What is Ninjutsu?

[AriesKai]

Hello everyone,




I would just like to ask those who are well-educated in the subject of, "Ninjutsu"; What is Ninjutsu?

I'm not asking, "What is the name, and what does it mean?"

I'm asking, "What IS Ninjutsu, and what is in it's curriculum?"


I've done some online research about Ninjutsu and have found that there are some 'tribal clashes' and 'disagreements' between Genbukan and Bujinkan so please... let's not turn this into a big flame-war.

I've found many different names, acronyms, terms, and other things that is in the Ninjutsu curriculum; many including Japanese words and names; these I have no idea of what they mean, what they are, or how they are explained. Is there someone out there that can help me with this?
Some of my questions are about the different 'clans' if you will (such as Genbukan and Bujinkan) that are out there, and what they teach (NOT what 'one teaches better than the other' or 'what one does that the other does not'. Again, I don't want to start another flame war. I'm here to ask questions peacefully).
Other questions are concerning what exactly is taught in the curriculum from names to the various styles (such as Taijutsu) to the names of the specific techniques in these styles and what they do.
So I can get a good idea and a clear view of what to expect (should I begin training in Ninjutsu); I would like all of this to be in order, and how these teachings can affect you in the real world of today.



The main question at hand:
What (specifically) is in the curriculum of Ninjutsu?
How does one who trains in the art of Ninjutsu train in this curriculum?
Is the training alive, and how can it affect you in the real world today?


If you're currently training in the art of Ninjutsu, or have trained in the art of Ninjutsu; perhaps you could share your knowledge and experiences in both training and in real life experiences where you used Ninjutsu?


Perhaps this is something that can be answered for many others (including myself).

Thanks!

 

[Omar B]

I see no evidence of clashes between Bujinkan and Genbukan. One grew out of the other, they attend each other's seminars and are pretty similar but for teaching method.

"I've found many different names, acronyms, terms, and other things that is in the Ninjutsu curriculum; many including Japanese words and names; these I have no idea of what they mean, what they are, or how they are explained. Is there someone out there that can help me with this?"

Could you be more specific? It's all in Japanese, it's hard to know what you do or don't understand if you don't point the specific words out ... didn't you spend like a year in Japan you said so I'm assuming you have some fluency? I only spent just a couple days over 6 months.

What's specifically in the curriculum? Lots, about 9 times the amount of material that's in a karate curriculum.
How does one train? Depends on the organization, how structured or free flowing they are.
Is the training alive? Depends on what you call alive, many people experience real alive training and quit schools because it's too rough. It does prepare you for the real world though.

 

[xJOHNx]

I suggest you look at the Genbukan site, the subforum on Ninjutsu here and on the bujinkan site. In no particular order.

The genbukan site: because as I've found out a while ago (thanks to Bruno and Chris), there is already alot of information on there.

The specific subforum: because there are already a couple of topics dealing with your questions.

The bujinkan site: never seen it myself. But would be the first thing I would look at if I had interest in training in it.

and the curriculum... Jinenkan came from Bujinkan aswell, if it is still somewhat similar.. listing the whole curriculum of kata would be overwhelming.

good luck

 

[AriesKai]

I see no evidence of clashes between Bujinkan and Genbukan. One grew out of the other, they attend each other's seminars and are pretty similar but for teaching method.

Just type in "Genbukan" in "Google". I have a feature on my internet browser where in google, many different possibilities come up for what I may be searching for.
One of those is: "Genbukan vs Bujinkan".
I went ahead and entered that and found this!
Then there's THIS.
Now I personally don't hold any credibility over Bullshido.net; but at least there's something.
In the thread in our forums, a gentleman talks about how "Genbukan does this that Bujinkan does not".

The reason I say there is a clash, is because I've seen and heard of many instances where one "clan" or "group" says, "Our training is better because we do this!" and the liking...

"I've found many different names, acronyms, terms, and other things that is in the Ninjutsu curriculum; many including Japanese words and names; these I have no idea of what they mean, what they are, or how they are explained. Is there someone out there that can help me with this?"

Could you be more specific? It's all in Japanese, it's hard to know what you do or don't understand if you don't point the specific words out ... didn't you spend like a year in Japan you said so I'm assuming you have some fluency? I only spent just a couple days over 6 months.

Nah, I went to an Elementary school on a Naval base for about 5 years. I only learned typical words and phrases. I'm not fluent by any means. Like you said, it's all Japanese; but I don't know all of the names.
What i'm looking for is all of the names and what they mean (in regards to the Ninjutsu curriculum).

What's specifically in the curriculum? Lots, about 9 times the amount of material that's in a karate curriculum.
How does one train? Depends on the organization, how structured or free flowing they are.
Is the training alive? Depends on what you call alive, many people experience real alive training and quit schools because it's too rough. It does prepare you for the real world though.

What specifically? All of it. I really don't know the first thing about it, except for that it has Taijutsu, it uses swords, and that it has techniques for escaping/evading. Overall, thanks.. that helps... somewhat lol.

 

[AriesKai]

I suggest you look at the Genbukan site, the subforum on Ninjutsu here and on the bujinkan site. In no particular order.

The genbukan site: because as I've found out a while ago (thanks to Bruno and Chris), there is already alot of information on there.

The specific subforum: because there are already a couple of topics dealing with your questions.

