Bujinkan Santa Monica

Henka is vital to our study of the Bujinkan arts.  It reflects the world around us and the ever changing present.  I would go so far as to say that if you don't understand henka, you are not doing Bujinkan.  Hatsumi Sensei has stressed this in his near constant remonstrations not to get stuck in technique. If you are new to your Bujinkan study, how do you create henka?  Does it just spring from the imagination like a child's finger painting, or a jazz musician's solo?  Yes, and more.  In the first case a child is often learning the basics of the world around them.  They try to better control the paint to produce images, but their expertise is not there yet.  Yet they are uninhibited by failure.  And quite happy with their results.  A jazz musician has studied enough to have immense control over their technique.  Then they break away and let loose with an energetic freedom.  Most Bujinkan students are somewhere in between these. When I was first learning about henka, I

I had a great training trip to Japan and I wanted to discuss something I experienced during class with Hatsumi Sensei.  I always thought learning ninjutsu would be the ultimate goal of our training.  This year I saw something beyond that.  A new horizon for me. Students often ask me when I am going to teach them ninjutsu.  It's a valid question for an art that claims the ninja heritage.  So to answer, let's look to Hatsumi Sensei for inspiration. When I first began training in this art in 1988, most people didnt' call it  Bujinkan.  We called it Togakure Ryu, or, more often Ninjutsu.  Out of the 9 schools we study in the Bujinkan, Togakure Ryu is one of the 3 "Ninja" schools.  The funny thing was Hatsumi Sensei was teaching us many things like Koto ryu and Gyokko Ryu, but we all called it Ninjutsu since we didn't know any better.  Or maybe he was teaching that if you had eyes to see it. As Paul Masse recently pointed out in his blog post: Daruma , Ha

I'm not afraid of controversy.   This blog tackles the tough questions.  Questions sure to inflame the keyboard martial artists that troll the various forums.  One question that repeatedly flames up all over the interwebs is: Why do Bujinkan members wear tabi? I know I crossed a line.  After asking a question like that there is no going back.  If you have been hiding under a cheeseburger and don't know what tabi are, from wikipedia: Tabi ( 足袋 ? ) are traditional Japanese socks . Ankle high and with a separation between the big toe and other toes, they are worn by both men and women with zori , geta , and other traditional thonged footwear. What are some good reasons to wear tabi in Bujinkan training?  I made a list of possible reasons: If you wanna be a ninja, dress the part.  In America, tabi are all ninja baby. When you read those ninja books from the '80's it is easier to follow the foot diagrams. If you are caught by the enemy (the cops) wearing tabi gi

Daikomyosai was wonderful for me. The energetic yet subtle movement expressed by Hatsumi Sensei was very inspiring. Sensei has put a lot of faith in us to share this art outside of Japan. After hearing some of Sensei's oldest students tell their stories, the attitude they share is a sincere gratefullness to Sensei for his generosity. Many people in the Bujinkan are inspired by Sensei and inspire others in turn. I have been creating art on my iPod during this trip. This is partly inspired by Sensei. As an artist my art has often been complex. Watching Sensei make his paintings so freely has given me another direction to explore in my own work. I know my friend Paul Masse takes inspiration from Sensei too. I even convinced Paul to do a quick sketch on my iPod. I won't post it here, so as not to embarass him. He needs more training. After Daikomyosai, we were back to normal classes with the Shihan. Yesterday I visited the Tokyo-Edo museum. The museum itself is a fanta

Hatsumi Sensei's Sunday class was the most crowded I've ever witnessed. For the bow in, we filled the place all the way past the windows. Leaving at most 10 feet to the weapons rack. The rumor was that we were over 200. My friend Gillian said she didn't come for training, she was there for the spectacle. Even in that circus environment Soke managed to drop some gems of training wisdom among the crowd. If you were there I hope you found one for yourself. After training I travelled into Tokyo to meet my friends Nate and Michelle and their friend Chinatsu. This was to be a spectacular second half to my already great Sunday. First we went to Shimokitazawa to shop and people watch. We stopped for some tea that was refreshing. Next, we went for a twilight stroll through Rikugien. This Edo period garden was full of Yugen with the colors of the Japanese maple softly lit up for the evening. We ended up in Asakusa where we paid our respects at the temple and had dinner in a

