• Culture

    Ninjutsu is an icon of Japanese culture, spawning Ninja movies in Hollywood and replenished respect for Japanese martial art worldwide.

  • History

    Japan's Samurai rulers practiced common martial art, meanwhile, the underground clans developed their own style of battle.

  • Founders

    Ninjutsu was founded by Daisuke Nishina around 1100 AD after he trained under a Chinese Shaolin monk called Kain Doshi.

  • Today

    There are many decent Ninjutsu clubs around the world these days, led by the 34th generation grandmaster, Masaaki Hatsumi.

  • Famous people

    Still somewhat a mysterious art, the most famous master of the art is probably the official leader of it – the old man Masaaki Hatsumi.

  • Style

    Ninjutsu is like a cross between Jujitsu (with throws & locks), Karate (with lots of striking), and CIA training (covert intel & improv).

What's Ninjutsu?

Ninjutsu is the old Japanese martial art of the stealthy warrior. Not just for espionage & assassins, but certainly qualified for it. Ninjutsu classes, in practical terms, usually start with basic stance work, basic punches, kicks and other strikes, joint locks, weapons practice, and lots of rolling. The rolling is done backwards, forwards, sideways, diving, falling, flying, you name it, the Ninja can roll with it. Besides rolls, there are similar techniques like flips and cartwheels, also quite popular. Ninjutsu training typically involves some formwork (katas) and lots of practical, hands-on pairwork too, even if usually very controlled and untested to the full except in the odd burst of machoness! If you get to the higher instructor levels, it gets philosophical too.