Ninpo Bujinkan "versus" Karate Shotokan

By Cristina Lerca
2 Dan Shotokan Karate
Iasi, Romania

At first I have to confess that I practiced Shotokan Karate Do for a long time (12 years now), and I was very proud of being able to practice a DO. Even if Shotokan is maybe the last on the list of favorites in Japan.

I felt I was part of some kind of special group of initiated in the great Martial Arts. From the beginning I tried to understand “the Way of the Warrior”, Bushido, as Japanese call it. Fighting was important, but not as much as understanding the philosophy behind the technique. (Women usually do that.)

Because I was very diligent I soon became a Black Belt. The philosophy was great, the form was supper, but the fighting stank. And I didn’t even know it.

I was too stuck in the technique to be able let my mind be mobile. But in what Karate lacks, Ninpo has plenty. In Ninpo I learned adaptability, one very important aspect of Martial Arts. Please don’t understand that I blame Shotokan for not being adaptable. It was my fault, for not being able to discover it.

You should know that the two Arts have similar roots. They both came to Japan through China. The legend says that around the year 520 a.d., Bodhidharma, an Indian monk came to China to build a Buddhist temple. In the Henan province he founded the Shaolin-su temple, the place from where he spread the Martial Arts through all China and then Japan. So one could say that Shaolin-su Kempo, the fighting techniques of Shaolin is the origin of both, Ninjutsu and Karate.

Why two Martial Arts evolved so differently? Well, maybe this is because they were used by two different categories of people. The so called “assassins”, named today ninjas needed their technique to be mobile, adaptable like the wind and the water, strong like earth, explosive like fire. No honor was needed other that doing your job well and returning home safe.

On the other hand, the samurais treasured honor more than anything. Therefore Karate – Do is very honorable, you never attack first and you defend yourself in a proper manner.

But modern society offers conditions not for ninjas nor for samurais. I don’t think you could walk the streets with a mask on your face and throwing Shurikens at people. Or wait for a gang member to attack first so that your attack would be honorable.

Living in the contemporary world means that one should have both ninja and samurai skills and to be able to apply them as the conditions ask.

That’s why I think that a modern Martial Arts practitioner should not learn only one Art, but should study also other techniques, in order to be better in what he does.

Karate Do Shotokan and Ninpo Bujinkan are for me the right combination. You should look for yours.