[Kungfoolss]

Subject: News article titled, "Secrets of the NINJA"

Source: Midweek June 19, 2002 edition (Midweek is a free newspaper delivered to all
island residents weekly)

Excerpts -

"....Mark Saito...the grand master of a family tradition of ninjitsu, the fighting art of the ninja,
which stretches back 30-odd generations in the Saito clan, according to family legend. Saito
ninjitsu, says its grand master, stays faithful to the early forms, eschewing the showy kicks
of chinese styles and the straight-ahead fisticuffs of karate. It's a more fluid style geared
toward neutralizing an opponent in close quarters with a deft dodge and a fusillade of short,
sharp, frighteningly well-placed punches that "allow you to take a man apart at the seams."

...Saito demonstrates these moves in a hypothetical fight with his assistant, a human prop
whose job is to wade into his masters trap and absorb the inevitable blows. The 50-year-
old Saito clearly relishes each wallop, stopping at one point to declare, "I love this art" as
he clinically maps out a combination of punches starting at the neck, moving down the torso,
and culminating in "the killing blow" to the testicles of his adversary, which "scrambles his
eggs.

"I can teach you to do some miraculous things, if you stay with me long enough," Saito,
with a gleam in his eye, tells his admiring pupils. Apparently one of those incredible skills
is Saito's ability to keep a straight face when recounting some of the legend surrounding
the family art. As good as delivering an entertaining sales pitch as he is delivering a punch,
Saito recounts how an angel bestowed the magical prowess of the ninja on his clan
generations ago in northern Japan, how they learned other fighting techniques form
benevolent mountain demons, and how past Saito family members have been able to rise
up and fly through the air.

As if suddenly realizing he was talking to a skeptical reporter, Saito admits that all that was
"probably 95 percent legend." But he insists he's seen traces of the old magic in his father.
A carpenter by day, Saito recalls once walking high up along ceiling joists at a work site
with his father when the elder Saito dropped all the way down to the floor and then rose
effortlessly back up through the air again to where he had been. "I've seen my father do
some incredible things. Incredible."

Kungfoolss, Scourge of the theory-based stylists and the Dominate Prevailing Force in the martial arts political arena

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