Masaaki Hatsumi: Difference between revisions
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=== Middle East === |
=== Middle East === |
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*[[Doron Navon]] 15th Dan, (now lives in Japan) |
*[[Doron Navon]] 15th Dan, (now lives in Japan) |
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*[[Moti Nativ]] 15th Dan, Israel |
*[[Moti Nativ]] 15th Dan, Israel |
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*[[Ilan Gattegno]] 11th Dan, Israel |
*[[Ilan Gattegno]] 11th Dan, Israel |
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*[[Jacob Hazan]] 11th Dan, Israel |
*[[Jacob Hazan]] 11th Dan, Israel |
Revision as of 21:16, 24 October 2006
Masaaki Hatsumi (初見良昭 Hatsumi Masaaki, born December 2, 1931) is the founder and current headteacher of Bujinkan Dojo martial arts organization.
He graduated from Meiji University in Tokyo with a major in theater production, and later opened his own chiropractic clinic in Noda city.
From his childhood he studied many martial arts, including judo and western boxing. During this time, he was instructing American soldiers in the art of judo, and noticed because of size and strength superior to his Japanese comrades, they were learning in months what typically took a Japanese judoka years to master. In this, he began to question himself and his training. It was after this time, he began studying ancient kobudo weaponry under Toshitsugu Takamatsu.
In 1957 he began making his weekly trips to train with his new teacher in Kashiwabara, taking a train ride some several hours one way. He did this every weekend, and was able to train with his sensei often.
From Takamatsu he inherited the position of sōke (headmaster) of 9 ryū (schools of martial arts):
- Togakure-ryū Ninpō Taijutsu (戸隠流忍法体術)
- Gyokko-ryū Kosshijutsu (玉虎流骨指術)
- Kuki Shinden Happō Bikenjutsu (九鬼神伝流八法秘剣術)
- Kotō-ryū Koppōjutsu (虎倒流骨法術)
- Shinden Fudō-ryū Dakentaijutsu (神伝不動流打拳体術)
- Takagi Yōshin-ryū Jūtaijutsu (高木揚心流柔体術)
- Gikan-ryū Koppōjutsu (義鑑流骨法術)
- Gyokushin-ryū Ninpō (玉心流忍法)
- Kumogakure-ryū Ninpō (雲隠流忍法)
He has held training seminars for the FBI, CIA, the Mossad and for police in Britain, France and Germany. He has served as a martial arts adviser to films such as the James Bond thriller "You Only Live Twice" and the television miniseries "Shogun." [1]
The first foreign student of Masaaki Hatsumi was Doron Navon of Israel, who studied since 1966 for 8 years and returned to Israel in 1974 to open the first Bujinkan Dojo outside Japan. Doron and his senior stuudents made Ninjutsu famous in Israel but only when his American student Stephen K. Hayes began appearing in martial art magazines in the late 1970s did Masaaki Hatsumi came to the attention of the western world. The techniques that Hayes demonstrated in these magazines were then referred to simply as the techniques of the Ninja. Westerners craving knowledge about these ancient systems of self defense sought out the teacher of Hayes and, thus, Hatsumi-sensei was introduced to the west. He first came to the United States in 1983. He later traveled and taught throughout Europe. Doron Navon, who was the first non-Japanese to pass the 5th-Dan Saki test, accompanied him to all the seminars to translate from Japanese to English and vice versa.
In the 1990s Hatsumi-sensei began teaching the nine schools under the banner of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. His training began to move from the pre-arranged kata and henkas, to teaching to grasp the feeling of a technique instead, to try to feel what makes a technique work under the most dire of situations. This principle is called shinkengata, and represents life/death situations.
His Bujinkan system is comprised of the nine ryū (schools) listed above, and has a ranking system as follows:
Mukyu (commonly called 10th kyu) - White Belt 9th - 1st Kyu - Green Belt (Red and White Patch) 1st - 4th Dan - Black Belt, Shidoshi-ho (Black and Red Patch with Stars) 5th - 9th Dan - Black Belt, Shidoshi (Black and Red Patch with White Border, and Stars) 10th - 15th Dan - Black Belt, Shihan (Green and Orange Patch, with Stars)
Well-known senior students taught under Hatsumi-sensei
Some of his more well-known senior students include:
East Asia
- Toshiro Nagato 15th Dan, Japan
- Isamu Shiraishi 15th Dan, Japan
- Phil Legare 15th Dan, 10th Dan Shinkenjutsu, Japan
- Fumio Manaka 10th Dan, Founded the Jinenkan Dojo in 1996, Japan
- Shoto Tanemura 8th Dan, Founded Genbukan Dojo in 1984, Japan
Middle East
- Doron Navon 15th Dan, (now lives in Japan)
- Moti Nativ 15th Dan, Israel
- Danny Waxman 13th Dan, Israel
- Ilan Gattegno 11th Dan, Israel
- Jacob Hazan 11th Dan, Israel
- Yossi Tshuva 10th Dan, Israel
- Moshe Zouler 10th Dan, Israel
Europe
- Pedro Fleitas 15th Dan, Spain
- Steffen Frohlich 15th Dan, Germany
- Brinley Morgan 15th Dan, Manchester, England
- Sveneric Bogsäter 15th Dan, Sweden/Holland
- Arnaud Cousergue 15th Dan, France
- Lubos Pokorny 15th Dan, Czech Republic
- José Manuel Collado 15th dan, Spain
- Andrew Young 14th Dan, Sweden
- Michael Cartwright 12th Dan, Yorkshire, England
- Marc Moor 10th Dan, Budo Warrior Schools, England and Wales
- Bo Munthe 9th Dan, first European to spread Ninjutsu in Europe. Swedenz [citation needed]
North America
- Ed Martin 15th Dan, Pennsylvania
- Richard Van Donk 15th Dan, Soke of Decuerdas Escrima, California
- Jack Hoban 15th Dan, New Jersey
- Roy Wilkinson 14th Dan (Judan Fugyo), Georgia
- Yost Fulton 14th Dan, Michigan
- Greg Kowalski 14th Dan, Connecticut
- Bud Malmstrom 10th Dan (Judan Kugyo), Georgia
- Matthew Hildreth 10th Dan, New York [2]
- Robert Hamilton 12th Dan, Florida [3]
- Bonnie Malmstrom 10th Dan, Georgia
- Stephen K. Hayes 10th Dan, Founder of Toshindo and Quest Centers, Ohio
- Bernard Grégoire 10th Dan, Canada [4]
- Stéphane Meunier 10th Dan, Canada
- Joe Maurantonio 10th Dan, New York
- Jeff Mueller 10th Dan, Maryland
- Sean Askew 10th Dan, Kentucky
- David Dow 10th Dan, California
- Joel Everett 10th Dan, California,
South America
- Christian Petroccello 15th Dan, Argentina
- Rafael Antonio Franco 10th Dan, Venezuela