THE ESSENCE
OF SHINOBI
HATSUMI
MASAAKI
The
Ninjutsu Hiketsubun (Secret Text of Ninjutsu), a personal teaching of the
thirty-third Grand Master of Togakure-ryû and the master of my life, the late
Master Takamtsu Toshitsugu, makes the following clear statements about the
essence of the Shinobi. The essence of the martial path and the path of
strategy is in protecting the being.
The heart
of this self-protection is Ninjutsu. Ninjutsu
Is to
protect the spirit. By practicing the martial path, if the spirit is not
correct, far from protecting the being, one will end up killing the being. For
example, medicine is supposed to help people, if it is mispracticed instead, it
can kill people. Daily food and drink, which have the purpose of nourishing
life and maintaining health, if one continues to eat and drink excessively and
eat too much food, will end up harming the person. The minister of state who
has the responsibility of correctly governing the country and above all
protecting people's lives with great care, if he were a person of great greed,
with a lack of wisdom and loving only his life, he will be nothing more than a
great criminal who throws the country into disorder and torments the people.
The same in
the case of religion. If faith is true, it will protect the person, restore the
family and be useful and of great benefit to society, but once it loses its
path and deviates to the wrong path, it will destroy the person and endanger
the nation. The martial path is also the same. Yes, the master of the martial
way
Study and
acquire the essence of the Shinobi to protect the person, he can capture the
secrets of the essential point. So, what is this essential key point (Kanjin
Kaname)? The essential point is the heart of God, they are the eyes of God. It
is the way of heaven, which is, the law (reason) in the power of heaven. It's
the truth of heaven. It's the reason for nature. In the way of heaven, of the
law of heaven, of the truth of heaven, of the reason of nature, there is no
evil. There is only faith in the great law. For example, neither wood, nor
fire, nor metal or water can germinate if there is no earth. Spring, summer,
autumn and winter occur due to interstices. If there were no interstices in the
four seasons, if there was no earth in the five phases, it would be the same as
if there was no truth in heaven. If a person acts correctly and truly, he will
be one with this path of heaven. To be one with the way of heaven is to agree
with the heavenly will. This is the vital essence of the Shinobi, the mind and
eyes of God, the essential key point. In this way, the Shinobi always
maintained their daily attitude and intentions as important. They could respond
quickly to any stimulus from the outside world, no matter how small. This is
because it was necessary to maintain a condition of power without being in the
least scared or impressed to respond immediately to changes in the environment.
Notes:
Wood, fire, metal, water and earth refer to the Five Phases or the Five
Transformations (in Japanese Gogyô), a theoretical representation of the nature
of being and a cycle of the existence of every phenomenon. These phases are
associated with, among countless other things, the seasons of the year. The
earth phase is sometimes seen as the central element keeping the whole system
together, and as well as the transition element that allows the phases to flow
from one to the next. The interstices (in Japanese Doyô) refer to the
transition periods between the seasons and correspond to the earth element. The
"heaven" (in Japanese Ten) also has the meaning of "nature"
(Translated by Phil)
