We discussed the movie “Ninja Assassin” in an earlier blog post. I got a lot of strong comments about what the movie was and what it could have been.

Did you get a copy of the “Ninja Assassin” movie on Blu-Ray? Be sure you check the “Additional Features” section on the menu. Blu-Ray only; not the standard DVD.

Before the film hit theaters, the producers flew me to Los Angeles to tape some commentary on the historical background of Japan’s real ninja. Also in the interview is actor Sho Kosugi from the movie, commenting on cultural perceptions of the ninja, and a local California martial artist showing some commercially available imitations of ninja weapons.

I was impressed with the producers.

Clearly, they were making a movie to entertain large audiences. They were not making a movie to please a tiny group of ninja historians. They did not write the script to fit the notions of a small group of traditional ninjutsu practitioners.

Think about the honesty and integrity of the “Ninja Assassin” producers. They did not have to acknowledge an alternate reality at odds with their story. They did not have to hire me to talk about training with the actual ninja of Japan in the 1970s. They could have just let history go and focused on promoting their entertaining film.

How about that? “The Godfather” DVD did not interview an actual mafia don. “The Da Vinci Code” DVD did not include an actual Vatican bishop. “Star Wars” DVDs did not interview an actual astrophysicist.

The “Ninja Assassin” DVD did nonetheless recruit and interview an actual practitioner of historical Japanese ninja martial arts with a view and story quite different from what they portrayed on the screen.

For Hollywood, that is pretty brave, pretty high integrity, I think.

Here’s a brief follow-up to my admonition to remember to include greenery on your martial arts dojo kamidana spirit shelf.

A few friends wrote and chided me for not personally teaching them what they needed on that shelf. “How are we supposed to know? We didn’t live all those years in Japan like you did,” seemed to be a reasonable indignant response.

(Awkward pause for effect)  Uh… Well, try looking around.

You’ve been to my dojo.

You have seen photos of my school on the internet.

You have read the books that describe how to set up your dojo (page 10 of Ninjutsu; The Art of the Invisible Warrior).

See it. Do it.

I am never not teaching.

Never.

Some friends asked me what I thought of the movie Ninja Assassin. “So how real was it?” some asked.

“Real? What can I say? It was a real movie, and it was about ninja assassins,” was all I could reply.

“No, I mean is that what ninjutsu really looks like? How real was the stuff in the movie?”

What am I supposed to say? Would you ask the CEO of Toys R Us how “real” he thinks the Nutcracker Ballet is in terms of its depiction of the way toys come alive at night and dance around under Christmas trees? What could he say?

“Yes, but, you were trained in ninjutsu in the 1970s, and you saw all the 1980s ninja movies, so how real was it?”

Well what did YOU think when you watched the movie Ninja Assassin?

Is it possible that a very old ninja tradition could become corrupted to the point where it no longer lived up to its original ideals and became something grotesque? Could that be real?

Is it possible that one of the very best students could become so disappointed with the corruption that he felt compelled to leave as a statement against the degeneration of the tradition? Could that be real?

Is it possible that the other students would feel so threatened by – and perhaps even envious of – the moral stand of the rebel, that they all banded together to eliminate the rebel lest their own degeneracy be exposed? Could that be real?

Is it possible that the students could be so blinded by their resentment of the rebel that they foolishly stuck with outmoded training that had them fighting modern assaults with antiquated defenses? Could that be real?

Is it possible that because the art was allowed to pass into the hands of degenerate students, conventional fighters in the world would be so busy snickering and eye-rolling and ridiculing “ninjuhz” that they would not recognize what an incredible martial art it was and would not appreciate the power for good that the rebel was trying to offer them? Could that be real?

How real was Ninja Assassin?

I don’t know what to say. What do you think? Real, or totally impossible?

Let’s go way back in time, back to the early 1980s. Think of a time when there was no internet, no DVD, no self-publishing, no MP3, no YouTube. Old enough to remember such a time?

