why is Kukishinden Ryu considered Ninjutsu?

[DuskB4Dawn]

we all know that Bujinkan incorporates the teachings 9 martial arts lineages. while Togakure Ryu has a very obvious Shinobi aspects. Kukishinden Ryu on the other hand feels very much like a Samurai art. the use of battlefield type weaponry and fighting in armor. it seems not well suited to stealth and espionage. So my question is why was Kukishinden Ryu included into the Bujinkan?

 

[Chris Parker]

While Kukishinden Ryu is said to have some Ninjutsu teachings in it's scrolls, it's not a Ninjutsu system. As to why it's in the Bujinkan, well, because Hatsumi learnt it and heads a line of it... there really wasn't a conscious decision to only learn and teach "ninja arts", you know.

That said, most of those we'd refer to as "ninja" were samurai... so there really isn't such a distinction between them at all.

But to deal with what is, or isn't Ninjutsu, it's important to remember that the term can be applied a couple of different ways. Firstly, there is the historical usage, which is a specific term used to refer to a particular set of skills and methods centered around the concepts of espionage, intelligence gathering, sabotage, and so on, rather than combative methods. Secondly, there is a more modern usage of the term, which is more general, and refers primarily to the overall set of skills and martial arts taught by the various organisations who trace some of their traditions to the peoples of medieval Iga and Koga in Japan, most notably the Takamatsuden groups. In that sense, rather than listing each separate art, a single name is used to refer to the overall teachings, which can be Ninjutsu, or in the Genbukan Ninpo Taijutsu, or the Bujinkan as Budo Taijutsu, or in the Jinenkan as Jissen Kobudo. They are each simply terms used to express the emphasis of that organisations teachings, really, rather than an implication that every single part of the syllabus and curriculum is such. For example, both the Genbukan and Bujinkan use the term "Taijutsu" (Body Art, a reference to unarmed combative methods), but both include weapon training in their syllabus.