As you approach a more advanced stage of training, you begin to truly experience the effectiveness of Ninpo Taijutsu.  As  you progress beyond the ways of standing and moving, understanding what is meant by the "feeling of the art", and start using the Kihon Happo in an increasingly realistic manner, you start to get an idea how dangerous these techniques are when applied in earnest.  But I hope you will realize the difference between training and actual combat.  just because you can do a technique in a safe environment, with a cooperative training partner, doesn't automatically mean that you can do the same thing on the street against someone who is intent on harming you.

There are many obstacles to be overcome toward this kind of mastery, and conquering all of them takes a lifetime of training.  I am continually asked: "How long will it be before I can use martial arts to defend myself ?"  The answer is a complex one which depends on many different variables: your length of training, hours spent in class, hours spend at home practicing and conditioning, natural ability, your ability to relax, intelligence, purity of heart, the intensity of your spirit and training, and other things as well.  But the elusive skill that true mastery depends upon most is both developed somewhat through training, yet has nothing to do with fighting.  It has to do with the mastery of one's own mind.

There have been many books on the subject, but the best ones are those by the Japanese masters, of both budo and zen, especially those written during the time in history when the martial arts were practiced in actual warfare.  I will cut through the obscure philosophy and state it simply and directly.  If you think about avoiding an attacker's punch, your mind will be captured by the thought of avoiding the attacker's punch, and you will be stuck.  If you think about striking an opponent, your mind will be detained by the thought of striking the opponent, and you will miss. If you put your mind into your attacker's aggression toward you, your mind will be held by the thought of your attacker's aggression toward you, and you will lose. If you think about not being afraid, your mind will be captured by the thought of not being afraid, and you will bring about your defeat.  If you try not to think about anything at all, your mind will be captured by that thought, too.  But if you put your mind nowhere, your mind will be capable of being everywhere, and you will not be overcome.

The forms of training which help this ability are Muto Dori (No-Sword Technique), in which you face a sword wielding opponent with just your bare hands, and the other training method is called Shinken Gata (Spirit-sword Forms), our forms of sparring which is actual combat.  Do not seriously pursue this kind of training until your black belt level.  Until then, you must put your mind's attention fully into your physical body to learn the proper taijutsu and technique.  But I do encourage you to experiment with the kind of training in which you practice reacting without thinking, and begin meditating to clear your mind.  An old poem reads: "To think 'I will not think' - This too is something in one's thought.  Simply do no think, about not thinking at all."

Shidoshi Ken Harding, 6th Dan, heads the Missouri Ninja Center in St. Louis.  He started his training in 1984, has trained with Hatsumi Soke in Japan, and studies Japanese, Yoga, shiatsu, herbology and nutrition.

Ura & Omote issue of June 1995

The word "ninja" bears several meanings in Japanese language.  One of the primary meanings is "sneaking in and out".  These characteristics were unique to the ninja who as opposed to warriors of other schools, would not always choose to fight, but sometimes prefer to withdraw, and renew the confrontation at a time more suitable for himself.  If the ninja saw that his chances of winning were small, he would rather flee.

The true martial art does not merely seek victory in battle, but strives to prevent the battle altogether.  The real warrior knows how to keep himself out of trouble.  Usually, martial arts training sharpens the instincts, to enable the sense of danger and clear off in time.  But what about the rest ?  They can also benefit, if only they learn to listen to their surroundings.  We know our neighbourhood so well, that we do not look at the road anymore.  We can even climb the stairs to our house without switching the lights on.  The legs know each turn.  We can open the door to our house with our eyes closed.  We are on semi-automatic drive, and that is where the danger lies.

Most assault cases occur near the victim's house.  We are held prisoner by habit, by walking in such familiar places, while we actually focus on other matters.  That is why we fail to notice when something is wrong.  A Hebrew proverb goes: "A passing visitor notices all flaws".  This is how we should always act.  Everywhere we go, even if it is near our own house, we should see it with the eyes of the visitor, as if we are there for the very first time, instead of taking things for granted.  If the lights are not on, we had better first check why, before walking into a dark, hazardous place.  If we take a peek into our car before entering, we could see if it has been tampered with.

