I am essentially looking for an art that will teach me how to be a warrior and survive whatever I am up against.
Without knowing your age, location. etc, I can't really say what you will be up against, but.....
Being a warrior is as much internal strength and conviction of your values and beliefs as anything else, and that can come from pretty much any (legit) art (for the record, I was reading a thread on a modern Bujinkan based organisation from another forum, the thread itself from about three years ago, where this organisation essentially had no understanding of propriety when it came to martial arts, no idea of koryu, what made a martial art, what personal property the kata of each are, and was essentially stealing the kata of a very well known Kenjutsu system [incredibly badly!!!], and claiming it as being made up by themselves. Not someone to go to to learn anything with integrity, to my mind....).
As far as surviving anything you may come up against, you may need to revisit the reality of this. I'll explain in a little bit.
I would enjoy learning the battle tested version that evolved through hundreds of years of combat. I also would like if the movement are still as effective today as they where a long time ago.
Right. Here's the thing, though, the actual kata (techniques) of the various Ryu are really not "battle tested" nor have they "evolved over hundreds of years of combat". The kata are realistically symbolic representations of the strategies and tactics represented by the teachings of the school itself. For instance, the second kata of Gyokko Ryu is called Renyo, and is an extension of the concepts of the first, Koku, which deals with managing distance and angles properly against a continuing attack. Renyo teaches methods for dealing with the three common unarmed assaults; Punching, Kicking, and Grappling, as well as handling resistance to your technique. It teaches evasive movement and angling, counter-striking, changes of direction to amplify the effect of limb controls, and much much more.
But it is not a "practical real life fighting technique", nor is it meant to be. It is only meant to impart it's lessons, and it does that through the medium of physical combative techniques. This is the way martial arts really teach, by the way, with techniques that are symbollic representations, not with "Answer A to Attack 12".
When it comes to whether or not the movements are "as effective today as they were a long time ago", well, yes and no. But more no, to be honest. And the reason is not that the techniques don't work, that they are ineffective, or anything like it. It is more to do with the fact that the techniques are designed against attacks from another place and time (for example, a standard attack is a stepping lunge punch, whereas today you are far more likely to come up against a stepping hook, or a rear cross; another common attack is to grab the lapel with the left hand, then step forward with your right leg as you punch to the head with a right punch, whereas today the punch is most likely going to have no step). Now, before you say "oh, but that doesn't sound so different....", realise that that change completely alters the body shape you are dealing with, the direction of the power, the available targets, the angles and ranges you will need to deal with, and far more. Add to that the frequent techniques against swords or other weapon attacks, and ask yourself how likely is it that you will need unarmed sword defence over your life (and again, before you bring up a machette, realise that the attacks of a machette are vastly different to a trained swordsmans attack).
So do they still work just as well? Yes. But they haven't "evolved", as the idea of training in a traditional system is to preserve the art as well as possible. And they don't work against modern attacks and assaults. On the other hand, the principles, strategies and tactics that the arts teach do, if you understand them well enough...
I want a straight forward fight stopping art that will teach me as much of what the ancient ninja knew as possible. I would really like to well round it with the stealth and agility abilities.
Straight forward and fight stopping? Go for boxing. Ninjutsu really can't be described properly like that, it is an exhaustive body on knowledge, giving an incredible range of strategies and tactics, with a very broad range of environments and ranges that it deals with. Oh, and it's highly unlikely that you will deal much with the stealth aspects, and agility will really be far less focused on than you may think.
And really, what do you think the ancient ninja knew? Try to realise that the highly romanticised image out there is far from the reality. I suggest you worry far less about the "ninja" aspect, as that will simply take you further and further away from what these arts can actually offer you, if you end up studying it.
I didnt realize there was other forms of what the Ninja took other than the Bujikan.
Er, not really sure what you're meaning with this sentence here.... Are you saying that you were unaware of other Ninjutsu organisations? If so, just so you know, the Bujinkan is the organisation headed by Hatsumi Sensei, the Genbukan is headed by his former most senior student, Tanemura Sensei, and the Jinenkan is headed by Hatsumi's oldest-training student, Manaka Sensei. Add to that various split-off organisations (such as the one that I teach in), some more legit than others, and quite a few with little to no ties to anything close to authentic whatsoever. If you stick with the Big Three (Bujinkan, Genbukan, Jinenkan), then what you learn will be authentic. See the stickies for more of a breakdown of these organisations' similarities and differences.
I have a friend who is a black belt in Koto Rye. The movements seem natural and straight forward.
Incredibly doubtful. I have never heard of anyone, from any organisation, being awarded a black belt in any individual system. If you learn an individual one in the Genbukan, for instance, you will be graded in a traditional Menkyo system, not a Kyu/Dan grade format. Someone claiming to hold a black belt in Koto Ryu is most likely telling far less than the truth.
I could ask any number of questions about their training in Koto Ryu, such as getting you to ask them to describe the movements and reasons for them in Yokuto, but really, such info can be gotten from a simple web search, so I'm less inclined to ask these days....
So essentially the Bujikan is a combination of nine arts? I would learn all nine as I move through and not really focuss on one? Would this be like going to high school and learning math, english, science, history in the Bujikan while other single traditional arts would be like going to graduate school and foccusing on one major with no minor classes?
No (sorry, Bruno!), that is not correct. The Bujinkan's teachings are refered to as Budo Taijutsu, which is it's own seperate and distinct martial art, created from the teachings of various traditional Ryu-ha. But you do not learn all nine as you move through, in fact it is highly doubtful that you would learn three of them at all, in any fashion (Gyokushin, Kumogakure, Gikan). At certain times, ann instructor may choose to teach lessons by using the kata of a particular Ryu, but that is very different from learning the Ryu itself, especially as the kata are used to explore Budo Taijutsu, not the Ryu they come from. This is a major reason that it is highly doubtful that your friend really has a black belt in Koto Ryu. It doesn't exist.
It is also not like going to school and having different classes in different subjects, as your education in the Bujinkan doesn't seperate out the different Ryu in that way (the way that school has English taught seperately to maths, for example), and individual study in a single Ryu really isn't covered in the Bujinkan other than through individual interest, so it's not like going to graduate school either.
The closest I can think of is MMA. If you train in MMA, you are not training in BJJ or kickboxing, but both those will give a great deal of technical detail to what you do in training. But being an accomlished MMA fighter does not make you a BJJ anything, let alone a black belt. Same with the Bujinkan, by training in it, you are not getting a black belt in Koto Ryu, although that will make up a fair degree of your training methods, as will Gyokko, Takagi Yoshin, Shinden Fudo, and Kukishinden, as well as Togakure (to a lesser degree, though).
I hope I can find the most realistic approach to ninjitsu as in finishing the fight and escaping alive.
I'm not fond of repeating myself, and this'll be the third time. Ninjutsu, not ninjitsu, okay? One is correct, the other is used by people who don't have any understanding of the arts, and shows their ignorance. Your first lesson is in spelling. Got it? Good.
The most realistic approach to training in Ninjutsu is to recognise that it is a historical system, so it is not geared up for modern street combat "straight out of the box", as it were. It is also highly realistic to expect to learn things that you don't necessarily see the value of, and to need to spend a long time before real skill is developed. And you really should be prepared for it to not be what you think it is, should you actually visit a school. And really, that should be your next step. Go visit a school, you may find that what you see there is more than you expect, or that it is nothing that interests you at all.
Okay?
