From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Wall and Trees 鎮護堂 Chingo dou, Asakusa, Japan. Photo by Michael Glenn

There is a secret hidden in 銛盤手裏剣 senban shuriken. I have seen the word senban written in many ways, such as 銛盤、 施盤、or 旋盤。All of these project different meanings.

As you know, Hatsumi Sensei often uses wordplay to expose different truths. And he wrote senban for us with different kanji that reveal a secret. But first let me tell you why you should care.

There are invisible barriers in our training. Here is one you may not know about:

As a Bujinkan student, you may come to stand on the edge of your own humanity, look down to the light side, and the dark side. And there you will find yourself. You might love or hate what you see. That’s a terrible beauty of training.

When I was young, I was not smart. I secretly ordered some senban shuriken through the mail because my parents would never have allowed me to possess ninja weapons. I had to wait everyday by the mailbox to get the mail before my parents did.

When my shuriken arrived, I quickly removed them from the package to test them out. I chose a tree in the yard for a target. I had no idea what I was doing.

I was poor in ability and aim, but the big mistake was my choice of a target. The tree stood in front of a stone wall. Every time I missed, the senban slammed into the wall.

Within 15 minutes, the metal points were dull and bent.

Now, 30 years later, I see many students make the same mistakes I did. One of the biggest and worst mistakes is like choosing a bad shuriken target. You choose the wrong reason for your training.

I made that mistake too. It was difficult to fix. I almost didn’t recover.

Why do you train? Do you even know? Have you chosen a bad reason or target?

Soke recently demonstrated 閃万飛低 senban hitei. This was a way of writing senban I had not seen. My translation is not the best, but you may read it as 10,000 flashes flying low. Imagine the flashes from a storm of metal shuriken flying in every direction.

This image can lead us to an enlightened direction. The flash of inspiration (閃き) can appear from 10,000 directions (meaning from anywhere and everywhere). But you may only perceive it by flying low, or training with humility.

If you cannot, you are the target. Your life is like a storm of 10,000 senban. And every shuriken will be aimed at you.

This is one of the invisible barriers of the Bujinkan. To truly understand our art you must erase the self. It seems like that is simple advice. Don’t be a target. Become zero.

But your reason for training appears from your own ego. That means it already is, or will become a barrier to understanding the Bujinkan. You have to let it go.

The problem is not the desire to train. The problem is that no one puts in honest effort to remove these barriers. Most people don’t get past their original motivation and they give up the idea of trying. An then so many Bujinkan students merely half-ass their training. Or they quit.

I see this in every dojo across the Bujinkan. I see it in my own students. I see it in myself.

Real Bujinkan training is not a game. It is not playing ninja. It is hard work.

If you want to to know what I work on in my own training, you can sign up for my weekly training notes: http://eepurl.com/cD5v6

So what is your reason? if you’re going to get serious about training , you have to have your “why” squared away. You have to welcome the storm of shuriken that you will face. And mentally, never give yourself the option to quit.

Hatsumi Sensei explains one ninja senban tactic like this: 心して前万に投げること、大秘なり This big secret is like carefully throwing away all of the bad parts of yourself. Then you will be invisible to the enemy behind a storm of shuriken.…

From paart budo buki by Mats "Toryu" Hjelm

Dear Budo friends,

here is few pics of plain Nagamaki, it will be several more variations, so this is first

soon more info







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From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Vending Machines, Matsudo photo by Michael Glenn

I used to have a friend who was so beautiful. She had a classical face like you would see in a Renaissance painting. Her brown skin was rich in color and smooth. She always had a bright smile for me. Then one day, I met her at the grocery store and she had deep wolverine style wounds across her face.

She had gotten into a fight with another woman who clawed her face. The scars were deep, and never went away. She never smiled the same after that. This sad story demonstrates the raw savage power of 蝦蛄拳 shako ken

Hatsumi Sensei taught us some secrets hidden within shako ken in a recent Friday night class at the Bujinkan Hombu dojo. He showed us how to use it not just to attack directly, but to shape kukan.

