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Masaaki Hatsumi

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Masaaki Hatsumi
Masaaki Hatsumi

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):

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]

Masaaki Hatsumi came to the attention of the western world again when his student Stephen K. Hayes began appearing in martial art magazines in the late 1970s. 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.

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)

Some of his more well-known senior students include:

  1. AP HANS GREIMEL Last ninja: ‘Be able to kill your students’
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