Author: Michael Glenn

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

flower across from the pillar of Kyōbashi. Photo by Michael Glenn

Next week I will travel again to Japan for Bujinkan training. My 3rd time this year. That may seem excessive, but the experiences I enjoy each trip help me discover the “secrets” of our art. For example, here is a lesson from Hatsumi Sensei that taught me how to be a lucky ninja.

One Friday night Hatsumi Sensei was showing us ninjutsu. Sometimes people who don’t understand our art ask, “when is Hatsumi Sensei going to teach ninjutsu?” Well he teaches these secrets all the time. But the secrets are hidden in plain sight… If you understand what you witness.

He began by striking with a koppo ken. But the koppo ken doesn’t arrive directly. It is hidden within the pattern created in the kukan. Soke said,

“Don't strike in one pattern. Expand into a ninpo type feeling.”

Then he called me out to demonstrate. I punched. He started to perform what I thought would be a ganseki nage. But that evaporated. And as the form disappeared I was thrown by something else.

Then Hatsumi Sensei said that we cannot hold onto form. Don’t let what you are holding become an obstacle.  He continued to say that もっけさせる mokke saseru is a きまり句 kimari-ku of ninpo taijutsu.

Well, this saying of ninpo is quite deep. It has layers of meaning. Mokke is something unexpected, like a mysterious apparition. But, to keep it simple, we can just consider that doing the unexpected in a fight can lead to victory.

But “mokke” can also refer to getting lucky, like a sudden windfall. Except here you create your own luck. In another class I had with Hatsumi Sensei many years ago, he said,

“you have to be the type of person that lucky things happen to” 

So how did Soke create his own luck when he threw me? He made the form of ganseki, then let it go. In that gap, that space that opens up when the form is abandoned, freedom occurs. And the opportunity to “get lucky” appears.

Many martial artists struggle with this. People who are attracted to martial arts tend to want to control a fight, control danger, control themselves. But, if you are holding onto form or seeking to control a situation, there may be no room for luck.

You should make room for own luck. Just add your email to get the details about my latest Japan training. … Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

日本庭園 nihon teien in Aoyama. photo by Michael Glenn

You might learn one thing in class, and then another time, you learn the opposite. Ura and Omote. These are not contradictions, but rather they are part of one another. Like 陰 in and 陽 yo.

In my own classes, we recently studied 隼雄 shunū and 隼足 shunsoku. For these mutō dori, Hatsumi Sensei has suggested that we don’t try to catch the opponent’s sword. Instead we should entrap the sword’s very existence (生き様 ikizama).

This means you don’t focus on the weapon as a physical object. You focus on it’s entire existence in space and time. What is the weapon’s potential in any moment? Soke says,

“in mutō dori, the past present and future, the time before drawing the sword, after drawing, or when the sword has been re-sheathed., what may be called the nature of the sword’s existence(生き様 ikizama) … one entraps that.”

This is because the nature of the sword itself is not a threat. One moment it may be tucked in a corner or sitting on a rack gathering dust. In a different time it is red hot metal being hammered into shape by the smith. In all of the sword’s existence, how much of its life is spent in violence? Maybe just the space of one breath.

While this gives us some insight and philosophical strategies for mutō dori, there is a flip side. Last week I taught the opposite of entrapping the sword’s existence. What is this ura of mutō dori?

In this class, we were drilling 居合間合 iai maai using Gogyō no Kata. You have all heard how important sanshin is in Bujinkan training. And this is one example why. When you truly embody sanshin, you can do it with any weapon.

But people can’t. Someone who knows perfectly well how to do sui no kata... you give them a weapon and suddenly they fumble. This is where the ura side of mutō dori can help.

The opposite of entrapping the sword’s existence is to set it free.

For example, instead of trapping the sword’s existence, we set it free. This is the way to “use” any weapon. Let the nature of the weapon itself free as you move through space and time. Then the patterns of the weapon’s existence can emerge to protect you.

This is what sanshin teaches. It is 自然観 shizenkan, an insight of nature. Soke said that Takamatsu Sensei told him that having 自然的度胸 shizenteki dokyou (natural courage) was the most important. This is what arises out of the sword’s existence when you set it free. This is what you can learn from the 生き様 ikizama of sanshin.

If you want to study sanshin with me, here is the seminar schedule: Upcoming Bujinkan Sanshin Seminars… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Shadows in Soke's window, photo by Michael Glenn

Last night I did an omote gyaku on my opponent’s wrist by kicking it out of the air. Then I rode it down to the ground where the wrist would break as it is crushed to the earth by my foot. But I had the control to just pin it down.

My students were very surprised. But so was I. I have seen Hatsumi Sensei apply locks before where the opponent’s body just seems to assume the form of the lock without any contact from Soke. I first heard Soke describe these “shadow techniques” (kage no waza) during one of my trips to Japan in 2003.

I never understood them before and definitely never thought I would be able to do them. But during my trip to Japan this last summer, Soke helped me put the final pieces of this puzzle in place. So now here I am, surprising myself with my own kage no waza.