Friday night class with Hatsumi Sensei was crowded. It's always that way the weekend before Daikomyosai. In years past I've seen as many as 160 to 170 people in Hombu! It makes for an interesting training experience. Soke was very dynamic in the training, and was looking very lively with his intense purple hair. If you haven't seen him with it, you can visit Doug Wilson's blog: Smoke On The Water or my own post: Iro 色: Attach to Color, Follow the Color to read all about the purple hair and what it signifies. Sensei made great use of the crowded environment. He seemed to absorb the kukan and shrink it until his attacker was crushed within. It was like the air itself had been evacuated from the space. Yet somehow, Sensei was very free in this vacuum. It was great to see my Bujinkan friends and family from around the world. I'm looking forward to some great training here in Japan. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

On my way to Japan for some training. I'm going to attempt blogging during my trip. I'm looking forward to this process. In the past, when I made these training trips, I would fill up my training notebooks with my bad handwriting. These notes consisted of descriptions of my training with Hatsumi Sensei and the Shihan. I would fill in details to help me understand what I was experiencing in each class. Some of my notes are very specific technique descriptions. Some are just poetic windows on the feeling of the class. Sensei always says the feeling is what he is teaching; it's what you should get from the class. Sometimes my notes are in the form of sketches or drawings. And at least one year my notebook preferred to keep it's blank pages intact. Notes are something that is only useful for the notetaker. my notes are a reflection of my training journey. Blogging during this journey will be an interesting addition to my process of understanding. - Posted using

We often use the sword with less formality in the Bujinkan than other Japanese schools do.  We treat it like a tool.  So even though we wouldn't use a shovel or a hammer with lots of ceremony and stylized movement, with any tool there are good and bad practices. Noto or resheathing the katana is the source of many bad habits and self-inflicted injuries for would be Samurai. Here are some tips for noto: Practice no-look resheathing.  You should be looking at your felled opponent or your surrounding environment.  The resheath should be so natural and automatic that you can do it in the dark. Gravity is your friend. The tip should just fall into the opening of the saya or koiguchi. You are not sticking it in the hole (insert bad joke here), it just drops in from it's own weight. Push the saya (scabbard) onto the sword; don't push the sword into the saya. NEVER force the sword. The saya could have flipped unexpectedly or be split open.  You don't want to injure your

When I was a kid, I played ninja.  I lurked around my neighborhood, and ambushed my little brother.  I was goofy and unaware that Hatsumi Sensei was also playing in his early visits to the U.S.  during that same time.  I now know that this sense of play is what drives the art we study as Bujinkan.  Let me use a playfully silly example to explore this: A Bujinkan formula: K(p+t)(s)=K Let's ignore K (ku) for a minute because I'm not sure that can be taught.  I suggest that: PLAY = SHIZEN. so p+t=h combined with s OR, PLAY using TAIJUTSU to produce HENKA from a state of SHIZEN. If that hurts your brain let's forget it and consider this: When I was 13 years old, Sensei stated while teaching in America: My techniques are adaptable to any situation.  It is from improvising action as it flashes into my mind.  My techniques are natural techniques. Improvisation creates natural techniques.  And now that I am 40, Sensei is still saying play! Baby animals when they p

Have you been promoted?  Were you congratulated by your fellow students?  How about your friends and family?  Random strangers? It means something very different to these groups.  What about the day after your promotion?  A week later? Five months?  With time, the promotion means something very different even to you. I can tell you what your rank means.  But first, what does it mean for you?  It is important to answer that question every time you are promoted.  Also, it is important to know what your teacher thinks it means.  If your teacher is doing his job, he will find a way to communicate that to you. The Bujinkan is not as systematic, or as definitive as other martial arts when it comes to rank.  You can take two shodan level students from different schools and compare.  Is their rank the same?  Usually not.  Teachers vary widely in their  requirements.  But does it matter?  People usually answer YES!  But I would say that it shouldn't.  You cannot compare the two.  Th

