Antony Cummins gets it right, over 50 years late!

Discussion in 'Ninjutsu' started by Please reality, Mar 4, 2017.

  1. Please reality

    Please reality Back to basics

    Though some ninjutsu researchers believed that mizugumo(water spider) were wore on the feet, Hatsumi Sensei made a video about their use in the 60s.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEV1dDrvbVg

    Over the years, Cummins made a big deal about mizugumo, calling Fujita Seiko's ninja knowledge into question based on this which is daft considering Seiko probably knew more about the ninja and ninjutsu than Antony will ever know. Cummins even posted a video showing old European(German methinks) images of a similar device to back up his belief that it was a seated flotation device. I can't find those videos now, but here is one where he discusses the water spider.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jxs9oBeJBY


    Had Antony done his research, he would've known that Hatsumi sensei knew about this before he was born instead of thinking that he was making any groundbreaking discoveries. Typical of Westerners who don't know the culture they claim to research. SAD!
     
  2. Dunc

    Dunc Well-Known Member Moderator Supporter

    Without getting into slagging off Tony which is a bit repetitive...

    It would be interesting to explore what Soke has said about various weapons/contraptions and see how his understanding differs from the received wisdom

    For example he gave a very simple, non-mystical (& in my view valid) explanation of how the hand seals were used
     
  3. Please reality

    Please reality Back to basics

    Well, considering he made his name by trying to "slag off" Hatsumi sensei and the Bujinkan and set himself up as an authority on ninjutsu, it is telling that he hadn't researched the Bujinkan enough to know some of the things that Hatsumi sensei has been saying all along. That means poor "research," which if you want to be taken seriously as an academic, matters a lot. If you just want to run around in sweats(trainers I believe you call them) and make yourself an honorary head of a style you are recreating from old manuals and trying to teach foreigners about samurai and ninja, it is less important that you be taken seriously. Either way, facts are facts.

    ps-I did give Cummins for getting the mizugumo right by the way, just mentioned that it wasn't any great revelation in the ninjutsu community.
     
  4. bassai

    bassai onwards and upwards ! Moderator Supporter

    So , instead of moving in a more constructive direction as Dunc suggested you'd rather justify your one man crusade to defend a man who , I suspect , doesn't care about Cummins and certainly doesn't need your help.
     
  5. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    sweats = tracksuit
    trainers = sneakers

    AC is just a wanabe MA geek, who took some marketing click bait courses and decided to make money any old how.

    He's The breitbart/ Milo Y of the Bujinkan world.
     
  6. kevin g

    kevin g Valued Member

    Didn't Tanemura's "Ninpo Secrets" book clear this up decades ago? You would sit down in the opening, legs through the holes like a big floatee, and attach bamboo flippers to the feet, or something like that...
     

Share This Page