Hatsumi DVD "Kakushi Buki"- a review

Don Roley

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I have and have seen the new DVD from Quest on Kakushi Buki (Hidden weapons) and have promised to give a review of it.

This is a strange tape in terms of what the target audience is supposed to be. For people outside of the Bujinkan it will be more of an introduction to the concepts rather than specific instruction. For those who have the basics down it will be kind of an inspiration for exploration.

I will give you an example of what I talk about. In the beggining of the tape Hiroshi Nagase demonstrates the manner of throwing stick shuriken. He does not lecture or explain what he is doing. I have had lots of instruction from Nagase on the weapon and I know he did not cover even a tenth of what he could have and still remained in the basics.

But later on in the tape Hatsumi takes a quick look at the stick shuriken and gives insights into why we hold shuriken the way we do and things you can do from it.

In short, you see a demonstration of shurikenjutsu and get some higher level insights. But if you do not know the basics you are not going to be getting them from this.

Hatsumi also sits down and displays various types of weapons and talks about them. Anyone who has spent time with his books and around him will not see much new or surprising. But the non-Bujinkan member will probably find it interesting.

This pattern also goes on for the kusari fundo, shuko, senban shuriken and a few other things. The last part of the tape shows a session from this years tai kai where Hatsumi demonstrates various weapons on poor, unsuspecting students. Again, no basics. You are expected to know these things if you want to train with the boss. But the newbie to Bujinkan does get a good chance to see the thought process behind hidden weapons and the potential for their use. It is a joy to see Hatsumi move.

So, as I said, this is a tape that will serve as an introduction but not instruction for people without Bujinkan experience. For those in the Bujinkan it will serve as a way of getting a slightly deeper insight into the aspects of hidden weapons, but assumes you have trained with someone like Nagase on the weapon being discussed. I like it, but would not reccomend it to someone thinking of getting it for a reference library or trying to learn on their own.
 

r.severe

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I was waiting for someone to put their opinion on this DVD.. so..
My opinion on the new Quest DVD…
It is of course filmed very well with wonderful color, sound, music and points of interest.
If you are a student of kakushibukijutsu then this DVD will be a start or over view into that field of research. Meaning a very basic view into that field.
This DVD really doesn’t go in any direction or has any base of martial study within it. What I mean is there are no real reasons to have made this DVD in the manner it was made that I can see. For the student who has a year or two of training with these types of tools… I see No training ideas, no technique ideas, no background ryuha information, etc.. for this DVD to have been made. There is nothing really new or special on this DVD.
Some shots are done over and over throughout the DVD for reasons beyond me. Some in slow motion over and over.... ?????????????????????????

As for Hatsumi sensei was wonderful in his movements during the few demos. This is worth watching by it’s self. The normal stop and go action non-action is always there.
But in my opinion what is shown is at a low-grade level of study for the martial artist. I’m not sure why he pointed this DVD in that direction.

Over all I would say out of a rating of 10 I would give it a 4 for content and a 3 for training research and 10 for the other wonderful artsy film job done...

ralph severe, kamiyama
 
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Don Roley

Don Roley

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I think this DVD was designed to frustrate Martial Arts Pirates. %-}

The problem can be summed up from the above article.

The Problem (short form)
The short version of this problem is that in the competitive world of martial arts business, unscrupulous instructors often steal concepts, moves, ideas, teaching systems, etc., etc. from other systems/instructors. Then they* present these ideas as their own to unsuspecting students. While that is ethically wrong, the real problem is this: They do this without fully understanding the significance of what it is that they are pillaging.*

Much less, how it really works. What else is involved and how it can all blow up in your face without these other aspects. Therefore they are charging you full price for half information. This motivations for this behavior are many, and they are quite simply beyond the scope of this page. However, the results are pretty identifiable.

What is being taught is flawed. Parts are missing. These parts are critical for the "move" to work in real life (1).

Most of us can look at the ninjutsu scene and see many, many pirates. They don't want to stop eating their Cheezy Puffs and get off the couch to go to training with a real instructor. Why, they may have their many mistakes pointed out and have their image as a master destroyed.

So they try to learn from videos and such. Much easier on the ego. And then their mysterious unknown art can point to the similarities with the Bujinkan and say that there has to be some sort of link in the distant past, even though they can't show proof back to Japan for their art.

It will not work with this video.

I know more about shurikenjutsu than anyone on this board I can think of. After years of training under Nagase I can recite his comments about spinning, range, etc in my sleep. I know this stuff is not on this DVD. But even so, I still gained something form watching Hatsumi's take on things. If you have the experience under Nagase, or one of the hundreds of students he has trained, you will probably get somethign from this as well. The same goes for he other weapons on the DVD.

But if you do not have a connection to the Bujinkan and merely wish to pirate some information, you will not get your money's worth.
 

althaur

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I thought it was fun to watch. My wife and I were there the first day of filming. You can actually see her taking me down about half way through when they are showing some of the students training. :) The video is good just for seeing Sensei doing this stuff and his talking about hidden weapons. I enjoyed it.
 

Cryozombie

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I just watched this DVD...

I think I got a lot of good ideas from the disk, if not specific techniques, at least specific concepts.

I think it was good stuff.
 

Deaf

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I think this is a great thread and hope that more like this will come about. Getting an opinion about particular videos/dvds/books is great! Now I can determine whether or not to spend my wife's hard-earned money! :ultracool
 

r.severe

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Born a Flower, live as one..
But we all need our space.

Yes, I couldn't agree more.
Everyone views tapes, DVDs and books in a different mind set.
We all have different experiences and knowledge from those experiences.
It's very good to share them.

ralph severe, kamiyama
 

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