We had magazines. We had books. Those were my only possible channels for getting word out to the world that there was a new possibility in the martial arts – the training legacy of the ninja. And those channels were owned and controlled by a tight group of business people known as “the publishing industry”. If a publishing company did not believe that:

• My credentials were authentic
• I was capable of delivering what I claimed to deliver
• I could write effectively and engagingly
• What I wrote was true and verifiable
• I was disciplined enough to deliver a finished manuscript on time
• Other people would want to read what I wrote
• What I wrote was important enough to see print
• What I wrote was a good investment for the publisher (“I would make them money”)
• What I wrote would add to the prestige of the publisher’s reputation
• What I wrote would so impress readers that it would lead to even more books or articles that would make even more money and prestige for the publisher

…then there would be no way for my message to see print on paper.

Back then, if I were just some silly barely-literate inarticulate poorly-skilled but big-ego wanna-be in a less than mediocre martial art method, I never would have made it in the door of a publisher, and never would have seen my work in print by a reputable company. Of course those were the days before YouTube freedom to willfully and thoroughly embarrass ones foolish self in the eyes of the entire world.

Back in the early 1980s, a new 3rd realm of publishing arose next to magazines and books. Videotape instruction became the new darling of sports trainers and instructors. But early videos focused on the sports of the wealthy who could afford the technology required to watch videos. Everyone knew that martial artists are notoriously lower-class poor as a group (as opposed to golfers or yacht crews), and so the big question was, “Would martial arts instruction ever make it to video?”

I was approached by Robert Clouse, director of “Enter the Dragon”, Bruce Lee’s final film, with a proposal to do a 2-tape VHS video exposition of the ninja martial arts. The company was Hawk Films, the producer was Nigel Binns, and I along with 3 other hand-picked martial stars flew to Ashland, Oregon, to film our four individual projects.

Those two VHS tapes were important in that they gave the world a first-hand look at what was only a frozen-pose 2-dimensional presentation on a page up to that time. I way over-packed the presentation with everything I taught – unarmed classic combat, unarmed modern combat, bo staff, Japanese sword, hanbo cane, shuriken star blades, kusarifundo chain, Ryutai Undo body flexibility, and stalking and climbing. The tapes sold like crazy in the 1980s and into the 1990s.

We eventually converted the two tapes to two DVDs, and added some updated footage. I was a little nervous preparing to watch the reissued scenes. That was 25 years ago when those were filmed. I was middle-30s in age. What if I now embarrassed myself with what I thought was cool or skilled back then but was now only amusing? What if by redistributing those original videos, I accidentally created my own embarrassing YouTube-style exposure? What if I wished everyone would forget what I had done back then?

I watched. I smiled. I nodded “yes”. Young guy in that dark beard way back then did not let me down today. I am delighted to see that what was real back then is still eye-opening today. One training friend (who admitted he was not even born when the originals went on sale) claimed the “paper napkin diner defense” was worth getting the whole set for. One friend cheerfully admitted to what he called “lifting” the sword segments and running them as a Black Belt Club course in his karate school, and he actually looked good with his copycat movement. A few Quest Center owners had school parties for viewing the DVDs together.

The set is now “back from the depths of the vault” and available if you would like to own a piece of ninja history in the Western Hemisphere. CLICK HERE to preview some scenes on your screen. I heartily recommend the DVDs, I am happily relieved to be able to report.

Are you upgrading when you take a small obscure military specialty from a bygone age and give it a new role improving the lives of a new century of beneficiaries? Or is it a desecration of the historic, an affront to the spirits of those who died fighting to hold their homeland free from invading occupiers?

Fortino Napoleanico, south of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea coast, was originally built in the early 1800s as a small fortress. As part of Napoleon’s empire, the fort and its troops blocked British sailors from coming ashore to a spring to replenish freshwater supplies on their ships in ongoing war between France and Britain.

