So, you don't believe in the powers of the Ninja!?! Foolish mortals..

Great leaping ninjas, gaijin are getting a grip on martial arts

By Deborah Cameron, Herald Correspondent, in Tokyo
March 8, 2005

link to photo
Master’s apprentice … Roy Ron, left, and Gordon Simmonds in a training session.
Photo: Robert Gilhooly

There was a moment, just as the sword could have cleaved the skull, that time froze. The ninja master lowered his weapon. Yes, it would cut, said Roy Ron, one of the highest ranking non-Japanese ninja in the world, who stopped the sword just in time. Although only a practice blade, lighter and duller than the real thing, the sword is part of a ninja martial arts tradition. As a martial art, it became a household name because of movies and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craze of the 1990s. In reality it has a history that puts it among Japan’s most ancient traditions, dating from the samurai era.

Japanese legend tells of battles in which ninjas fought with sword, stave, bow and arrow, gun, concealed blade and vicious metal stars. They used paralysing body holds, bone-breaking throws and were so inventive and devious that, by using special shoes, they could walk on water. Supernatural powers were said to have allowed them to peer into the eyes and see the soul, which petrified their enemy. They could also disappear, legend says. Centuries later, during a Sunday morning training session in central Tokyo, the ninja arts still look ferocious and painful. There seem to be two possibilities for students: either be thrown or get caught in a painful hold that is released only after a frantic tap on the bamboo practice mat.

Remaining solely a martial art has helped the traditional hierarchy and mystery of ninja, say the purists. All the knowledge is passed down from the Grand Master, currently a Japanese teacher who this year celebrates 50 years of involvement, after inheriting the legend from his father. Although his successor will be his son, the real heirs to the ninja tradition are very different, and not always Japanese. Mr Ron, who also lectures in medieval history, says there are thousands more ninja practitioners outside Japan than inside the country. “Sadly, after WWII Japanese started disconnecting themselves from their own heritage and their own history,” he said. “We are hoping that when they see so many foreigners interested in Japanese traditions that they will be interested again.”

Gordon Simmonds and Robert Tierney, both of Brisbane, have hit the mat so hard and so often during visits to the ninja school in Tokyo that they’ve collapsed on to their futons at night, covered in bruises. Not that they complain. “It began as self-defence but has ended up being a passion to be in command of my own body and be able to move it in certain ways,” said Mr Tierney, who runs a ninja school with Mr Simmonds in Brisbane. Like thousands of other ninja disciples from around the world, they will attend a ninja convention in Japan in October. Both say that a big drawcard for enthusiasts is the promise of new techniques revealed by the Grand Master.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/07/1110160758932.html?oneclick=true#

Ninja convention!?
How will they keep the ninjas from flipping out and killing each other? Surely the different ryu don’t get along very well.

I want to walk on water

hey i have some of those ninja stars and i have some ninja claws that they used to climb trees. I can also light a smoke bomb on 4th of july and run off to the side and make ppl think i disappeared :car7:

Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines…

The picture linked to this storey was posted in “Disasters” ages ago, I wondered what it was about.

Sponsored by Nike.

that nike ad is priceless

Did you make that ad? Or just link to it?

BTW

Just Kill.

fucking priceless.

Both say that a big drawcard for enthusiasts is the promise of new techniques revealed by the Grand Master.

he he he

I give up… I really do…
Fucking Orientophiles. Filthy sick beasts. :disgust: I remember KFSS talking about white people pretending to be Asian and how it ‘messes with their psyches’. This is one of his valid points.

I’m off to take my tranquilisers now. :angry1:

Linked it.

It always bugged me how the TMNT claimed to be ninja even though they were all quite clearly italian samurai. I seem to remember having a turtle action figure [i think of Leonardo] in Samurai armour. Never saw one in a ninja suit though [whatever ninja suits are called. Gi?]

How funny was it in that live action movie where they show splinter as a regular rat learning ninjitsu from watching his human master?

Anyway, I’m going off topic.

As Vanilla Ice once said “Go Ninja! Go Ninja! Go!”