He held the claw up like 刀匿礮姿 tōtoku hyōshi in the space. Most of us can understand the obvious shape that brings to the kukan. The hand and arm project out from one side toward the attacker and you pivot around it as a shield. That is a very important detail that many people have yet to learn. But I email everything I learn first, so get your email here

But Soke was not teaching only about shielding. He kept trying to get us to understand a deeper, more hidden strategy. One that he has tried to teach for years.

Hatsumi Sensei use the word 片方 katahou. This is a way of shaping the kukan to one side or the other depending on the needs of the moment. Sensei said you should,

“Create Distance with one side and then take the other. There’s no need to create technique or throw the opponent. Because you have created the correct distance. Remember this waza of the kukan.”

Anyone who has trained much with Hatsumi Sensei will recognize this strategy. He often influences one side of the body to affect the other. And it usually is the opposite from whatever surface technique we might be studying in that moment.

That same night, I think Hatsumi Sensei could tell that I wasn't getting it. He told me,

"I've been teaching this kind of kurai dori for 42 years. Whether only in this fight, or in any of the seasons, I move with that time."

To drive home this point he demonstrated on me, and he said,

"There are many ways of holding this. You don't need to grab. You don't need to throw. 空間を梃子 kukan wo teko you use the lever of the kukan. Take it right here. Bring your shoulder down. It's not with the intention of throwing."

During the class break, Hatsumi Sensei painted a picture for me of a beautiful woman with long hair covering one side of her face as she looks back at me over her shoulder. When I look back through my memory, I think of my friend and the way her smile became more wistful and hesitant after the damage to her face.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Rainy Day Gassho at 霊巌寺 Reigan-ji, Koto, Tokyo. photo by Michael Glenn

In one of my classes we were studying a Gyokko ryu kata that begins from 天略 宇宙合掌 Ten Ryaku Uchū Gassho. Maybe you’ve studied this in your Bujinkan class. But even outside of Bujinkan training, if you are human, you have used gassho at some point in your life. It transcends cultures.

That night, as I recorded a training video about this for Rojodojo.com, I wanted to share even more about gassho with everybody. So what I show in the video is that there is much more to this humble kamae then you might think. But if you want to know what mysteries are bound up with this stance, keep reading.

Gassho is a general term that describes any form that brings the hands together, often in a form of prayer or reverence. In the Bujinkan the symbolism of this kamae runs deep. And the position is even sometimes called 金剛拳 kongo ken and it is used to strike or even conceal weapons.

In Buddhism the right hand represents the Buddha, and the left represents you (or all sentient beings). They come together, and one becomes the other. Some different types of gassho include 堅実心合掌 steady heart gassho, 虚心合掌 relaxed, open minded gassho, and 金剛合掌 kongo gassho (vajra, diamond thunderbolt of indestructible truth).

Each finger represents an element. Gassho no kamae holds the unity of chi, sui, ka, fu, ku in your hands. Then you rip that unity apart as the attacker enters. This feels like a void opens and the attacker falls in. But you are really expanding the unity to engulf the opponent until he is no longer an adversary.

If he continues to fight in this space, he will not survive.

You may not know that one form of gassho often shown in Bujinkan kata is called Baku-in 縛印  or 縛拳 baku ken and it comes from Mikkyo. This is a form of “binding,” tying a spirit body or physical body down so they become trapped in a form of paralysis. But it is also for collecting yourself to bind or set your own resolve.

Then the kamae becomes 子持虎の構 komochi-tora no kamae. Hatsumi Sensei told us to start with kongo gassho, where you are unified with the whole universe. This is not a fighting stance. It is the tiger protecting her cubs. Your opponent will see it in your eyes.

Set your mind on perseverance. But if the attack comes, watch out! It can flip like the child holding the tiger.

Gassho no kamae unifies all of the universe within you. Then when you receive the attack, you tear this unity apart into a duality. Like ripping apart yin and yang, or 陰 in and 陽 yo. And that is the large void that the attacker is sucked into.

But you cannot really divide yin and yang. They cannot ever be ripped apart. That is like making the sound of 忍び手 shinobi te, a type of silent clapping, or bringing the hands together without making a sound. What do you hear in silence?

