Tulisan said:
So...back to 56 families. Huh? How does that fit into the mix? Don Roley....help!
Yours,
Dr. HaHa Lung
Not quite 56 families, but I will try to explain.
The art of ninjutsu was made for entering enemy territory and collecting information. In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu unified the country under him. The closest rival for his position was killed off in the siege of Osaka in 1615.
From that point until Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor in 1853, there was no enemy territory. There was little need for the art. Being practical, the Japanese modified what they did to suit the times rather than the past. Ninja started doing the duties of regular samurai. In ten generations time, the numbers dwindled not do to any program or need for secrecy. They died out like the western art of the mideaval sword died out- lack of need.
So, it would appear that in the 20th century there were left only two sources of ninjutsu; Fujita Seiko and Toshitsugu Takamatsu. Fujita was pretty secretive and no source in Japan claims to know of any full fledged students of his. The art died with him. Takamatsu taugth Hatsumi, who taught the students who went on to form the Genbukan and the Jinenkan.
Now, if anyone knows of any Japanese ninjutsu art that has ties to Japan, I would love to hear about them. Some people have tried to say that I have a bias against other arts since I am a potential rival. But I do not teach and I spend a lot of my time examining other martial arts in Japan. I go to demonstrations, take seminars, buy books, videos, etc. I like to compare and contrast what I do with what others do. I ahve never been able to do this with ninjutsu.
My only requirement to count an art as legitimate is that they prove a link to Japan for their instruction. I am not talking about claiming to have been taught by Fujita Seiko. If you can prove you trained with him, fine. But just claiming to is not enough. I do not accept an Asian in your family tree as enough proof. My family came from Europe and I never learned western sword. No, I require only that you prove your claim of recieing training froma source that can be linked to Japan for its training. That is not much, but no one has been able to do that so far.
I have mentioned the Bugei Ryuha Daijiten before. If you are in that book and listed as a living art, I will accept it. If not, until you show some other sort of proof to your claims, I will not. The idea that an art from Japan would not be known in Japan but taught outside of it is just too silly for words. There was evena great article at Furyu.com that deals with martial arts cults that deals with that line. Go check it out if you can.
So, the ninja died out do to a lack of interest, not secrecy. The only two sources mentioned on the internet that actually existed in Japan in the 20th century were Fujita and Takamatsu. Fujita's art died with him. Takamatsu's tradition is the only art that is still being taught today that is known in Japan and the only excuse I hear as to why some arts are not known in Japan sound
like bad Hong Kong cinema than anything worthy of discussion.
I swear, we talked abotu this before in a special thread a while back.
