Ninja Grandmaster Says Goodbye to the West
Interview by Josh Sager
(Translation by Ben Jones)

On the weekend of August 8th, 9th, and 10th of 2003, 500 Bujinkan students from around the world came to the scenic New Jersey shore and participated in the 2003 Bujinkan Taikai, a training event taught by Hatsumi Sensei and hosted in different locations around the world each year. This 2003 Taikai was hosted by Jack Hoban and Mark Hodel (two of the "founding fathers" of ninjutsu in America). Hoban and Hodel were not only the persons who hosted the very first Taikai in 1987, but this 2003 Taikai training seminar also marked the very last time Hatsumi Sensei would be traveling outside of Japan to teach. To say the least it was a very special weekend for all that attended, especially Hatsumi Sensei himself.

I was fortunate to sit down with Hatsumi Sensei after one of the sessions and get his thoughts on a variety of subjects.

Josh Sager: For the past twenty-one years you have been traveling outside of Japan to teach seminars. The first Taikai was held here in New Jersey in 1987, and you have decided to make this 2003 Taikai here in New Jersey the last time you will teach outside of Japan. Why did you choose this Taikai to be the last?

Masaaki Hatsumi: We have been talking about this with Jack [Hoban - the Taikai organizer] over the entire period of the Taikai, and it's probably just chance; it's a coincidence.


JS: At this Taikai, and this year in your Bujinkan organization, the training theme has been Juppo Sessho. Can you please explain what Juppo Sessho means?

MH: "Sessho" means 'contact,' like having contact with foreign countries; things like that - a general word meaning 'contact'. And the "Juppo"… it means the 'ten directions.' There are the eight points of the compass, and then "up" and "down" as well. So it means all over, all directions. It means a space, because the Earth itself exists within a space. And so people, too, have to be aware that they are living in a space. People always think that we are living on the surface of the Earth. But that's not strictly true, because you might be living part of your life inside of an airplane or a rocket, off the Earth. So we are creatures who are capable of living within space, even subliminally. And so I am trying to get this perception and join it with the martial arts.


JS: Is there any one particular point or anything specific that you would like the participants of this Taikai to come away with when it's done?

MH: No. There is nothing I particularly want them to go away with from the Taikai, because there is going to be the video from the Taikai afterwards, there will be the images. It will be too heavy if they try to take something away from the Taikai. A lot of it has already been absorbed into their bodies and hearts. And that will hopefully reinvigorate them, just by what has been happening here. So there is no need for them to try and take something away from here.


JS: Will you still have large training events like the Taikai in Japan?

MH: Yes, there will be. There will first be an event pretty much like a Taikai in Japan next year (2004) on the 2nd of April. That is the 33rd anniversary of the death of Takamatsu Sensei, and so there will be a big seminar on that day. And we've also entered a period now where rather than me saying, "Okay, at regular intervals - twice a year, or whatever - we will have such events"; it's more a question of people will find time, or possibly even find space within their lives to come to Japan and train in Japan.


JS: Because you will no longer be traveling outside of Japan to teach, do you have any particular hopes for people training outside of Japan while they are unable to train with you directly in Japan?

MH: No. People have already matured all around the world. There are many good translators of the martial arts… interpreters of the martial arts all around the world. It's like people who have reached the age of twenty-one all around the world. If you reach the age of twenty-one you don't want to rely on your parents for everything anymore, do you? So that's what has happened here, too.


JS: Did your decision to stop traveling abroad to teach coincide with the building of your new hombu dojo (main training hall) in Japan?

MH: It's a coincidence. And it's not really a new hombu dojo, it's more of a studio; a studio where I can create things. Or where if people want to film my movements, or if I want to put on an exhibition of my paintings, or if people want to train… That's all it will be. It won't be more than that.


JS: At this Taikai you showed a video that will be coming out soon, which features footage of your teacher Takamastsu Toshitsugu. Up until this event, most people training in the Bujinkan had never seen this footage or many of the pictures featured in the video before. Why did you decide to release this material now?

MH: Coincidence. It's just chance. I just thought it would be a good idea because next year will be the 33rd anniversary of Takamatsu Sensei's death. I don't know when I'm going to die, either, so I thought it would be good to commemorate Takamatsu Sensei's life in this way. People have got to recognize that they are going to die, the same way as animals: as cats, elephants… They all search for their own place to die, and so that's quite natural. And so it's also related with the saying "The way of the warrior is the way of death." I felt that I had a duty to create this record and leave it for people. The legacy; the fact that I trained with such a wonderful teacher.


