hello all!! I would like some illumination on this!! i have read a few books on bujinkan, and what i understand is that there are 9 different styles that you learn??? can you not just train in Togakure ryu or Gyokko ryu specifically? also what are the requirements in your school to achieve a shodan?(do you have to study all of the various systems etc...) Just Curious! Namaste! KageKi
I suppose you could train in just one Ryu if you wished, but your knowledge and skill would probably only be a fraction of that of somone who has been taught all the 9 Ryu's.(they compliment each other very well) I beleive kurohana recently reached shodan, so he will praobly be able to answer any questions you have on that.
Unless you study with Hatsumi, I'm not aware of anyone who teaches just one of the Ryu the make up the Bujinkan. Just out of curiousity, why would you only want to study oneRyu? The Ryu that make up the Bujinkan compliment each other so wonderfully that you would be missing out on so much by concentrating on just one of them. Criteria for Shodan? Varies from school to school. I got mine because my Teacher felt sorry for me doing this for 20+ years and not having anything to show
study one ryu?? why would i prefer to study one ryu?? well the thought of studying 9 ryu at the same time strikes me as odd, but then again i have not studied with the bujinkan so i dont know personally how well they work with each other?? to me(my perspective) it would be like studying goju ryu, ****o ryu, shotokan, wado ryu(plus 5 more ryu i cant think of any more karate styles off the top of my head lol) etc... all at once. the thought of an old adadge comes to mind "a jack of all trades and a master of none". plain and simply i would prefer to master one at a time to get the most out of it??, i dont know if that makes sense considering my lack of knowledge about the bujinkan , like i said i have only checked out a few sites and read a few books please illuminate me!!! Thank you!
Okay, I think I understand what you're saying. But, you are looking at it from a totally different perspective than how it is taught. Each of the 9 Ryu that make up the Bujinkan compliment each other, instead of fight against each other. You may learn a technique and be months before you are told which of the 9 Ryu that technique was from. Or, you may learn that technique as Togakure and then be shown and work on it from a Gyokko Ryu view point. It's still the same technique, but now you are viewing it form 2 different perspectives. Some people don't ever bother learning which Ryu are which, they just train and become quite proffecient, and others qant to learn from day one which Ryu is which. My suggestion, don't worry about the Ryu, don't worry about how many schools. Just train. Later on, you can disect each technique and learn where it came from and why it is done that way.
9 ryu melding I see your point now, so it would be better to study them together, but what about in old times when these ryu were all seperate?, are you saying they are all incomplete, and that the clans back then were using systems that we're not as effective as the bujinkan is today????
Hmm.. how to answer this one? Originally they were seperate (with the exception of 2 that were originally one and then split off and came back together with Takamatsu). Takamatsu brought them together and refined them. Testing them in Japan and China. The best person to answer this would be George or SilentNightFall. Guys? Help?
Hmm... Well, this is quite difficult to respond to; however, I think you should look at it like this. Long ago, the schools that now make up the Bujinkan were seperate and specialized in specific methods of movement and particular weaponry. Now, yes, you could spend a lifetime and never master any one school or weapon. So, why then, do we study "nine" schools instead of just one? Notice I use the term "nine" loosely as two of the Ninjutsu ryuha (Kumogakure ryu and Gyokushin ryu) have not been studied, to my knowledge, by very many in the Bujinkan with the possible exception of the Japanese shihan, and even then such training may have only begun very recently. I believe the reason we study nine is that they do fit so well together. Sure, studying one school could give you ample fighting abilities. I'm certain that in wartime, it may have been better to specialize in a certain weapon and methodology for many reasons. In present day, however, we get to study schools that mesh incredibly well, expose us to more than two weapons or so, and learn how to move using angles, circular movement, up and down motions, etc. The bottom line is that you could learn a particular school and have specialized talent in that area if you found someone to teach it to you, but in the present era, the schools have come together under one grandmaster and are now only part of the whole. Personally, when it comes to combat, I prefer having many option on my way of moving as well as the knowledge to use chain weapons, knives, anything you might swing like a sword, etc. rather than having practiced, say, the escape and stealth methods of Togakure ryu for years and only be able to use shuriken, shuko hand claws, etc. Just my perspective and I hope that it has been able to help you some.
there were some teachers focusing on only one or two schools - 15 or 10 years ago. my guess is that they had trained with Hatsumi for a short time only, so they had only learned few of the techniques and variations... what happened to those among us that trained with those teachers? sooner or later we met the Bujinkan and decided to throw away the black belts, wear the white again, and begin learning the complete 9-schools system.
So will the american budo taijutsu practictioners ever have a chance to learn the 2 unlearned ryu? I plan to study for the rest of my life however I would want to learn everything i possibly can.
These threads have related info: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16854 and http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18057 which had a good link: http://www.bujinkan.co.za/H4b.html This site has a lot of clear information as well: http://www.jigokudojo.com/faqs.htm
Kaoru, I am certain that you can plan on learning Gyokushin ryu and Kumogakure ryu at some point in your training. My guess is that Soke felt that there was no one ready to handle the taijutsu of the unlearned ryu until recently and thus he waited until some individuals got a firm grasp of what was already on their plate, as it were. Currently, I believe Soke is working on his next video which is supposedly on Kumogakure ryu. What will it include and will the taijutsu differ greatly from that of, say, Koto ryu and Gyokko ryu? Only time will tell. Personally, I am happy to stick with what ryu are well known thus far. There is a story out there of what Hatsumi-sensei did to three high-ranking shihan after some student asked about learning the other rare ryuha, Gikan ryu, in the middle of a Takagi Yoshin ryu-based class. Let's just say that he demonstrated how even high-ranking instructors had not yet mastered a simple thing such as Muto Dori from one of Soke's first videos and thus was the reason he would not be showing any Gikan ryu on that day. Still, I will be anxious to at least view what material is in my future of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu study.
We learn the bujinkan as a whole but our senior also has a lot of info on the separate schools so we get to see some broken down every now and then.
