Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

In the 1980s, the American Stephen Hayes, as a shôdan (first-degree
black belt), began to publish practical guidebooks of Tôgakure combat techniques
leavened with pragmatic information concerning self-protection appropriate
for modern times. Hayes inadvertently launched the ninja craze.
The ambiguous ninja ways, mysticism, magic, strategy, warriorship, ki development,
easily learned combat techniques, exotic weaponry, and artistic
expectations were a heady brew for Americans and Europeans. Two of the
ninja schools, Gyokko-ryû Koshijutsu and Tôgakure-ryû Happô-hiken,
may be used to represent the general grappling techniques of ninjutsu.
According to its own legends, Ninpô has its roots in ancient Daoist
(Taoist) China. During the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618–907), many Chinese
military leaders immigrated to Japan. Gyokko-ryû Koshijutsu, which is primarily
a striking art with some rather brutal joint-dislocation techniques,
is an example of an art preserved from this period by the Bujinden. One of
the interesting characteristics of modern ninja grappling is the use of koshi
in the application of grips, locks, and strikes. The other characteristic that
separates it from many of the sport grappling arts is that almost all the core
techniques of the art are to be done with or without weapons. Bare-handed
techniques become sword or pole weapon techniques by the simple introduction
of the weapon.
Following Daoist admonitions, weapons are referred to and treated as
tools. (The sword is not to be considered an object of beauty or worship.)
Until the end of the Nara period, Chinese ideas were dominant in the social
life of the nobles of Japan. Chinese concepts of warfare and religion
were taught as part of the education of nobles and traders and absorbed
into the daily life of the court. Laozi and Sunzi were required reading in the
Nara court. Later historians quoted by Stephen Turnbull in his history of
the ninja even referred to the families of this region as Chinese bandits who
had memorized Sunzi. During the Genpei War (1180–1185), Nara was
overrun, and the conquering samurai replaced the indigenous nobles with
their own, creating a new underclass of former nobles to be exploited and
the legendary “ninja assassin” at the same time.
Tôgakure-ryû Happô-hiken, after Gyokko, is the oldest unbroken lineage
ryûha in the nine schools that make up the Bujinden or Bujinkan Budô
Taijutsu. It was founded by Tôgakure Daisuke, a vassal of Kiso Yoshinaka,
who lost in a revolt against the Heike clan. It includes an array of unconventional
weapons and tactics such as camouflage, exploding eggs, and, as
swords could not be worn, claws and various rope, chain, and wooden
weapons. Sweeps and arm bars dominate its grappling techniques, along with
the use of some incapacitating nerve attacks. As it was developed to knock
over people wearing armor and carrying at least two swords, the movements
are deep and low going in and the escapes are often leaping or rolling.
Wrestling and Grappling: Japan 733