The bujinkan site: never seen it myself. But would be the first thing I would look at if I had interest in training in it.

and the curriculum... Jinenkan came from Bujinkan aswell, if it is still somewhat similar.. listing the whole curriculum of kata would be overwhelming.

good luck

What I'm looking for, personally, is a brief explanation on everything that is taught in Ninjutsu. Everything.
Listing all the names of kata's and everything would be nice, because it would give me a basic idea as I skimmed through it... but at least you could provide something basic.

The reason I posted this thread is so someone could answer all of these questions on one single thread, versus having multiple various threads that answer several different questions.

 

[Tez3]

Oh dear.

 

[AriesKai]

Oh dear.

Is there something wrong..?
I'm just asking some questions... nothing harmful.
If someone doesn't understand the question, they can either re-read it, or ask me to be a little more specific in my question.
I personally believe that my question is very simple, very basic, and doesn't need to be specified at all... but I will elaborate my question further if needed.

What everyone else does from this point is out of my reach.

The only wise and mature thing for everyone else to do is answer the question... or don't reply at all.

 

[jks9199]

Read the stickied posts at the top of the forums HERE and HERE. You may want to pay special attention to the thread titled What is "Traditional Ninjutsu"? as well as Ninja Forum FAQ: and Newbies posting on Ninjutsu, Please Read.

And that's as much reinventing of the wheel as I feel like doing for you.

 

[xJOHNx]

What I'm looking for, personally, is a brief explanation on everything that is taught in Ninjutsu. Everything.
Listing all the names of kata's and everything would be nice, because it would give me a basic idea as I skimmed through it... but at least you could provide something basic.

The reason I posted this thread is so someone could answer all of these questions on one single thread, versus having multiple various threads that answer several different questions.

Better ask chris about this. He's more able to explain it.

As for some more information in the meantime:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taijutsu
& http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bujinkan

the nine schools are listed and explained if you click through.

 

[Tensei85]

Found this for Bujinkan, don't know how accurate but it looks interesting...

http://www.ninjutsu.com/shodan-curriculum.shtml

 

[Tensei85]

Sorry, xJohnx I was typing a reply the same as yours. It looks like your link is more comprehensive, A.K. so I would discard mine.


Thanks,

 

[Tensei85]

Found this link interesting as well on Genbukan
http://www.genbukan.org/cgi-bin/site.pl?genbukan_techniques

 

[AriesKai]

Read the stickied posts at the top of the forums HERE and HERE. You may want to pay special attention to the thread titled What is "Traditional Ninjutsu"? as well as Ninja Forum FAQ: and Newbies posting on Ninjutsu, Please Read.

And that's as much reinventing of the wheel as I feel like doing for you.

Well, thank you for being so generous!
Every little bit helps! :uhyeah:


(PS: I'm glad I posted on the "BEGINNERS CORNER" section of these forums! Perhaps this entire thread can now be liquified and evaporated! FORUM NOOBIE->myself<-FORUM NOOBIE)

 

[Draven]

What (specifically) is in the curriculum of Ninjutsu?

Varies from school to school, I've seen Bujinkan Schools too deadly to spar & others that its required. For the most part there are schools of ninjutsu beyond the x-kans and even within the x-kans its very different from school to school. Personally I trained with one of those "fake ninjutsu" schools (which I'm happy) that curriculum consisted of Jujutsu/Taijutsu, Weapons; swords, knives, shuriken, chains, sticks and staves, nunchuku, kama, kusari-kama, spears, tonka and before anyone says anything about the Okinawan weapons involves we also trained with handguns and rifles and an AR15, Winchester 700 & AK47 aren't tradional weapons either. I also had training in wilderness survival, herbal medicines, philosophy, tactics & strategy. Not to mention all the stalking and stealth training.

How does one who trains in the art of Ninjutsu train in this curriculum?

We the basis is primarily in taijutsu/jujutsu and for me that was mix of kata (no resistant training) & included randori (sparring). We used padded weapons, chalk knives & even did "war games" where we could apply the stealth and tactics training.

I've done sparring blindfolded; reflecting night fighting restrictions, sparred multiple opponents, trained/sparred on uneven and slick surfaces & did ambush drills standing in the middle of 10 people I was "randomly attacked" before sparring to deal with random assault encounters.

Is the training alive, and how can it affect you in the real world today?

Depends on how you mean affect me? As far as alive; its adaptable on several levels. For one thing we have 4 ranges of combat; projectile weapons range, reach weapons range/striking range, close weapons range/infighting range & grappling/groundfighting range. I can use a piece of glass as shuriken, a broken bottle as knife, a tree limb as hanbo and I can break contact and get away from a threat if need be.

Does that help you..?

 

[xJOHNx]

Sorry, xJohnx I was typing a reply the same as yours. It looks like your link is more comprehensive, A.K. so I would discard mine.


Thanks,

it's because of my ninja speed

 

[AriesKai]

(*SHORTENED DOWN*)
Does that help you..?

Good Lord, Yes sir/ma'am it does!

Thanks!!!

 

[Bester]

Read the Traditional forum here. Ignore the frauds like Tew, Kim, etc. Did I mention read. It's all there. Don't play games with us and we're happy to talk.

 

[AriesKai]

Read the Traditional forum here. Ignore the frauds like Tew, Kim, etc. Did I mention read. It's all there. Don't play games with us and we're happy to talk.

Thanks! :asian:

 

[Bester]

Don't thank me yet. This site has a wealth of information on Ninjutsu. Several high ranking and experienced types from the various Kans, and few legit indy groups. We share, but we don't have much patience with frauds, game players or kids who watched too much DragonBall Z. So, I repeat my comment. Read. Read alot before jumping in. You'll save yourself much grief.