Modern Schools of Ninjutsu

Modern schools of ninjutsu are schools which offer instruction in martial arts. To a larger or smaller degree, the curriculum is derived from the practice of ninjutsu, the arts of the ninja covert agents or assassins of feudal Japan.

One of the earliest modern schools to be established was the Bujinkan Organization in 1978 by martial artist Masaaki Hatsumi. The organization teaches nine different martial arts styles, three of which are named after and claim to be descended from historical ninjutsu styles. Stephen K. Hayes, a student of Hatsumi, took what he learned to the United States in the 1970s, starting his own group of organizations called Quest Centers and his own martial arts style, To-Shin Do. Several other schools of ninjutsu also were created during the 1970s, including the Dux Ryu Ninjutsu school in 1975 and the Nindo Ryu Bujutsu Kai federation in 1979.

During the 1980s, several other schools of ninjutsu also began to be developed across the world, with the Genbukan being founded in 1984 in Japan by Shoto Tanemura, a former friend and student of Hatsumi, and the AKBAN school being developed in Israel in 1986 by Doron Navon's student, Yossi Sherriff, as an offshoot of the Bujinkan Organization. The Banke Shinobinoden school, which claims a long history, began teaching Koga and Iga ninjutsu more popularly with the opening of the Iga-ryƫ Ninja Museum by Jinichi Kawakami.

Some of the historical claims of these modern schools have been questioned in regards to whether they truly qualify as Koryƫ. A number of people in the general martial arts community deny the existence of any true ninjutsu being taught today because of these concerns.

Read more about Modern Schools Of Ninjutsu:  Controversy and Opposition

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