hey guys,rocco here from Toronto.....just signed up to martial talk. has anyone ever made a list of missions to complete to test your skills? I have never taken ninjutsu....but I have been trying out and studying various martial arts. I did personal study on ninjutsu and samurai philosophy. I read the book "shadow warrior" by jotaro. it is a book on the ways of the ninja. the book consists of 5 core skill sets - invincibility, mind reading, mind control, invisibility, and forecasting the future. I have tested invisibility and thought control a little bit. I would love to set myself some missions to try to conquer using the 5 skill sets in jotaro's book. any suggestions or opinions greatly appreciated.
Wow.
Uh, look, this is going to tread a fine line here.... as there's no fraudbusting allowed on this site... but you know what, some critical thinking can be a good thing.
Firstly, I might point out that I'm the only Ninjutsu practitioner so far to enter into this thread, so I'm going to take a moment to spell something out. Everything you've described is fantasy, and bluntly, a fairly unhealthy one at that. You have, at this point in time, exactly zero understanding/knowledge of anything to do with "ninjutsu and samurai philosophy", and the book you cite is a ludicrous thing to base any sort of belief on. It's written by Peter Hobart, under a Japanese sounding (but not really very accurate Japanese) pseudonym "Jotaro", with the only thing to try to give the book any credibility the blurb on Hobart stating that he holds black belts in five martial arts (none of which are ever mentioned), he's a Law Enforcement "expert" (with no back-up to that claim), he was taught by someone he only ever refers to as "the Master" (without a name), someone who created "Kishido" (a made up word) and taught him "Kochojutsu" (the art of the butterfly... claiming that there is an old Japanese teaching about the flapping of a butterflies wings causing a storm in a distant place... uh, no, that's a metaphor for Chaos Theory, and "Kochojutsu" doesn't exist). In other words, "Jotaro" has no credibility as an expert of anything, and the writings put out under that name demonstrate such.
As such, you may gather that the "five core skills" are purely the product of Hobarts imagination. There's a reason his books are listed as being contemporary with Haha Lung et al, another person whose only offerings in this area are the product of over-active imaginings, rather than anything, you know, real. There is actually a list of core skills taught in systems such as the Togakure Ryu, but it's nothing like the one that Hobart offers.
If you're genuinely interested, forget anything you've thought of or believed so far. Ignore the book you've read. It has as much relevance as reading a Batman comic.
Oh, and don't even think about going on any "missions". That type of bad publicity isn't something the art needs.
(By the way, what the hell? "I have tested thought control a little bit"?!?! Seriously, dude?!?!)
