A critical article on the Bujinkan?

[Peter H.]

Another source for the history of the Buji on Koryu.com (http://koryu.com/library/ninjutsu.html) there use to be a larger article there on the unverifiable history of modern ninjitsu, the promise of authenticating certificates and scrolls, but then nothing was ever produced.

You also might want to look at e-budo.com in the archives, before the moritorium on posting ill of the Bujinkan when Don Cunningham raised a stink about high ups in Bujinkan giving rank to Dr. Rod and letting him teach Buj while they taught Juko Kai in some cases.

[Nid]

"Bujinkan."

"No, no. The Bujinkan."

"Ohhhhhh."

[katana]

A friend of mine recently e-mailed me to tell me that she has started training in Bujinkan.

This is important, because I think that one of the main reasons she chose the bujinkan was that she wanted to learn an ancient, preserved warrior art. I feel that she should at leat be aware of the controversies surrounding it.

Well if this is her reason then there may not be much you can do about it. However if she is learning self-defense for herself I think she would be far better off somewhere else. Most all martial arts claim some type of warrior history. The real question is: Why should she care?

If you think about it, the martial arts are completely opposite of most measures of human progress. Most martial arts measure their worth on how much really old knowledge they think they have. After all if it's old it must work right? Well not really, in fact probably not at all as most of the real-life application has been long forgotten.

One of the best parts of learning a sport-based fighting system over the conventional martial arts is that they are constantly evolving. Instead of being measured on how many old techniques you know, you are measured in how you adapt in your fighting now. Sports-based systems are constantly evolving, constantly changing and constantly offering new challenges. Modern boxers look nothing like those from 50 years ago because their techniques have been refined and improved. BJJ and MMA from 10 years ago is remarkably different from what it is today as techniques have adapted to the times. That to me is much more interesting than learning a bunch of anachronistic techniques that the teacher himself probably has never used in a fight.

I seem to remember reading something on the internet about a year ago written by an american, who had been very high up in the organisation, after leaving it. Does anyone know which article Im talking about, or have anything else for me?

There is an Alex Mordine interview here:

http://www.realfighting.com/0702/mordineart.html

He has an opinion on the subject for sure. I don't agree with all he says, but agree with quite a bit of it based on my experience in the Bujinkan.

I trained for years in the Bujinkan. The training was not a total waste but my time would have been much better spent training BJJ/MMA and not doing any traditional training styles at all. The Bujinkan has a large amount of politics, a broken ranking system, almost zero sparring, a cult-like devotion to Dr. Hatsumi and a lot of teachers who I simply think are dishonest and/or dillusional. So buyer beware.

If the girl can give you the name of the teacher you may want to ask on here about him/her. There are several posters who can give you a good recommendation for a teacher if she wants to pursue Bujinkan training.