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Grey Eyed Bandit

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I was looking through my Bujinkan book collection recently and when I got to the interview part of "Legacy of the Night Warriors", Hayes claims that Hatsumi has been recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Education as an authentic teacher of ninjutsu. Is there any truth to this whatsoever or is it just an outright fabrication?
 

Don Roley

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I don't think that fabrication is the best term to use. But what you might be thinking is a bit different from how things are done in Japan.

In Japan, you have to have some sort of approval from the ministry of education to do just about anything on a campus. If you want to start a karate club, you have to be under the direction of an orginization that they say is a valid system. You can't just get together with just anyone and make a form of karate up on your own and practice it on campus.

So I think that if you want to start a ninjutsu club at a school, Hatsumi is a teacher that you can associate with and get permission from to start it under. I don't think they really look much into the background and such. They mainly seem worried that you are not a cult and do things that might get someone killed through outright stupidity.

Mind you, I do not know the specifics about this particular case. But from working inside the system for many years, I would not put too much into the fact that Hayes is saying that Hatsumi is a recognized teacher. It is not that big a deal.
 

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