You must train deeply to learn all the elements that make kage no waza mysteriously arise in the kukan. And I have been puzzling over this ability for years in my own training. Here is one key piece of the puzzle that Hatsumi Sensei personally shared with me so I could go home and study his feeling.

We were practicing multiple attacker scenarios in the Bujinkan Honbu dojo. One attacker grabs both of your wrists, the other kicks or punches at you. Then Soke told us,

“Don’t try to control him right away, just have a lot of ゆとり yutori (breathing room; elbowroom;  leeway;  room;  reserve;  margin;  allowance;  latitude;  time). The connection is very important. You don’t have to throw him or show anything pretty.”

We all tried to do as he said, but most people in the dojo fought with their partners. Hatsumi Sensei laughed while he watched me struggle with my opponents. He took pity on me and came over and asked my to grab his wrists. Then, my two training partners attacked him.

From the moment I grabbed him, I felt like a pawn. He was using my own attempt to grab as a weapon against all of us. He very casually tangled us up and left me floating in space with my training partners collapsed beneath me on the tatami. I had to twist my body just to not fall on top of them.

Soke stood there laughing at me as I hung in the air.  Everything he did was so casual. There was no rush, no force. When I recovered my balance he told me,

“You do this without waza. Wakarimasuka? Do it with tsunagari.”

Not with technique, only through 繋がり tsunagari, which is connection. Did I understand? Usually when something is above my skill level, I understand things intellectually or in theory. But this time I understood the feeling with my body. And something more…

Hatsumi Sensei decided to share more of this lesson with the whole dojo. He said,

“Use your elbow here.  Don’t try to do anything, just put it out there. Keep it attached to your body. Study this way of connecting one to the other. Don’t show that you’re trying to take something…
…remember that the connection is the reality. It’s the waza, but it’s not the waza.”

Ha! This is what I wanted to tell my own students last night. They stood there looking at me like I had done a magic trick. But it was just an extension of the training I had done with Hatsumi Sensei. This is the kind of magic that fuels ninja mythology. So we are very lucky to find it in our everyday Bujinkan training.… Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

Not so clumsy Butterfly at Nihon Minka-en. Photo by Michael Glenn

When anyone tries the ura waza for our Bujinkan Sanshin no kata for the first time they “blunder and fumble like a moth,” in the same way I quote clumsily from Faulkner. I show it to them, then they try it… then crash and burn. You can almost see the synapses misfiring across the hemispheres of their brain.

Not many Bujinkan teachers train the ura waza of 三心の型 sanshin no kata. And our bodies get used to the kata we always do. In my own classes, I use many approaches to sanshin to keep us adaptive. Each time we do it, it should be new again.

I will be teaching this as part of my Rojodojo Expert Rally if you want join us in Phoenix or Chicago. If you can’t make those cities, you can invite me to visit your dojo. As Hatsumi Sensei says, these things are 参考書 sankousho (a reference) for training.

I felt new again when Hatsumi Sensei showed a very practical use for the ura waza of sanshin no kata during one of my visits this year to Japan. He was showing how to use kakushi buki and he said,

“It's like the sanshin no kata. You go with the body like this.  When you don't have space (kurai dori for a 狭い semai, narrow confined, small space) you do it like this. Study that when you can't move.” 

We all tried it, but I think you can’t master it immediately. Especially when your brain and body are used to the kata you normally do. When I teach this ura waza, I literally start with putting one foot in front of the other. If you can get that small detail, you are on your way.

We should not try to be experts all at once. Rather, we should strive for the process of continual small improvements in training. It is the aggregation of these marginal gains that leads to mastery. I hope to see you at one of my Rojodojo Expert Rally’s! You can also join my email list for future updates. … Read More

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael Glenn

In a recent class we studied Bujinkan uke kihon gata. I demonstrated how to physically do a jodan uke. But here is what I wrote in the training notes that I send out to my subscribers:

 "performing jodan uke begins with an attitude. Remember, uke comes from 受けるukeru which means to receive. There are three important moments when I  have to remind students of this: during ukemi; when performing uke nagashi; and even when being an uke."

But the fourth moment for this attitude is the MOST critical for your Bujinkan training. It is so important that I made a video about this word that you can watch below:


you can also watch this on http://youtu.be/2pN1StVJhD4
receptive. that’s the sense
of an approach

no, more of an attitude for training.

some students arrive clear and receptive
others show up closed off
should they even be called students?

those who insist they are open
are the most dangerous to themselves
Their attitude fills them like the zen master’s
teacup. Can I serve them any more tea?

When I am a training partner. I receive.
In this moment I am filled with knowledge.
Do I even care that my role is to lose?

I receive an attack. this is the flip side of my counter.
Not a block.
after, I reverse the flow.
just enough
to match for that which I was given

I float here. In the space.
My ukemi protects me not because I am good
But simply receptive.
comfortable in my own space
that belongs to everyone else too. … Read More