JS: When you were training with Takamatsu Sensei, was there anything in particular that you enjoyed working on the most?

MH: As I said in the video, the fifteen years that I trained with Takamatsu Sensei, I've forgotten them. I have no memory of them, really. They exist, but I have no conscious recollection of them. And that's quite beautiful; something like this in existence that you forget is very beautiful. It's like your first girlfriend, it's the person you'll never forget because it's the first person you fell in love with. It's like that. The first person that I fell in love with within the martial arts was Takamatsu Sensei. I didn't meet many other martial arts people before then, but this was my first true love.

And that's also if you look at the way the film is made I deliberately made it blurry around the edges, because that is the impression that I wanted to convey. And we also decided that it was very important to get the right background music into this tape, because Ozu Yasujiro (the famous Japanese film director) - quite possibly the best Japanese film director, whom I also knew - he said that having the right sounds, the right music, is very important. The version we saw here was not the final version, incidentally. It still needs a bit of editing before the final version.

I never thought that I would be a martial artist. I wanted to be a film director. And the result is what we saw in the video.


JS: Was there a specific point in time when you felt that you finally understood what Takamatsu Sensei was trying to teach you?

MH: Every time I did something wrong I felt, "Oh, now I understand!" [Laughs]


JS: The Bujinkan is a combination of nine different martial arts, and they are considered to be traditional martial arts, yet they seem to be very applicable to today. How were you able to adapt and evolve to make these nine martial arts so relevant today even though they are "traditional"?

MH: One point is that even if someone says there are "nine schools," the number nine is unimportant as a number as such. It refers more to the power of the kuji - where you cut the nine symbols as a symbol of your own intention being achieved. And so it all comes down to one thing, and it's not really nine schools, it's one thing.


JS: The state of the world is obviously constantly changing, and it seems to be moving even more quickly these past few years. Do you feel a sense of urgency to transmit what you're trying to teach, more so than there was in the past?

MH: Rather than me feeling the urgency of wanting to transmit it like that, it's the people coming to learn from me. They have this sense of urgency now, and they are more focused on trying to get the lessons of my martial arts at this time. My martial art is like a philosophy that survived through the Warring States period in Japanese history. And maybe we're in a similar Warring States period now, and that's why people recognize the value of this martial art and how essential it is. It's not that I have changed anything or that I'm trying to put it across in a different way. The people are starting to recognize the value, the feeling of this martial art. I have been saying the same thing for the last twenty-one years.


JS: Speaking of the feeling of this martial art, people that are not martial artists - and even some that are - often view the martial arts as being very rigid, tense, and possibly violent. Yet when you teach, when you want people to practice, you say "Play!" Why is there such a difference between people's perceptions and why you choose to say "Play!"?

MH: It's all up to the individual in how they see things; it's very subjective. It's important to encounter good things, whatever you do. I encountered a wonderful teacher - Takamatsu Sensei - and I managed to keep this [feeling]. So I was very lucky.


JS: One of your other famous sayings is "Keep Going!" What has motivated you to "Keep Going!"?

MH: It is just that I preserved the teachings that I was given by Takamatsu Sensei. I was living in accordance to what Takamatsu Sensei taught me. I didn't think of anything else.


JS: You are also known as a martial arts historian, in that you like to research martial arts of different cultures and periods in history. Was that something that developed as a hobby, or did you feel that it was essential to your development as a martial artist?

MH: I now think that it's quite fair to say that I did it as a hobby. I wasn't too obsessed by it. And I think that the martial arts, too, should be just like a hobby; because if you fight all through the year, you get tired.


JS: With many martial artists, and military people as well, we often hear them give their definition of "Warriorship." Can you explain what your definition of Warriorship would be?

MH: It means somebody who is a person of justice, who has a correct, sincere heart. And spirit… a spirit of self-sacrifice as well. To live with everybody; to help everybody. It's the strength to be able to do this, that's what's important.


JS: Is there anything that you would like to share or add without me asking a specific question?

MH: Good luck. [Smiles] I pray for everyone to be lucky, because luck is something that you can create for yourself. You've got to find it for yourself. It's like you could have a very large diamond, but if it's not polished properly it will not shine. You have to have that effort. It's this kind of light, this beautiful light; the light of Shikin Haramitsu Daikomyo (loosely translated as "Every encounter is sacred and has the potential to unlock the key to the universal enlightenment we seek."). That's what's important.

Light shows you many different things. It shows you the way to live.