninja were attacked by the forces in power. In fact did'nt Oda Nobunaga attempt to wipe out the area of Iga?
To defend themselves these people probably resorted to using the skills they had been taught over the many hundreds of years that they had been oppressed, hence ninjutsu. However I think its wrong to think that Ninjutsu suddenly came into being, it evolved over hundreds of years. Its really only today that we think of it as an art. Stephen Hayes once stated that if you asked a ninja what it was he did he would probably say 'No Name, No art' but of course in Japanese. well old Japanese.
Again history is full of peoples that were threatened by the ruling class and although outnumbered and technologically inferior fought back and sometimes won. When the the Vikings attacked England, there were groups led by Hereward the Wake striking from the swamp lands of the fens. Similarly we also have legends of outlaws such as Robin Hood. And of course victories against the armed settlers of America by what they refered to as primitive savages weilding little more than knives and tomahawks. I won't even mention Vietnam, Afghanistan etc.and of course stories of how American frontiers men in the American war of Independence kicked our butts. Oh i'm English by the way.
Yes England sent ship loads of trained soldiers to the Americas, and we were defeated by men who's skills were learnt from, hunting, and shooting game and being able to conceal themselves and live off the land. Not very unlike the Ninja.
Its likely that the ancestors of the ninja were studying some kind of religion first before they had to resort to physical methods of defence, rather than the other way round. After all Abraham Maslow states that when one has peace, and time on your hands one can concentrate on the higher things in life such as art, religion etc. It is highly unlikely however that once at war, one has the time for these higher ideals, as one is simply trying to survive.
As for the slight on Stephen Hayes not getting the history correct, Well I disagree. History by its very nature is open to interpretation. Also I think one has to remember that when Stephen wrote those books Ninjutsu was very little known and I believe he was trying to write a book to promote an art that all people could understand. Yes I agree that maybe not all points of history may not be in there, but after all we are all fanatics on the subject and could probably pick any history of the Japanese martial arts apart. Remember Stephen Hayes was not writing a history book, he was writing an introduction to the art that was unknown in the western world. I often pick up books on archaeology written for beginners in the subject, and I can easily question, why the author didn't include this or that. But as a person with a degree in archaeology I have to appreciate that its for beginners and when Stephen Hayes wrote those books we were all beginners, maybe we all still are.
Bear in mind there are also publishers constraints, constant reedits at the editors request and possibly also constraints from Hombu itself about what could be included in those early books. In fact in the early days Hatsumi Sensei restricted his students from using the names of techniques to the general public. Hence technique names like Koku, Renyo etc were kept secret and could not be published, yet at the same time Hatsumi sensei was bringing out videos with kata mentioned like Ten, Omai etc, and after 20 years in this art i still don't know where they come from.
I actually believe that in the early days Hatsumi Sensei was trying to keep this art restrictive, and I believe it still continues.
I actually think that Stephen Hayes did exactly what he set out to do. Present a positive image of this art. Not one about assasination, and those other negative things that has been associated to the art by much less responsible authors, We should also remember that without what Stephen Hayes wrote in those early days we might all still be practicing Kung Fu or something. In fact only just last night I had two member who came to my Dojo because they became fascinated by the art through the books by Stephen hayes.
Finally, Jim you question why we contiinue to study ninjutsu when we live in such peaceful times. Well simply that peace can be shattered. here in Europe over the last ten years we have seen countries like Albania, Croatia, Serbia, and others be plunged into war, with people starving on the street, people being raped, murdered and made homeless. Wouldn't Ninjutsu be a great skill to have if that happened in your country. And if you think that it can't happen to you, just remember 911. An attack on the most powerful country in the world by aq handful of terrorists. That attack could have quite easily have been on a nuclear power station, which could have seen whole states devastated to be plunged into environment when you really need these skills.
Tradition has it that the ancestors of the people we would latter call the ninja were once the rulers, generals, priest etc of Japan. Unfortunately these people were defeated in battle by Heike troops in the 10/11th century. In reality this is probably little different to how England once controlled by the Saxons were defeated by the Normans, or previous to that how the Romano British were defeated by the Anglo-Saxon.
So is it not unlikely that the people of Japan, once defeated took refuge in the mountains of Japan, namely the Joshinetsu plateu, where Iga and Koga area are to be found.
Now its also likely that the ancestors of the ninja did study some form of what we today would call religion. what exactly they studied however would probably be hard to define, just like how its hard to understand Christianity a thousand years ago. But it has been suggested that these people practiced a mix of Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto and traditional folk belief.
