Matters such as magic lineages and the like are a difficult subject to write about. One cannot write authoritatively because magic, beliefs, magic lineage – all these things are like religion, they exist largely in the human mind in the form of subjective experience.
Nonetheless they are something I know about and have had a great deal of experience with.
Among the nine schools of the Bujinkan there is a less-studied school of Ninpo called Gyokushin Ryu. Not much is known of this school since Soke Hatsumi has chosen not to share much from it. One of the few techniques from Gyokushin Ryu Ninpo involves a strange weapon called the kyoketsu shoge.
There’s this trick that is done with the shoge, with the rope, based on the scenario that a Gyokushin Ninja is swinging the ring at a foe and launches it at him in an attempt to bean him with it, but the foe catches the ring. DOH! Denied! But wait! The Ninja expertly throws a loop down the rope back over itself and ensnares the attacker’s wrist. He may repeat this feat with another loop over the attacker’s head, or other wrist. He then reels the bad guy in and defeats him with the hooked knife.
I’ve tried for years to master this skill. It’s one of a handful of mystical and rarely mastered skills in the Bujinkan among which are Bo shurikenjustu and one-handed cartwheels. I can throw the shuriken.
Last month a senior master-instructor who is living and studying in our area demonstrated this skill with the shoge once and all of the sudden I got it.
I became slightly obsessed. I set up a practice station in my kitchen and began throwing 50 to 60 loops a day until my arm was too sore to continue. Now I’m a master of this ancient and esoteric ninja technique. It was during this strange shoge-enlightenment that I finally understood the reality of the concept of magical lineage. The instructor had the chip, and he passed it to me, somehow someway in a process that comes as close to magic as chanting Nam myoho renge kyo itself.
Lineage is a concept that plays heavily in the marketing of martial arts. If a sword teacher is able to claim he is a descendant of a Samurai family he is practically guaranteed a healthy student enrollment and yet that teacher may have received no actual instruction from his Father or Grandfather who themselves were products of the suppression of the Japanese martial culture following the defeat of Japan in WWII.
Religion capitalizes on the concept of lineage in a fashion even more magical than martial arts. In the Bujinkan of Masaaki Hatsumi our magical lineage is based on Hatsumi Soke’s personal relationship with the last true Ninja, Toshitsugu Takamatsu. Prior to that the lineage to the nine ancient schools is considerably less clear, and that’s ok. We have Soke Hatsumi himself whose martial arts evolution has truly become a magical thing.
What I’m working up to here (if you haven’t figured it out already) is the lineage we in the SGI claim to have with Nichiren Shoshu, who we maintain and defend as the sole legitimate school of Nichiren’s Buddhism via the sole successor Nikko Shonin. It is not important to the context of this blog that it was the SGI themselves that so ruthlessly exposed the myth of a continuous lineage of Fuji School High Priests. What is important is that the myth of the magical lineage must be accompanied by some tangible evidence of its magic in order to be a useful magical thing.
In the end we can justify our magical connection by the existance of a tangible product or result. What Soke Hatsumi is teaching the members of the Bujinkan is a level of budo beyond anything that has previously been seen in the world of martial arts. I myself can now pass the loop with the shoge, truly a work of magic (if you were me you’d know this to be true) but what do we in the SGI have as proof of our connection to the Daigohonzon and the Taisekiji? We carefully subdivide the Fuji school lineage (which is good) from the current High Priest (which is bad), but what do we have as proof of our lineage of magic?
What proof is there that our magic is real? What do we have that they don’t have? Or more importantly, is the myth truly worth the price we pay for it?
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi
Posted by revgreg at April 15, 2005 06:12 AMI saw a Discovery channel or Learning Channel documentary about ninjas sometime last year. Those who were incorporated into the Imperial guards were put to covert work as the palace gardeners...the most trusted guards of the emperor's household. Always seen but never suspected, and class-less or beneath notice.
best,
Dan
....kinda puts a new tilt on 'weed whacker'. Bill Murray, Caddyshack,... ninja? Hmmmm....
Hi all,
My understanding is that ninja were the originally guerilla warriors from certain provinces that were holdouts against the warlords in the 16th century. In the 17th century they were co-opted as the Shogun's covert forces - kind of like spies or assassins. Could one say that they are similar to Navy Seals or the Army's Rangers - an elite force capable of stealthily spying out the enemy and taking out particular targets before anyone even knows they are around?
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Try this out for starters.
http://www.ninpo.org/ninpohistory/ninpohistory.html
Rev. Greg
Posted by: Rev. Greg at April 18, 2005 04:47 AMWill someone please tell me - WHAT IS A NINJA?
Posted by: Queen Lolo at April 18, 2005 03:10 AMYesterday my middle son, who is 9 years, asked me, "Are ninjas real?"
I answered, "Yes."
He asked, "How do you know?"
I said, "I know one. His name is Greg. He has a ninja title, 'Shidoshi'".
He said, "Really?"
I said, "Yes."
He said "Cool."
Tonight he came in while I was reading this blog. He saw your name. He asked, "It that the Greg that is a ninja?"
I said,"Yes."
He said, "WOW!" and ran off to tell his brothers that ninjas are real.
It was magical.