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What is the Bujinkan?

Author: Lisa C Moore
Date Posted: November 04, 2008

The Bujinkan is a relatively new organization, which was established by Hatsumi Soke (Founder) in the last 30 years. The translation of Bujinkan is 'Hall of the Divine Warrior'. Hatsumi Soke gave it this name in honour of his teacher, Takamatsu Toshitsugu. Takamatsu Toshitsugu was the first person to gain the title of Soke in all nine Ryu, of which the Bujinkan is composed. The histories of these nine Ryu date from the eighth century. The teachings of these schools are handed down from teacher to disciple throughout a lineage of two hundred and one Soke and also thoursands of warriors under their teaching.

Bujutsu is a classical martial arts system, pre 1600's, whilst Ninjutsu is a section within Bujutsu. To think of Ninjustu as a system outside of Bujutsu would be wrong, as would thinking of the Bujinkan Dojo teaching only Ninjutsu.

Masaaki Hatsumi Soke received his teaching of the nine schools of the Bujinkan from Takamatsu Toshitsugu. In turn Takamatsu Sensei received his teachings from three different sources. These were Toda Shinryuken, Mizuta Yoshitaro and Ishitani Matsutaro. You must have a brief understanding of each of these schools to understand the Bujinkan as a whole.

What seperates the Bujinkan from other forms of martial training, such as Karate, Judo, Kendo, Aikido, etc., is the fact that the techniques studied today are the same as those formed on the Japanese battlefields in 1603. During the 250 years of peace that followed, as their skills were no longer needed, the warrior class began to undertake more humanitarian pursuits. The skills developed during that time of peace held perfection of character more important that actual combative effectiveness.

However in the Bujinkan, combat effectiveness was still held as the highest priority and it's techniques were not diluted to comply to safety. The techniques in the Bujinkan are studied for real life situations - there is no tournament competition. Training is usually carried out with a partner. Each taking turns of the role of uke (the receiver). Once the instructor has demonstrated a basic technique, the students pair up and attempt the technique. The students will then be shown numerious variations (henka) of the basic technique.

The reasoning behind this as I have already explained is that the Bujinkan is for real life. With this training a student will learn to instantly create a technique from nothing, should they need to. Real life situations very rarely play themselves out as a kata performed in class.

In the Bujinkan it is stressed that you should train with a happy heart. Shortly before his death Takamatsu told Hatsumi sensei how important it is:

The way to experience happiness is to let go of all worries and regrets and know that being happy is the most satisfying of life's feelings. Reflect back on all the progress in your life and allow the positive, creative, and joyous thoughts to outshine and overwhelm any sorrow or grief. Happiness is waiting there in front of you. Only you can decide whether or not you choose to experience it.

About The Author

If you wish to find out more about the Bujinkan then check out our site. There is also a sister site the Bujinkan store which specializes in Bujinkan products: books, dvds, t-shirts and much more

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of General Interest articles.

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