What really happens from gassho no kamae? It expands the unity within yourself to include even more. The attack, the defense, nature, even Kami… All included within the space. This is Shingin Budo.

As you expand like this, all of your ego, strategy, preconceptions, muscle or force, and technique grow smaller and smaller. The more you expand and allow into yourself, the less important and useful they are. You empty yourself more and more to make room.

During all of my trips to Japan last year, Hatsumi Sensei asked us to allow Shingin Budo to fill up this empty space in the void, in the kukan, and in ourselves. But even Soke cannot show you how. Each person has to find their own path to get to that open place.

Clap your hands everybody, and everybody just clap your hands.…

From Bujinkan Santa Monica by Michael

Masaaki Hatsumi Sensei Explains 師逢和瀬 Shiawase. photo by Michael Glenn

I had a simple plan to teach 片腕遁走型 Kata Ude Tonsō Gata. But during my preparations for class that night, I was overcome with gratitude toward my teachers. It seems there was a secret power bound up in this kata.

It can be described as 師逢和瀬 Shiawase. Let me tell you how I discovered it.

The Bujinkan has made my life rich. I have made so many friends all over the world. Thank you to my students who come to class and allow me to study with them. Thank you for reading this and for watching my videos or subscribing to my training website. Thank you to everyone who invites me to teach seminars.

I prepare for every class I teach. I feel I owe it to my students to do my home work. But I don’t just owe it to them, I owe something more to my own teachers.

I have studied the kata I was planning for this class with many teachers over the decades. But one of my favorite moments was studying this with Hatsumi Sensei under the Japanese maples during the year of the rat. I wrote a 5 part training series about this for Rojodojo members that begins:

In the ’50’s Hatsumi Sensei met Takamatsu. One rainy morning under the maple trees, Soke bound that connection to all of the Bujinkan… (linked)

師逢和瀬 Shiawase is a play on words. Normally it uses different kanji and means しあわせ shiawase: happiness;  good fortune;  luck;  or blessing. But with the kanji Soke uses it suggests that by meeting a master teacher you will find good fortune and happiness. Or even, that simply finding a master teacher is good fortune in itself.

As Soke told us that day under the Japanese maples, don’t sever your connection with the kukan or you’ll suffocate. His playful admonition is really telling us that the kukan is full of mystery, and it holds all the history, teachings, and connections that I share in the 5 part training series published on Rojodojo. I don't know why anyone would choose to break away from this rich heritage.

For me and my students, the circle is full when I teach something like 片腕遁走型 Kata Ude Tonsō Gata. My own students can trace their introduction to this fundamental form of ninjutsu from me directly to Hatsumi Sensei, and then to Takamatsu, back through the generations. This is the secret power hidden in a simple kata.

We are very fortunate to have these insights available to us. I have to humbly thank my teachers and my students for keeping this connection alive so we can receive this treasure and great history of our art.

If you do not understand what you are missing, then get connected. This is how you cultivate good heart and spirit. Then the Bujinkan will be better with you in it.…

From paart budo buki by Mats "Toryu" Hjelm

Here is one of possible version of Naeshi for pracice,
made from beech wood, length is 40 cm.
Naeshi  usual is truncheon (metal bar) similar Jutte but without Kagi(hook), in few shapes and this is one of them.
To some Naeshi is 25-30 cm long and 1-2 cm thick in diameter, it could be made from iron, bras or wood.
The cross section could be round, square with cut edges, hexagonal or octagonal.
Naeshi may have a Tenukihimo(cord) with Fusa(tassel) attached on round or heart-shaped ring to keep weapon secure. Sometimes Naeshi refers to any wooden stick shorter than three shaku(90 cm), also known as Nayashi.




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From paart budo buki by Mats "Toryu" Hjelm

Here is few  photos of O-Dachi bokken, that was made in March 2013,
still work on saya toool for this kind bokkens.
Length of blade is 130 cm, and length of tsuka is 50 cm with 114 hishigami under itomaki










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