Of course Santa's real, who else do you think eats the cookies and drinks the milk you leave out for him on Christmas Eve?
See this post: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=515667#post515667 The difference was more in "emphases in application" than the arts themselves. See http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=592382#post592382 Ninjutsu was for the most part a military specialty, and many samurai ryuha included elements of ninjutsu in their training curricula. The Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto ryu is one of the better-known ones which still survives. Another is Kukishin ryu, originally a naval military (samurai) system. . .which also happens to be one of the nine arts within the Bujinkan today. So it's natural that there would be -- and was -- a lot of overlap in fighting styles and training.
a little something to clarify onyomi: "I see now that the line between samurai and ninja may not have been as distinct as I once thought... though I never assumed that Samurai only killed people in the most elegant fashion possible... but still a little confused... so, some samurai were also ninja, but not all samurai were ninja... but all ninja would have considered themselves samurai???" I wish I could draw a good Venn diagram of this for you . . . Here is a semantic distinction: Samurai were a ruling class of warriors - "samurai" referred to someone who was a warrior, but also someone of a particular social caste. Those social classifications no longer exist, therefore, samurai no longer exist. As I often like to say (syntax borrowed from Forrest Gump) "Ninja is as ninja does." A ninja was/is a person who does ninja things - it is not a social class, a profession, or a title. So, yes, some samurai were also ninja, but not all of them. Not all ninja would have considered themselves samurai either. One didn't have to be samurai to be ninja, but it did make some things easier - like aquiring information and resources. A person today could be a ninja, but it depends on your definition of what a ninja is. With my definition, "ninja is as ninja does," all you have to figure out is: What does a ninja do?
there are still people who practice voodoism/black magix/witchcraft etc. and we dont know who those people are. so there also can be ninjas that still practice there own family arts. hey man u never know. there is no proof they still exist nor they dont exist..its like believing in christianity...up to u to believe or not...called faith. or watever hmmm?....
Its not hard to understand. People still might practice ninjutsu secretly. I practice ninjutsu publicly. We are both "ninja", therefore, we exist. Do we go out on missions and chop peoples heads off? No. Therefore, ninja, in the terms I THINK you are using, dont exist as secret deadly assassins of the night. They are just people who practice martial arts. Nothing too special about that.
Me Hatsumi Ninja...erm, apparently I'll tell you what I found quite funny is that when I was in Noda City, walking along a street by the train station heading towards the Soy Sauce factory. Now I wasn't wearing black pyjamas and a mask, nor did I have on a large white headband with the word, "Ninja" written on it, I was only carrying a 'Jusco' shopping bag filled with all those tasty pastries we Gloucester Bujinkan lot loved so much while we were out there, when an old man approached me and asked, "You, Hatsumi ninja?", I smiled and said something along the lines of, "Me train Hombu Dojo...erm,Bujinkan", to which he replied, "Ah, Hatsumi ninja, I very good friend of Hatsumi". Well I never would have classed my self as a ninja, just someone who's doing a very enjoyable martial art, but I'm glad he thought so.
Well, not sure if that's what it was called, but it was Mrs. Tobe's house. It was sort of like a Bed & Breakfast set-up run by herself with the help of her mother and another nice lady. What I couldn't get used to was "Ohyo-Gosaimas!" at half past eight every morning.