I refused to teach someone today.  He made one of the fatal errors that I discuss below.  This happens infrequently, but often enough that it makes me wonder about people.  It also gets me thinking about my own standards as a student and teacher in the Bujinkan. Hatsumi Sensei made a remark once about how students deserve their bad teachers.  This sounds odd at first, until you've met these students or teachers.  How do students achieve this? Not knowing why they want to learn a martial art. It starts here.  This informs all your choices going forward.  If you lack this answer or the answer is one you are not willing to share in public, then time to reconsider your hobby. Not researching the style. They e-mail after reading my website "Can I ask you what style you teach?" Not only does my website describe our style with a brief history, it takes all of two seconds to type Bujinkan into google or wikipedia.  How can you determine if I am a good teacher if you are

Certain members of Bujinkan Santa Monica (starts with J, ends with flames), are very excited about the upcoming movie, Ninja Assassin: Ninja Assassin is an upcoming martial arts film directed by James McTeigue and starring Rain. The film was produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, and filming took place in Berlin, Germany. The film is scheduled to be released on November 25, 2009. Now I know what you are thinking:  fuck yeah, badass!  Or, you may be thinking, what does this have to do with Bujinkan?  If you are thinking the latter, there is help.  I'm sure many members of the Bujinkan can offer relief at the end of their fist.  But, wait, I'm bringing it up.  So, what does it have to do with our training? Probably not much in terms of martial arts.  These movies are generally populated with stunts that are a combo of Wushu, Tae Kwon Do, and MMA or the fad style of the month.  Visually arresting, but kinda unrelated to our taijutsu. What this movie does d

My friend Craig Olson has written a great little book: "Chi-Haya-Buru examines the cultural significance of Japanese Uta, the venerable ancestor to the Haiku, and is a book that both historians and Japanese enthusiasts will enjoy exploring. The author cleverly navigates the linguistic composition of these ancient literary works and gives an inside look at an exceptionally rare and powerful epitaph – Chi-Haya-Buru. This well laid out, thought provoking book, reveals important cultural-historical links that look back to - and beyond - the very origins of Japan; demonstrating why Japanese Uta were prized by ancient nobility and still today remain a valuable Japanese cultural treasure." If you are like me, you stupidly repeat the Japanese phrases Hatsumi Sensei uses without understanding the depth behind the words.  Or the richness of the Japanese language and the art that we study.  Most of the time, that is difficult to change without majoring in Japanese. This bo

First try at iPhone art. Fingerpainted it all by myself! Please be kind in your judgements. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

In our class tonight we were studying some exciting bojutsu ideas. A common concern with dynamic bojutsu is accuracy. How to be accurate in a free exchange with a moving and competitive target? An answer can be found in the most basic ideas of how we use our bodies for any activity. When you reach for a cup on a table, do you miss? How about when you are walking by? How is your accuracy when you brush an insect or leaf off a friend's shoulder? Do you miss and then get hit by his unexpected counter? These things and more we do daily and rarely make a mistake. We move the frame of our bodies naturally and accuracy is a natural result. In the Bujinkan, one way we explore this natural movement is with sanshin no kata. We connect to the ground through our legs and knees, transfer this up through the frame of our spine and body structure, then connect it all at the end of a fist or strike. It is natural. Like walking. When done naturally accuracy results. In bojutsu, o

Found on Japan Newbie : Here is a great Japanese iPhone app that encourages you to do sit-ups. i-Fukkin! They should have done some research before settling on their application name though. FUKKIN is 腹筋 (ふっきん) in Japanese, which means “abdominal muscles,” and isn’t funny at all. You can use 腹筋 as a verb too and say, 「腹筋をする」to mean “to do sit-ups.” The app is pretty fun. It counts your sit ups for you. It gives you encouragement as you proceed. When you stop, it says 「こらー！休むなぁ！！！」(koraa! yasumuna!) which means, “Hey!!! don’t rest!” You also get to watch a nice cheer-girl urge you on.

