Hayes basically made up everything, I woldn't trust a school founded by a shameless fraud, same with Hatsumi (Bujinkan) and all derivates, I am preparing a script for a video and this is what I've documented so far, it's a chatgpt translation (I'm not native english speaker):
-Maasaki Hatsumi, founder of Bujinkan, claims to be the 34th generation soke of Togakure-ryu, the 28th generation soke of Gyokko-ryu Kosshijutsu, and the 26th generation soke of Kukishinden-ryu Happo Hikenjutsu.Taking as a reference two of the oldest koryu in Japan, Katori Shinto-ryu: 20th generation and Kashima Shinryu: 19th generation, with documented beginnings in the 15th century (1400 AD), Hatsumi's claims do not fit with the active period of feudal espionage. It also doesn't align that he claims to be the 26th soke of Shinden Fudo-ryu, when his teacher Takamatsu was the 25th soke, claiming origins no less than in the 11th century, 400 years before historians accept the first organized schools in such lineages, and 200 years before the sufficiently widespread use of espionage and counter-information specialists (the shinobi) to even imagine ninja traditions.
-Hatsumi claimed that Emperor Hirohito gave him the title of Living National Treasure of Japan, but that title is not given to martial arts other than katori ryu. This recognition does not appear in any official record and is only claimed by Bujinkan itself, but the main official Japanese organizations, Nihon Kobudo Kyokai and Nihon Kobudo Shinkokai, recognized by the Emperor, do not give any credibility to Hatsumi, and consider him a "persona non grata".
-Ellis Amdur and Karl Friday, both authorities on the history of feudal Japan and recognized masters of Japanese Koryu (ancient schools), publicly assert that Bujinkan has no real historical basis and describe Maasaki Hatsumi's credentials as absurd.
-Hatsumi claims to have a 10th dan in karate, 8th dan in aikido, 6th dan in judo, and 6th dan in kobudo, but to this day no Japanese school has come forward to certify that Hatsumi achieved those ranks within it. What has come to light is that Ueno Takashi of Asayama Ichiden-ryu sent a Hamon (expulsion notice) to Hatsumi after only 3 years of studying with him.
About Hatsumi's teacher, the 33rd soke Toshitsugu Takamatsu
-The only official mention of Takamatsu as "soke" was in the third edition of the Bugei Ryuha Daijiten, written by Watatani Kyonshi, a personal friend of his, and it states that Takamatsu is the creator of ninpo-ryuha and ninja gokko "ninja games for children". This places Hatsumi's teacher as the first soke of a style invented by himself.
-Takamatsu claims to have learned from and to be the successor of Toda Masamitsu, but he died years before Takamatsu was born.
-Takamatsu was accused of fraud for presenting hand-made copies of supposed manuscripts destroyed during the war.
-The youthful anecdotes of Takamatsu, collected in Bujinkan texts and Hatsumi's books, are highly improbable, including defeating bands of bandits in the mountains, deadly duels, and defeating groups of thugs with supernatural techniques. These stories were never certified. However, it is known that Toshitsugu Takamatsu attempted to join the army but was rejected for failing the basic physical entrance test.
To add to the confusion, even the recognized historical fonts (shoninki, bansensukai and ninpiden) are considered a old made up fakes to be selled at colectionist, and the methods and stuff depicted on them does not stack up realistically.
I am also a ninjutsu practicioner, from a brand that once followed the more historical aproach of Anthony Cummins, before he shifted to samurai fantasy organizations with people wearing the same clothes over the world or some weird crap. We keep studying and investigating, sorry to say, but there is no ''real'' ninjutsu that have survived, the Fuma brand is invented by another charlatan Chichun Yuan (I guess, I'm speaking on memory), that changes his name to Harunaka Hoshino when he comes to the states and start saying that a misterios ninja neighbor, teach him ninjutsu Frank Dux style (another charlatan with mental problems).
Bankeshinobiden brand, uses Jinichi Kawakami to legitimate their claim of ''real ninjutsu'', a man that worked on the gift shop of ninja museum of Iga, and one good day said... I am the last ninja alive! and then try to arrange a fight with the tiger of the zoo... All that that man say is pure comedy nonsense, as like he was teached to dislocate joints to fit in small spaces and weird stuff medically... problematic, if you dislocate your joints, you will damage the nervs plus a lot of things, also his steel ball training is just stupid. The Iga Museum itself is just an atraction for baka gaijin, and exposes chokuto's as ''ninjatos'', a fantasy made up weapon by Stephen Hayes itself, with no historical base, as anything Mr. Hayes, that have learned ''ninjutsu'' from the fraud Maasaki Hatsumi, considered a ungratefull person in Japan for his lies, have ever said.
Our school also have a ''real last ninja alive'' sort of thing (nowadays he is dead) that have much more sense historically speaking, but his tradition is not related to martial world and it's probably a Meiji era asimilation rather than a historical reality, and you don't have to belive on it like a sect.
We are very local centered and not known, don't even have a web or any expansion plans, but the 3 founder masters are writting a book that may be translated to english on release date, one of the masters is a verified retired inteligence officer who also wrote a book about real spionage, and the other have a japanese real martial family (not ninja) tradition heritage of something that have never surfaced comercially.
With that I don't pretend to state that ''my school is more ninja than yours'', I am just saying, that ninjutsu itself is a modern fraud, and we also have borned from that fraud. Hayes is a consumed liar that have made a life on a big scam.
