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)