Lets face it living in the mountains of Iga, these people must have come into contact with various mystics, generals, tacticians, healers etc that either lived there. or were fleeing their country and hence adopted that knowledge, spiritual or otherwise to help them deal with the oppresive times they lived in.
History however also shows us that when ever there are religions in opposition there is often aggresion. Even when one of those religions does not threaten the mainstream religion of the time. Hitler managed to murder 6 million people, many of them Jewish, and there is of course at the moment a war going on to destroy anything that is not Muslim also known as Jihad (Holy War). Thankfully only perpetrated by a few individuals. Not to mention Ireland, The Spanish Inquisition and the witch hunts of Europe.
Of course I also realise that behind these religious wars, religion is often only used as an excuse, as there are often other hidden objectives, but none the less people who have different views, we rarely try to understand. Instead we tend to target them for reprisal. whether you call it homophobia, racism, sexism, or anti Stephen Hayesism.
It is therefore highly likely that the ancestors of the ninja were attacked by the forces in power. In fact did'nt Oda Nobunaga attempt to wipe out the area of Iga?
To defend themselves these people probably resorted to using the skills they had been taught over the many hundreds of years that they had been oppressed, hence ninjutsu. However I think its wrong to think that Ninjutsu suddenly came into being, it evolved over hundreds of years. Its really only today that we think of it as an art. Stephen Hayes once stated that if you asked a ninja what it was he did he would probably say 'No Name, No art' but of course in Japanese. well old Japanese.
Again history is full of peoples that were threatened by the ruling class and although outnumbered and technologically inferior fought back and sometimes won. When the the Vikings attacked England, there were groups led by Hereward the Wake striking from the swamp lands of the fens. Similarly we also have legends of outlaws such as Robin Hood. And of course victories against the armed settlers of America by what they refered to as primitive savages weilding little more than knives and tomahawks. I won't even mention Vietnam, Afghanistan etc.and of course stories of how American frontiers men in the American war of Independence kicked our butts. Oh i'm English by the way.
Yes England sent ship loads of trained soldiers to the Americas, and we were defeated by men who's skills were learnt from, hunting, and shooting game and being able to conceal themselves and live off the land. Not very unlike the Ninja.
Its likely that the ancestors of the ninja were studying some kind of religion first before they had to resort to physical methods of defence, rather than the other way round. After all Abraham Maslow states that when one has peace, and time on your hands one can concentrate on the higher things in life such as art, religion etc. It is highly unlikely however that once at war, one has the time for these higher ideals, as one is simply trying to survive.
As for the slight on Stephen Hayes not getting the history correct, Well I disagree. History by its very nature is open to interpretation. Also I think one has to remember that when Stephen wrote those books Ninjutsu was very little known and I believe he was trying to write a book to promote an art that all people could understand. Yes I agree that maybe not all points of history may not be in there, but after all we are all fanatics on the subject and could probably pick any history of the Japanese martial arts apart. Remember Stephen Hayes was not writing a history book, he was writing an introduction to the art that was unknown in the western world. I often pick up books on archaeology written for beginners in the subject, and I can easily question, why the author didn't include this or that. But as a person with a degree in archaeology I have to appreciate that its for beginners and when Stephen Hayes wrote those books we were all beginners, maybe we all still are.
Bear in mind there are also publishers constraints, constant reedits at the editors request and possibly also constraints from Hombu itself about what could be included in those early books. In fact in the early days Hatsumi Sensei restricted his students from using the names of techniques to the general public. Hence technique names like Koku, Renyo etc were kept secret and could not be published, yet at the same time Hatsumi sensei was bringing out videos with kata mentioned like Ten, Omai etc, and after 20 years in this art i still don't know where they come from.
I actually believe that in the early days Hatsumi Sensei was trying to keep this art restrictive, and I believe it still continues.
I actually think that Stephen Hayes did exactly what he set out to do. Present a positive image of this art. Not one about assasination, and those other negative things that has been associated to the art by much less responsible authors, We should also remember that without what Stephen Hayes wrote in those early days we might all still be practicing Kung Fu or something. In fact only just last night I had two member who came to my Dojo because they became fascinated by the art through the books by Stephen hayes.
Finally, Jim you question why we contiinue to study ninjutsu when we live in such peaceful times. Well simply that peace can be shattered. here in Europe over the last ten years we have seen countries like Albania, Croatia, Serbia, and others be plunged into war, with people starving on the street, people being raped, murdered and made homeless. Wouldn't Ninjutsu be a great skill to have if that happened in your country. And if you think that it can't happen to you, just remember 911. An attack on the most powerful country in the world by aq handful of terrorists. That attack could have quite easily have been on a nuclear power station, which could have seen whole states devastated to be plunged into environment when you really need these skills.