All this is not to say that we should become paranoid, but it does not hurt to look to the sides, too.  Awareness could keep us  out of harm's way.

Shihan Ilan Gattegno

Soke Hatsumi has no less than 28 cats in his home, along with 3 dogs and 2 iguanas.

From cats, he says, he learns the most about movement.  This noble animal can fight, but it's usually reluctant to do so.  A cat could sit days on end without doing anything except hunt for food, and it always seems to be lying on something soft like a rug, without having even one limb stretched.  Everything is relaxed.  And yet, whenever danger arrives, it'll rise at once, with every part of its body cooperating, draw its claws and pounce the target.

Only someone who'd seen a cat fight could appreciate the strategy of such a fight, which is made entirely of tenacity and incredible flexibility.  I won't analyze all of the feline qualities in battle, except for one movement, which is good also for human battles.  I had once the pleasure to see how a cat could escape from the jaws of a large, menacing Doberman.

For a human, it could have been an elephant, stampeding towards us and threatening to quash us.  This is how that cat must have felt.  In the first second it arched its back, trying to show the dog that this is not a two-months kitten standing in front of it, but rather a sizable wildcat.  But the dog was unimpressed and kept on coming.  Then, the cat jumped sideways, moving only a few inches away from the dogs attack, and then sprung up, sunk its claws into the dog's nose, scratched it all the way to the eye, and landed at the dog's side.  While the latter was coming back to its senses from the attack, trying with its relatively clumsy paws to soothe the bleeding nose, the cat ran up the nearest tree.

And so, as a human mad dog approaches us with a threat, we could do something similar: jump sideways, against the direction of the attack, and strike with our fingers and claws at the assailant's head, from behind of course.  And since running up a tree is not exactly our thing, we could simply continue by pulling his head back, and bash it in the ground once he loses his balance.  Such a technique is easy to do in theory, but in order to reach the skills required to apply it in real combat, we should learn the accurate timing for it.  Not before the attack and not after it, but exactly when it's underway.

We can find an answer for almost any mayhem we come across, if we only have time to allow it.  Response time in fighting is similar to what is being taught in driving courses: the time for breaking includes the time that passes from the moment our senses notice the event until we react, plus the time for the breaking action itself to take effect.

In fighting, this distance could mean the difference between life and death.  Suppose a malevolent hand is being raised against us.  It takes some time since we see the hand until it reaches us.  How can we respond ? We can, if we could shorten the time for reaction (meaning: we have to be aware to the danger, and even predict it) and the time for actually breaking the punch (here we have to train our body to react quickly).

Constant training of movement in combat situations sharpens our senses and makes us aware to danger, and the actual physical training makes us experienced with reacting to such situations, and thus when the time comes, we react more quickly and with much greater power.

The Ninja's art of disguise was important for the Ninja, and gave emphasis to studying the character.  But what if the Ninja's real identity was discovered after all ?  It's well known in Japan, that if a Ninja was caught before taking his own life, he was doomed for a particularly gruesome death.

He would be tied down with very thin and very painful strings, and then his skin would be peeled off one piece at a time, and finally he'd be boiled in a bubling oil tank.  His only chance of avoiding this inferno was escape.

The art of sneaking, which is one translation to the "Nin" part in "Ninja", also included escape.  Houdini himself was an amateur compared to the Ninja.  When caught and led to be tied up, the Ninja would break every convention.  The Japanese are reluctant to show pain, they'd rather suffer quietly and accept their fate.  But when an enemy would begin to twist the Ninja's hand to tie them, the ninja would immediately burst into loud cries of pain, as if his hands were being pulled beyond their limits.

The captors would react to this in great contempt, but they'd also ease their grip a little, and they'd also tie him less tightly than they'd first intended.  Once they withdrew their attention from him, the ninja would use his tremendous flexibility, pull a muscle or two in the right direction, and within seconds he was free to flee.

We can use this trick also today, and not just against someone who wants to tie us down.  If someone bends our hand, even not so strongly, we can resist a little, while showing an aching face and yell our lungs out.  In most cases, our adversary will ease off a little, and we'd able to use this to our advantage.