Are you serious about learning the secrets to mastering the art of the Ninja? Do you really want to learn ninjutsu?
This article explains a set of techniques within ninpo-taijutsu training, which are collectively known as Kihon Happo, or 8 Fundamental Techniques. It will also help you better understand how you “should” train if you’re really after mastery, and not just some “cool ninja moves”.
First, let’s describe the set of techniques known collectively as Kihon Happo.
The set of 8 basic techniques, as practiced today, is actually a collection of conceptual ideas and principles gathered from the various schools that make up the Bujinkan Dojo. While the underlying concepts and idea can be found within the Gyokko Ryu Kosshijutsu tradition, the actual models of this school are quite different from what most students are used to seeing.
And, although the list I present is more or less the same as what most students find today in the art of ninjutsu, it is necessary to say that in the beginning, the techniques did not have names. It’s not that they weren’t cataloged and listed on the scrolls, it’s just that most of us didn’t know about them, nor did we care.
Because the focus was on self-protection, not collecting kata!
Anyway, here is the list of the techniques that make up the Kihon Happo:
1) Ichimonji no Kata
2) Made no Kata
3) Jumonji no Kata
Collectively, the above techniques are known as Kosshi Sanpo Waza, or the Fundamental Techniques of Three Methods.
4) Omote gyaku
5) Ura-gyaku
6) Ganseki nage (sometimes Muso dori instead, but it’s the same idea applied differently!)
7) Oni-kudaki
8) mushadori
These five techniques are collectively known as the Torite Goho Kata, dealing with different types of holds on the body and clothing of the defender.
It is important to note that each lineage or school has a list of what might be called kihon gata, or basic techniques, strategies, and tactics that appear over and over again in their other kata. It is important to understand that these kihon are “pieces” that are then linked to techniques, which form the basis of skills necessary for combat survival.
To understand one of the “secrets” of the kihon happo, you must recognize that the identification of the numbers in the list is subjective. That means that while sanpo can mean “3 forms” and goho “5 forms”, every time you see this idea, you will simultaneously see much more than 3 or 5, or even all 8 of “happo”.
You are looking at a lesson written by the masters of the past on the concept of infinity, of “any direction”, of “many forms”.
So what IS IT Ninja’s Kihon Happo?
Are 8 technical models that beginning students need to learn, or not? Well yes… and no.
The important thing to realize is that they are models that point to much more than the step-by-step sequences that they seem to demonstrate. Just like the keyboard keys I’m using right now, and my ability to use a large vocabulary of words don’t alone create this article: the movements of the kihon happo, including punches, blocks, kicks, and the blocks and Joint releases that teach at a very basic level, do not produce the “ability” to survive a real world attack situation.
However, the lessons that the movements convey, the pieces of the forms, when combined with an understanding of what it is like within a combat situation, and the ability to focus and apply the right technique at the right time in the chaotic flow of attacks launched by one or more attackers…
…produce the “capacity” that the training is targeting.