When I am training, sometimes the techniques work very well on one person.  Then I switch training partners.  And everything falls apart.  What worked very easy is now hard.  What I did effortlessly becomes a struggle. Why can the same technique succeed or fail so radically?  What makes going from one training partner to the next cause my technique to fail?  Sometimes I blame the Uke.  If only he had better ukemi I think.  Or, he is too stiff.  Maybe he is trying to make me fail.  Why won't he just cooperate? But the true problem is myself, my expectations, and my failure to ADAPT. When I meet a new training partner he becomes a mirror for my taijutsu.  Every partner I train with reflects back to me a different part of my taijutsu.  Sometimes I like what I see.  And I think, what a good training partner!  I know certain people who ONLY train with carefully selected partners because it is safe.  And maybe they like the reflection they get back. But then there are those other

OK.  We had a gang killing at the end of our training last night.  We were just about to bow out, all of us sitting in seiza (except Harry who doesn't do seiza), ...  POP. POP. Pop pop pop POP! At least six shots. We saw the muzzle flash, smelled the gun smoke. I took cover.  In my mind, I thought, "gunfire, take cover." But the process was way slower than the thought.  When I found cover, another man was crouched behind the concrete trash barrel.  He said, "fireworks?" I said "No, gunshots. Large caliber." When I looked back over the concrete table, I see the young asian soccer players all scattered on the ground ( they were closer than we).  I think of the young faces of the men and women who play in that game every week. I yell at my training group to take cover. The cops arrive quickly- one apparently was patrolling nearby.  Some officers charge into the park on foot, some drive in.  They see us. They approach quickly, weapons drawn, on

I was.  For a good 10 years.  Maybe more. When I began in this art in the prehistoric '80s, no one knew anything.  Well, some said they did.  But looking back, I tend to feel differently.  Not many had even been to Japan, much less separated ninja fact from fiction.  Even something as basic to our art like Sanshin no kata, to this day, you will find fact mixed with fiction. Since we are currently studying this in my basics class tonight, I thought i would write about it.   My CURRENT understanding of the forms (open to new info), is this: What is often called "sanshin no kata," is actually only one exercise in a series.  The series includes Sanshin no kata Shoshin gokei Gogyou no kata Goshin no kata Sanshin no kata is the swingy arm movement similar to chi no kata.  But it is also a way of moving.  The whole body taijutsu that makes our techniques effective at a basic level.  It can be used in the context of nearly any technique, from kicks to grappling and t

I do.  Sometimes it is a tough choice. I am invited to a concert.  Crap, it's the same night as class. I need to upgrade my computer.  But, it's time for a Japan trip.  Only enough $$ for one. I am invited to two seminars in the same month.  Usually I have to gauge the bang for the buck to decide. I am too tired/cold/sore/bummed etc. for training.  But I go anyway. I am frustrated with my teacher or my progress.  "Keep going" as Sensei says. I could make a much longer list.  It's very easy to let life get in the way of training.  The sacrifices can be small, or quite large.  And it's different for everyone. I was having dinner with my friend Paul Masse, and he was talking about his first years in Japan.  As he put it, "Living in a broom closet.  Eating bulk rice and fish.  Wearing the same worn and threadbare clothes for years."  But he went to training.  He could have chosen not to, and bought some clothes.  I think he described this o

In our class tonight... well every night, we warm up with ukemi and taihenjutsu drills.  These are so fundamental to Bujinkan training that I do them every class. What is also fundamental is to try them ryote, katate and mute.  That is: two handed, one handed, and no handed.  This way you are prepared for nearly any situation requiring evasion or hitting the ground. Two handed gives the most control.  You can use the ground as your ally and "steer" your interaction with it or be steered by it.  You might discover something there to aid in your counter or as metsubushi. One handed can be necessary if one hand is otherwise occupied.  Maybe you are being thrown by a joint lock on one arm.  Perhaps one arm is injured.  Perhaps one hand is drawing a weapon as you evade an attacker.  In any case, you should know how to do this with the lead or rear hand. No handed is the most acrobatic.  This takes the most control with the legs.  Often when students don't use the legs

Welcome to my blog. I teach Bujinkan Taijutsu in Santa Monica. If you are in the Bujinkan, you may already know me, so Hello! Michael If you are new to this training then welcome. This blog will be my personal training log. Training in any martial art is a very personal and subjective experience. What you get from training is something only you yourself can measure. I have taken this measurement for myself for over 24 years in the Bujinkan. I run my class in Santa Monica in a personal way. I model my class after the example of my teachers: Peter Crocoll in AZ, Hatsumi Sensei and the Shihan in Japan. But there are many teachers in the Bujinkan. All of my friends, teachers, students, and training partners have taught me the richness in this art is not in technique, but in one's heart. Shinbo Ikkan!