Jinichi Kawakami confirmed as the last Ninjutsu Master?

There is a museum in Mie, Japan, The Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum. It is registered under law as a certified museum by the Mie Prefectural Committee Board of Education.


http://iganinja.jp/2008/02post-68.html


(u must translate the Japanese)





It is the only Museum in the world of its kind, the only public Ninja museum in Japan (there are others claiming to be Ninjutsu Museums but they are not backed by the government).





The Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum has ancient Ninja documents and weapons. They have a whole section dedicated to Ninjutsu history and Historians interested in the subject often visit there. (They also have a part of the establishment meant for tourists and actors run around entertaining people.............but this is not the actual museum part.........the museum part with the ancient documents and serious study is a separate part).





So, anyway to get to the point. This musuem publicly states that while there are many %26quot;researchers of Ninjutsu, there is only one heir to Ninjutsu............and that is Jinichi Kawakami.%26quot; Again, this is a museum certified by the government of Japan. The museum is the only one of its kind. It%26#039;s saying Jinichi Kawakami is the real-deal and the only Ninjutsu master left.





Jinichi Kawakami is also the honorary curator of the museum. This title was given to him as an honor for being the last real practitioner of Ninjutsu. The museum recognized his accomplishments and asked him to be the curator.





Jinichi Kawakami doesn%26#039;t teach anymore and the only one teaching the art is Yasushi Kiyomoto. Jinichi Kawakami trains very seriously:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGOGl1JsJ...





His teacher, Masazo Ishida, was a member of the Japanese Special Forces.





So, what of Masaaki Hatsumi and Shoto Tanemura? The Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum does not consider them authentic Ninjutsu practioners. I know there have been many problems with Historians and such regarding Toshitsugu Takamatsu and Masaaki Hatsumi%26#039;s claims but to my knowledge I%26#039;ve never seen them discredited by a public museum certified by the Japanese government. I know a friend of Toshitsugu Takamatsu said he made up his Ninjutsu from childhood games. Everything most people know about Ninjutsu comes from them..................what if it is all wrong?





|||the first link on the page is dead.


they guy in the video is an idiot. that type of training has consequences.


as for ninja%26#039;s, you really don%26#039;t want my opinion on them or what i think of them.|||does it even matter if it is all wrong or not. Does it change anything, kind of late to matter right








edit: stslavik haven%26#039;t seen ya in a bit. good to have ya back|||The ninja were a combination of covert ops and espionage, and since their specialty was a combination of hiding (like CIA spies) and blowing stuff up (like navy SEALS), there is a good chance that even modern Japan has a place for them. As far as them using ancient ninjutsu methods though I seriously doubt it. If the ninja still exist, chances are they are probably ultra high tech, as high tech as any espionage body in the world. However like aspects of Japanese society, odds are any modern ninja that are still around would combine whatever is practical from both old and new. As to who would use their services, likely it would be Yakuza bosses who descend from Samurai families.





The great majority of Japanese Yakuza are scum, little more than modern day crooks whose gangs just so happen to have roots with feudal era gangs of thiefs and robbers who got together and got organized. Being left out of work, and their only skill being killing, many Samurai joined, and in many instances took over, a lot of those criminal gangs. There are Yakuza gangs who had these insidious origins, while there are gangs whose Samurai family ancestors decided to simply operate outside the law, given the corruption of both Tokugawa and the Meiji era governments. What I mean is, say you have a bunch of thugs. The encounter a ronnin who says %26quot;this operation is mine now%26quot; so said ronnin challenges the toughest one, kills him, and sure enough the gang is his. The history of most Yakuza gangs began like that. However, say you have a noble family, an extended family clan with a patriarch, relatives, and the people who live under them. That noble family decides that the Tokugawa and Meiji governments are too corrupt and dishonorable, so, in order to preserve their ways, they decide to label themselves %26quot;criminals%26quot; even though in nature and character they may not be.





What I%26#039;m trying to say is some %26quot;Yakuza%26quot; %26quot;gangsters%26quot; are almost respectable, because they are ultra hardcore traditional Japanese. However they are only a minority, the rest are all thugs. Even though they are a minority, almost all of them are wealthy and powerful, and even in modern Japan with its parlaiment, its democracy, they still have the ear of the emperor. If the ninja are still around, as all given ninja clans swore loyalty to noble houses or samurai clans, odds are they are employed as expensive ultra high tech spies for those people. All that stuff in that museum is likely obsolete equipment that, again ASSUMING they exist, modern ninja likely don%26#039;t use.





In this era of DNA testing, retinal scanners, up to 40 layers of entrances in some buildings, considering the nature of their job, assuming they still exist highly likely any modern Ninja have not been left behind technologically. One of the things the Ninja were known for, was always being on the cutting edge, and because of this people atributed to them magical powers. If they were on the cutting edge 500 years ago, chances are they are on the cutting edge now.





hope this was insightful.|||Of course Kawakami Jinichi, as the chairman of the Iga Ninja Museum, is going to be considered the %26quot;last ninja master%26quot;. If you were head of a museum, and thus considered an %26quot;expert%26quot;, you could say whatever you wanted about another person with that groups backing, until such time as another came along with as much backing to say otherwise.





There%26#039;s kind of an old joke among historians, that you could say whatever you want, and, being an %26quot;expert%26quot;, people will believe you. They even made a movie to the effect: Krippendorf%26#039;s Tribe or something.





To be totally honest, who gives a damn? I train in the Bujinkan. I%26#039;ve used what I%26#039;ve learned, find it effective, and Soke is quite skilled. I don%26#039;t care if he%26#039;s the last ninja, Takamatsu-sensei was, Kawakami is, or Fujita Seiko was (who, by the way, was quoted as saying Ninjutsu was safe in the hand of Takamatsu-sensei. Nice little nod from the guy considered the last soke of Koga-ryu, though many pretenders now claim that title as well)





If it%26#039;s all wrong, well, then it%26#039;s all wrong. Train, and you learn to recognize what works and what doesn%26#039;t. Don%26#039;t train, and you end up asking questions like these... That said:





Shut up and train.