Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116943 in Books
• Published on: 1982-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

This is a must have for all serious martial artist!!
In this book, Dr. Maasaki Hatsumi, 34th Grandmaster of Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu provides the reader with a true glimpse of what it really meant and means to be a practicioner of ninjutsu. Dr Hatsumi discusses the history and evolution of Ninjutsu as well as its uses and applications during fuedal era Japan and beyond. He provides exceptional illustrations, photos, and artwork of various ninja weapons, techniques, and tools. Dr Hatsumi also shares with the reader a paper on ninjutsu written by his teacher or sensei, Toshitsugu Takamatsu. In his paper Takamatsu sensei describes what being a ninja is. He discusses the ninja's duties and responsibilities along with how their influence on certain events should be felt. Whether you are a student of ninjutsu or just an interested reader, this book is a must read! I felt this book went a long way towards dispelling many of the misperceptions often associated with the art of ninjutsu.

Dropping the technique
Recently, during my ninjutsu training, I reached a plateau in learning the techniques. The movements during it were correct, but it still felt like something I was doing wasn't quite right.

After reading this I realized what I was doing wrong, as it teaches you not to hold the technique in memory, but to drop it from your conscious mind and let it become a natural movement in the unconscious mind. It's also cleared up a lot of my mistakes, taught me some extra moves and I've learned about the history of the ninja.

This book by Dr. Maasaki Hatsumi (34th Grandmaster of the Togakura ryu school of ninjutsu) is probably the most helpful information I've found outside the dojo. But don't think that you can learn ninjutsu just from reading books; it takes dedication, endurance and intention to learn (in other words, the best training possible is physically training with someone who knows the martial art). For anyone who is looking to learn the history of the ninja or is struggling in their training, I highly recommend this book. For anyone hoping to learn ninjutsu from simply reading books, although this does teach some techniques, it's not as in-depth as other books.

All other Ninjutsu is false
Please buy this book. It shows many kamae and you can get a real feel of what Ninjutsu is about from reading it. The only drawback is the stuff about Hayes. My instructor is 8th Dan, graded by Hatsumi and he highly reccomends this book. I can think of no better advert for it that his recomendation.