Masaaki Hatsumi
Japanese martial arts teacher (born 1931), student of Toshitsugu Takamatsu and founder of the Bujinkan, which merged nine schools whose lineages historians question.
Quick Facts
JapanBiography
Masaaki Hatsumi is a Japanese martial arts teacher, a student of Toshitsugu Takamatsu and the founder of the Bujinkan organization, which teaches nine old schools as Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. He was born on 2 December 1931 in Noda in Chiba Prefecture as Yoshiaki Hatsumi.
His father guided him to training from the age of seven. He studied at Meiji University, reached the 5th dan in judo according to nippon.com and the Japanese Wikipedia, and taught judo to American soldiers, according to nippon.com at the Tachikawa base. He met Takamatsu in 1957 or 1958, and according to a certificate from March 1958 Takamatsu named him the 34th grandmaster of Togakure-ryu. Takamatsu died on 2 April 1972.
He merged the schools Togakure-ryu, Gyokko-ryu, Kuki Shinden Happo Bikenjutsu, Koto-ryu, Shinden Fudo-ryu, Takagi Yoshin-ryu, Gikan-ryu, Gyokushin-ryu and Kumogakure-ryu into the Bujinkan. The founding year of the organization differs: nippon.com gives 1958, the English Wikipedia about 1972. He taught in the USA for the first time in 1982 and in Europe in 1987, and in 1996 he opened the central dojo Bujinden in Noda. He wrote several books, among them Essence of Ninjutsu (1988), and advised on the film You Only Live Twice (1967).
Around 2 December 2019 he announced the successors of most schools. Historians question the age and lineages of his schools: the Japanese encyclopedia Bugei Ryuha Daijiten states that the genealogy of Togakure-ryu contains embellishments.
Early life
Masaaki Hatsumi was born as Yoshiaki Hatsumi on 2 December 1931 in Noda in Chiba Prefecture. From the age of seven he was guided to training by his father, according to the website kihon.com with a wooden sword, according to kogakure.de it was kendo. He studied at Meiji University and taught judo to American soldiers, the English Wikipedia gives the Yokota base, nippon.com the Tachikawa base.
His judo grade differs in the sources: the English Wikipedia gives a black belt, nippon.com and the Japanese Wikipedia the 5th dan of the Kodokan and kihon.com the 4th dan. After school he worked, according to Wikipedia, as a bonesetter. Before Takamatsu he studied, according to Wikipedia and kogakure.de, for about three years under a master named Ueno.
Training and teachers
He met Toshitsugu Takamatsu in 1957 at the age of 26 according to kihon.com, in 1958 according to nippon.com and the Japanese Wikipedia. According to nippon.com he traveled to him in Kashihara in Nara Prefecture by night train almost every week for about fifteen years. Wikipedia gives a certificate from March 1958 in which Takamatsu named him the 34th grandmaster of Togakure-ryu.
Takamatsu died on 2 April 1972 in his house in Kashihara and, according to Hatsumi, designated him as successor before his death. Wikipedia and nippon.com state that Hatsumi also practiced karate, aikido, boxing and bayonet fighting.
Contribution and innovations
He merged nine schools into the Bujinkan, in 1958 according to nippon.com and the Japanese Wikipedia, around 1972 according to the English Wikipedia. Wikipedia points out that Kuki Shinden Happo Bikenjutsu is a samurai system with documented lineages outside the Bujinkan as well. In 1982 he taught in the USA for the first time in Dayton, in 1983 the first international seminar was held in Japan, and in 1987 he came to Europe for the first time, to London.
According to Wikipedia he published in English the books Stick Fighting (1981), Essence of Ninjutsu (1988), Ninpo Wisdom for Life (1999), The Way of the Ninja (2004) and The Complete Ninja (2014) and wrote for the magazine Tetsuzan. As an adviser for fight scenes he worked on the Bond film You Only Live Twice from 1967 and on the film Shinobi no mono, and in 1988 he acted in the series Sekai Ninja-sen Jiraiya.
Legends and documented facts
The website nippon.com states that Togakure-ryu is about nine hundred years old and that Hatsumi is its 34th holder. The Japanese encyclopedia of schools Bugei Ryuha Daijiten states, according to Wikipedia, in the editions from 1963, 1969 and 1978 that the genealogy contains embellishments, and the edition from 1969 describes it as newly compiled by Takamatsu. The website Koryu Books states that modern ninjutsu is not koryu because it does not rest on uninterrupted transmission.
In an interview for Magazine B-Club in 1994 Hatsumi claimed that he was the only student of Takamatsu, but Wikipedia names others as well. About the fifteen years of training Wikipedia writes that Hatsumi himself stated in 1963 that he trains once every three months on weekends. We have not been able to verify independently the claim that the German government awarded him a knighthood in 1994. Of the cooperation with the FBI, according to kihon.com, only letters of thanks from 1995 are documented.
Legacy
The central dojo Bujinden in Noda was opened on 9 September 1996. Nippon.com estimates the number of practitioners at three hundred to five hundred thousand, and according to the same article Hatsumi himself does not know the exact number. In 1986 the magazine Black Belt named him instructor of the year, according to Wikipedia. His former students founded their own organizations, Shoto Tanemura the Genbukan in 1984 and Fumio Manaka the Jinenkan in 1996.
Around 2 December 2019, according to the website of the Greek Bujinkan group, he announced the successors of most of the schools: Togakure-ryu was taken over by Tsutsui Takumi and Takagi Yoshin-ryu and Gikan-ryu by Sakasai Norio. The successors are thus eight, not nine.
Associated Martial Arts
Japanese organization founded by Hatsumi Masaaki in Noda, Chiba Prefecture. It brings together nine ryuha inherited from his teacher Takamatsu Toshitsugu.
NinjutsuMaster→Modern Japanese organizations (Bujinkan, Genbukan, Jinenkan) tied to the shinobi of Iga and Koga: kata, weapons, no competitions, lineage cannot be independently verified.