Do you agree with Antony Cummins' perception about both Ninjutsu and the Ninja?

Has he actually declared himself "soke" though? I've never seen it stated explicitly.

As far as I know he had the school reconstituted with the blessing of the Natori family via some ritual which apparently has a precedent in Japanese koryu's. That being said its pretty clear it's his own thing with him at the 'organiser in chief'.

The amusing thing is that the 'ego' aspect makes Natori ryu today pure Gendai Budo rather than anything Koryu, which I think is what Anthony really wants... and would be treated as such precisely for the same reason that the Bujinkan isn't treated as koryu (even if it has two genuine verifiable Koryu schools in it)

Koryus are more about the 'umvelt' the world view/Internal culture of the school which act as its primary driving force, rather than a cult of personality of it's head which is the case in Karate, aikido, Bujinkan etc.. In short no Koryu practitioner ever really says "Soke says", because it's the tradition that transmits via the Headmaster, who is at best the latest in line of guardians/guides of the tradition. The very fact that we are taking about Anthony's Natori Ryu, rather that Natori Ryu that happens to have a guy called Cummings as its headmaster is the problem.

That he is a novice oddly enough is not the problem. It's that I'm not convinced that he has ingrained in him the 'Umvelt' (morals, aesthetics, traditions) of Natori ryu... but there again perhaps no-one does...

 

To be honest I've never seen him saying it on video but rather just overhearing it from others so hey, I could very well be wrong. I'm a novice myself but the thought of calling myself a soke makes me cringe.

 

From the horses mouth:



He sees himself as a 'project leader'

 

I'm Fairly 'meh' about him.

I think bringing to light old ninja manuals is on the whole a positive thing. His finding and translating Chikamatsu's Shigenori's manual with both Iga and Koka glosses, is I think of particular importance, particularly the section on how Iga/Koka shinobi viewed Sun Tzu's art of war.

Sure there is the whole issue about how accurate or overwrought the translations are: If you check Anthony's Shoninki vs Claude Schedlers translation of the Shoninki it becomes clear that Anthony definitely puts his own spin or emphasis where perhaps a more austere translation would be better warranted. If I ever get any more disposable cash to burn I might be tempted to compare Don Roleys translation of the Bansenshukai and the Shoninki with the Anthony's version.

That being said I think some things need to be settled straight. Anthony does not actually translate the manuals himself. As far as I understand they are translated by Yoshie Minami (who contrary to some juvenile ******** peddled out there is not his girlfriend) who having a BA degree in Linguistics from the International Christian University does have some translation skillsets, but also other translators and antiquarians such as Takashi Shimizu, Professor Tesshi Furukawa, and a particular academic who has credentials in translating classical Japanese but it widely uncredited in most of his books. She was on his website but now is suspiciously missing. There is no doubt that he is guilty of some unnecessary padding in some of his translations, none of it that worries me that much if you want to get a general gist of the material.

The problem though starts when he claims he was part of the Bujinkan. As far as I understand he did receive some training by Dennis Bartram who was a Bujinkan practitioner in the UK,



but the few pre-author pictures have of him in a black Gi with a patch which was definitely not the Bujinkan one, or any one of the xkans, Nor does anyone else remember him being part of the Bujinkan and paying his dues. So why claim that he was part of the Bujinkan?

Then there was his trip to Japan to the Bujinkan dojo of which there are contradictory accounts. I'm not even going to try and tease out the truth of that mess.

And then there his constant unwillingness to look at Togakure Ryu as a separate entity in the Bujinkan. Its one thing to say that there is no hand to hand combat in historical ninjutsu and present your evidence to support your theory as Anthony does, but then refusing to grapple that Togakure ryu gata are for the most part escape/anti arrest physical techniques rather than fighting techniques is intellectual dishonesty. It has been pointed out to him the nature of Togakure ryu numerous times on social media, but he hand waves it away and refuses to engage with the concept. He has made his own mind up based on his own preconceptions.

 

Yeah I have heard of similar accounts. Would've liked to have been the fly on the wall

 

Just because he has that jealous ex girlfriend attitude anytime anything with the Bujinkan is brought up. Curious as to what it is about the organization that seems to keep him up nights