OT: Danny - when did you want to be a ninja?

redvenom

redvenom

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Aug 15, 2000
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Danny,

(Always wanted to ask this - please satisfy my curiousity :D)

When did you realize you wanted to be a ninja?

I have a personal interest as I was fascinated by the history of the ninja from a young age and have several books authored by Stephen K. Hayes, who I understand was a former student of sensei Hatsumi.

But unlike you, I didn't have the testicular fortitude to pack up, leave a life behind and go to Japan to fulfill my dream.
 
I'm not Danny...

but I wanted to be a "ninja" from an early age. (Now I realize that I was born too late and I'm not Japanese, but that's a different story.)

I moved to Ohio to train with Steve Hayes when I was 22. Steve...well, Steve has really great daughters and his wife, Rumiko, is scarey good.
Since then, I have trained with:
Shawn Havens
Bud Malstrom
John Orth
Steve Drouillard

and, one day, I'll make it to Japan! :D

I think most people training in the Bujinkan were attracted initially by Steven Hayes' books. Many of them started training with Steve, and then went elsewhere. Steve tended to write things in a way he thought was likely to be "cool" and attract the widest audience, honestly. The whole "element" thing- the idea that every kamai, every kata- can be divided up into just a handful of feelings and movement styles, is gross oversimplification. (Am I speeling things right? Am railly tarred. ;) )

If anyone lives around Atlanta, or some parts in TN, I can make recommendations. :)

John
 
Well, I guess my earliest ninja-related memory was seeing some samurai armor in the Fort Worth Museum of History when I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade. That would have been around 1978 or 1979, I think. I was a very boyish boy, I liked guns and swords and knives and stuff..
When I saw that armor, though, I developed an instant taste for Japanese military history and its trappings. Just a little looking into things and I was hooked. I got a "real" ninja sword when I was ten for my birthday. I collected shuriken and hung them on my wall.
At that time, there were no ninjutsu dojos anywhere! I had to go to tae kown do and judo like everybody else, but I remember both of those schools hanging shuriken and other "ninja like" weapons on their walls which they didnt actually use or know how to use. (they were guilty of intimation)

I started wearing the tabi around fifth grade, and as soon as Steve Hayes had set up the shadows of Iga ninja association, I joined.
Of course, I never actually got to train being 12 years old, but it didnt matter to me. I used the teachings I learned in Steves books and tried to be a ninja from my first year of middle school on.

Believe it or not, things I learned in those books DID actually help me climb that big rope in PE, something I never thought I could do.

Most boys are interested in guns and knives, ninjas, football, cars, beer, girls and a corner office. (in that order, chronologically)
I never got past the ninja stage and my love for this art has never diminished. I have always recieved good things for what effort I put into the study, so I have to say that it was a good choice of obsessions.

I had plenty of classmates who got better grades and acted as mature as they could act who were in trouble with drugs or worse by the time we all graduated high school.

I think you can change your quotidian life (job, clothes, home) to adapt to the environment,(everybody has to work) but your earliest callings, your earliest loves, will always be with you and only when you are fulfilling them will you ever be totally happy.
 
" Most boys are interested in guns and knives, ninjas, football, cars, beer, girls and a corner office. (in that order, chronologically)


I never got past the ninja stage " DIJ


One might think, based on the pictures of the lovely beauties (w/bad teeth!) that you share with us, that just a touch of the girl stage made it into your psyche. :D :rolleyes: :footinmou



~ bamboo
 
well there is a series of stages within the ninja stage itself.
You know, a universe within an atom, and all that....
 
Let me explain what "being a ninja" means to me.
In the bujinkan, people with ego problems dont last long. One must discard the machismo and the ego in order to accel in this art. As a result, I have been blessed with fellowship with men from around the world who are all special.
My friends, these days, are published authors, teachers, military and security personnel from around the world, famous people, and not so famous people.
I meet with them from one to five times a week to study the martial arts, music and the fine arts.
You can imagine all kinds of things behind the word "ninja," but for me, it's like living in an apartment building with Davinci, Goya, Beethoven, Rodin, and Shakespeare.
If you're even vaguely interested in self-improvement or personal growth, how could you do any better?
 
DannyinJapan said:
One must discard the machismo and the ego in order to accel in this art.
Click to expand...

As in any art.

Long ago someone told me that once one came to the realization that they were not the best, they were on the road to being the best.

Well said, Danny.
 
danny...On another forum there is someone claims to be in your art for 9 years and going for a certification in dim mak...your comments?
 
I dont know nothing about it! (bad grammar intentional)
But, there's no rule about not studying other arts.
I just got a shodan in kyudo two weeks ago.
Anything is posssible.....
 
one of the questions I asked was how could a Japanese style certify a Chinese art...just thought I would bounce it off someone in the same system
 
Kyudo... Now ther is an art I've been dying to try. But noone in Sarasota teaches the art of the bow. :grumpy:
 
how could a Japanese style certify a Chinese art
Click to expand...

Now that I don't know either, unless that Bujinkan teacher also happened to be a licensed instructor in dim mak, right?
Then I suppose it would be kosher.
 
Azis said:
danny...On another forum there is someone claims to be in your art for 9 years and going for a certification in dim mak...your comments?
Click to expand...
It seems to me that these days there is a lot of cross training going on. I think it is a good and healthy thing, as people are realizing that there isn't one ultimate martial art.

I know many people who seek out specialists outside of their chosen style. Maybe in the case of your friend, it is dim mak, for others it might be qin na (link for fun), weapons, etc, etc ...

There may also be a tendency towards using commonly known phrases. I'm sure Japanese arts have a name for pressure point strikes, but perhaps the chinese dim mak is more widely known, so therefore more easily adopted..?

~ bamboo ~
 
"If it helps you to look after yourself when you're in a fight, then you should learn to use it. It doesn't matter at all where it comes from... You should realize that." - Something the tv told me :)
 
DannyinJapan said:
Well, I guess my earliest ninja-related memory was seeing some samurai armor in the Fort Worth Museum of History when I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade.
Click to expand...


Hey.... I remember that armor. Saw that on a grade school trip.

Dunno if it's still displayed.

Brian
 
I can see it in my mind, just as clear as day...
It was just a single suit in a glass case next to the caveman brain surgery diarama.
 
The diorama is still there. If I head over to the gunshow next weekend, I'll hit the museum.

Now I just gotta see if it's still there.

Brian
 
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