Books by Hatsumi Sensei

Why is NINJA SECRETS FROM THE GRANDMASTER "THE most important"? Do you think the Essence of Ninjutsu is important?

It is the most important because it reveals the very personal side of Dr. Hatsumi as he speaks of his own life as a person and as a grandmaster at the same time. You can see how the grandmaster actually feels.

GRANDMASTER'S BOOK OF NINJA TRAINING actually contradicts NINJA SECRETS FROM THE GRANDMASTER in several places concerning spiritual practice. When I asked Hatsumi Sensei about this odd reversal in the second book, he replied that the people who interviewed him for the second book did not seem to want to find anything spiritual in the training, and even seemed determined to prove that the training was purely mechanical, so that is what he allowed them to believe.

Well, OK. But it sure confused a lot of sincere and impressionable readers.

ESSENCE OF NINJUTSU is of course a resource, but was a disaster as far as editing goes. Having read the original Japanese source material, I must say it is extremely hard to get the true meaning from the funny English. And once again, Hatsumi Sensei's original material had two chapters on authentic spiritual training in ninjutsu, but those got edited out by people who did not want there to be spiritual references in the book in spite of Hatsumi Sensei's original writings.

- Stephen K. Hayes