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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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...