Why Godan?
Shodan is 1st, Godan is 5th. Or at least that is this CMA guys poor understanding of the ranking system
And Iron fist training...online....sorry no...that is potentially crippling
Hey, Xue, as "wiz cool c" is unwatching his own thread (ha!), I might as well explain where his bizarre logic comes from…
In the Bujinkan, Godan is considered the entry point rank for being an official teacher (Shidoshi). You can teach under the direction of a Shidoshi prior to that, but only Godan and higher are considered to be actual teachers. In other organisations, the entry rank is different, of course…
Thing is, a Godan in the Bujinkan could just as easily be someone with only a couple of years training (if that!), and little in the way of knowledge, understanding, skill, or anything else… or could be a dedicated, skilful, knowledgable and experienced practitioner heading into counting their time in decades rather than years… and there's no way to tell which you have based purely on rank. What's certain, though, is that Godan is not "advanced" in and of itself… by the official standards of the Bujinkan, the "advanced" teachers (Shihan) is anyone 10th Dan or above… with only the 15th Dan being the most senior… although even that is something debated within the Bujinkan itself, with people seeming to pick and choose who they want to attribute a particular title to (some only class certain Japanese instructors as Shihan, others call them the "true Shihan", but acknowledge the official title of others, and so on). A year or so ago, Hatsumi started handing out new certification to a couple of senior Japanese members (Nagato, Noguchi) with the title "Dai Shihan" (Big Shihan)… seemingly a way to give distance again to the Japanese teachers now that so many Westerners shared their 15th Dan ranking, without further stretching the ranking concept to, oh, let's say, 21 Dan grades (which Hatsumi has joked about previously…).