Long after that war, the fort was converted to a seaside hotel. Rooms that housed French troops, supplies, and gunpowder now serve those seeking sun and relaxation. If the remote fort had been restored as a museum, it may have attracted a few Italian tourists. Upgraded as it is now, the Fortino serves a far larger population who enjoy gourmet Italian cuisine, luxurious rooms, rest, rejuvenation, and the beautiful beach at the former fortress. Rumiko and I stayed there for awhile this summer during a visit to Italy.

Is it possible that some might have opposed the conversion to hotel, preferring to keep the fort as a museum piece? Doubtless there were such voices. But visionaries prevailed. A relic became a resort.

I faced a similar decision with my martial art years ago. I could have kept the art in museum preservation and served a tiny group of people who might have enjoyed imitating 1500s Japanese espionage and combat. That would have been a fun hobby, but would have provided very little benefit for my community and other communities around the world.

Only by upgrading the obscure art of the ninja intelligence gatherers of Iga in feudal Japan did the art come to benefit people in the 21st century world community.

To restore the hotel to museum condition, it would take only a few cosmetic tweaks and the fortress would be back. Similarly with our martial art, we could easily make a few minor changes as to how aggressors attack in training, and we would be back to 16th century Japan. The Fortino and To-Shin Do ninja taijutsu are identical in that both still hold their original structure, but now serve far more people with far more benefits thanks to a few strategic upgrades.

My vote is obviously to revitalize the relic so that it serves far more people in many new ways, without removing any of the core essential qualities that brought it into life in the first place.

Secret scrolls of the warrior sage are what I set out to find when I left for Japan in 1975 in search of the ninja. As a young man, I longed for contact with the wisdom of the ages. What if there really were special secrets guarded by generations of warriors sworn to the highest of protector ideals?

I had a hopelessly improbable goal in Japan, but I was driven by unstoppable intent. Like some tragic hero in an epic novel, I was ready to give up all in hopes of finding a master teacher who could reforge me into the man I longed to be, and I ended up plummeting through heart-tearing seasons of dark nights on my way to finding brightness.

The warrior can only become a sage in his advanced years, after all the battles have left him with deep insight into the human condition. He has witnessed courage, nobility, and virtue, along with false bravado, arrogance, and cruel righteousness. He has seen true bravely and abject cowardice. He has seen needless battles waged in rage, and he has seen leaders bow to brutes in hopes for peace but only to find slavery. He has, in the words of my own teacher’s teacher, “looked out through a veil of tears” at the horrors of what fighting struggle brings to the ones we love.

Decades earlier in his life, the Warrior Sage was most likely a Cool Young Dude exuberantly in the competition ring, or perhaps a Crisp Young Soldier marching into the field of combat, or perhaps an Intense Young Romantic swept into a rebellion or civil war forced upon him. He may have even relished the idea of testing himself in man to man combat just to see what it felt like to vanquish another in a contest of strength, will, and fighting skill.

It takes more than a life of rough encounters to turn the warrior into a sage, though. One can have much experience and yet still remain ignorant. To become warrior wisdom walking the world, one must thoroughly observe and analyze and transform as a result of the experiences. The sage earns his sagacity by facing the worst and finding the best, immersing in ugliness to learn of beauty, crawling through hell to realize heaven.

When I left America for Japan in the 1970s, I was a disillusioned black belt in my mid-20s. I had grown increasingly restless with the direction I saw martial arts taking in my homeland. Meditation-calmed young monks learning incredibly effective protector fighting skills taunted me from the Kung-Fu television series, but where was that experience in the training halls of an America in which I perceived martial arts growing flashier and shallower and shriller each year. I did not want to study with a martial arts rock star. I was looking for a warrior sage.

What are you looking for in your search for your path? How will you know when you have found the source for the answers to the burning questions churning in your heart? What do you say when others less idealistic than you smirk and ridicule your vision of all you could be? How do you reply when they urge you to sell out and join them in the smallness they live? Take heart. There are indeed some master teachers out there who welcome the intensity of your heart. Do all you can to hold your vision and prepare for just the right moment. The teacher will appear in your life ready to share, if only you stay true to the bigness of your dreams.