It is not a Japanese way to air grievances in public. This kind of leads to difficulties when people don't know the story and are used to the openness we have in western culture. In terms of Bujinkan, this means that every so often we get contacted by people that study Toshindo and ask to train with us thinking their experience will help them in a Bujinkan dojo. Toshindo is an art created by Steve Hayes, who was the person who really marketed the ninja image to the west. This week a friend forwarded yet another e-mail from someone wanting to train with him, and who he had to turn down. To try to help people understand, I have taken it upon myself to write this knowing that I will be demonized by some in the Toshindo community for my honesty. I hope that when folks get letters from Toshindo folks in the future they will send people to this blog to explain that Toshindo and Bujinkan are totally different styles.

Yes, Hayes did study Bujinkan under Masaaki Hatsumi for a short while. A lot of what he does is based off of Bujinkan moves. But while Hayes might have learned everything he knows about ninjutsu from Hatsumi, it is not like Hatsumi taught Hayes all Hatsumi knows about ninjutsu. When you look at the two of them you see the ultimate that you can be in their arts. You can try to be as good as Hayes, or you can try to be as good as Hatsumi. You can't follow Hayes down his path and follow Hatsumi's at the same time. A lot have tried and failed. The sad thing is, they don't know they failed.

First of all, you should know that it is in the best interest of someone like Hayes who makes his living off of the teaching of martial arts to pad his resume. And anyone who joins a soke council (http://www.coloradospringsninjutsu.com/Blog/Entries/2012/1/29_Soke_Councils_and_other_groups_of_slime_balls.html) can be expected to pad his resume. You don't need to outright lie (though there seems to have been a bit of that), you just have to phrase things so that people think you trained longer, had a better relationship with your teachers, understood more... and things like that. You might not like the fact that Hayes really did not have as much experience as he tries to portray, but to understand why you are being turned down you need to accept it.

Of course you look at what Bujinkan does and think that it looks likes what you are doing. In fact, there are many in Bujinkan who also think that the movements are similar and teach that way. But as I wrote in a previous blog,

"I lived in Japan training in Bujinkan for many years. But I also trained for years in Bujinkan before I got to Japan. I actually had to lose a lot of the habits my American teacher drilled into me. At first it was not obvious that I was doing things wrong. But as I put in time and proved I was not there to do seminar tours, did not go around correcting others in class and otherwise showed that I was not an asshole, my teachers started pointing out the small but significant differences between I had been trained to do and what the Japanese were really trying to show. I am talking about things like how to generate power via the knees and subtle angles. Things that are vitally important, but easy to miss unless you have someone catching them just as you do them and rub your nose in them."

There are differences. Many Bujinkan teachers might not be aware of them, but the person who sent you the link to this blog probably knows that they exist and is trying to keep to the path that Hatsumi laid down, and not the path Hayes built. Hayes was the teacher of many of the people now teaching in America, or maybe their teacher's teacher or even further back. Many of the habits he passed unto those that studied with him still exist despite the best efforts by the seniors in Japan to stomp them out.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. Take a look at this section from this blog.

http://stephenkhayes.com/2012/01/06/always-a-question-ready-to-go/

The sword teacher that gave the demonstration asks about a stance he sees in the Bujinkan.

"Over lunch, the teacher asked me the probing question of why the usual Bujinkan kamae was so often pictured with the front leg extended too far out with the knee too straight. He was at ease enough with our relationship to comment that he felt it was too difficult to move quickly from such an over-wide stance.

I was very impressed that Mouri Sensei had apparently done on-line research as to what I teach and what my original ninja teacher and his students are teaching. I did my best to answer carefully, without criticizing some of my teacher’s students for either not knowing enough to teach well, or not caring enough and just letting students do what they wanted without forcing proper discipline on them. In the end, I gave a non-committal answer suggesting there was a wide range of quality when it came to my teacher’s students after my books had opened flood gates and his dojo had become a huge international training hall operation."

The relevant points are that Hayes and Mouri are talking about how stances that have the front leg too far extended are poor and do not allow a person to move quickly. Hayes also has a little dig at the Bujinkan, talking about how there are some pretty bad teachers out there.

Now take a look at the following.

http://www.amazon.com/Ninjutsu-The-Art-Invisible-Warrior/dp/0809254786/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_4

Note who is on the cover and how he is standing.

Hayes seems a bit confused about something. While he seems to have tried to ape the type of stance used in training, he was not able to give an answer as to the reason. The fact is, I was told several times while training in Japan that low stances are preferred in training. It is not about sticking your leg out, but getting low. One little old man used to make fun of how he was able to get so low, while we 'young- uns' were unable to keep low for the entire class. After a session done in low stances, your legs sometimes burn like after a exhaustive workout. It also makes movements more easy to see, and allows you a better chance to catch mistakes. When the feces hits the fan, you will automatically rise into a higher stance, and cut other corners. Actual violence will be sloppier than training, and if you train sloppy you won't have anything. If your leg had been out, it will pull back as you rise. Your movements will also compact themselves. So when doing movements like the san shin (a series of solo movements done with great exaggeration of movement which I have never heard of being taught in Toshindo) your movements might look silly and less effective than so- called "modernized" versions of ninjutsu, but experience has shown that there is a purpose to the madness that only shows itself when you really are fighting to avoid serious injury or death.

Many Bujinkan members also seem unaware of this. But now there are many, many Bujinkan teachers with much more experience and knowledge than Hayes and every year more people become aware of these types of things as long as we keep trying to follow what Hatsumi does and not the path anyone else is going down.

For those of us that follow Hatsumi and the Bujinkan, we need to follow what Hatsumi does and not what Hayes does. The sword stance is a very obvious example and easy to point out. The smaller, more basic and subtle stuff is far more important. We won't pick that sort of thing up if we spend too much time with the way Hayes does things. So if you got this link in response to you sending an offer to jointly train, I hope you understand why you are being turned down.

The fact that Hayes could make such an obvious mistake about training (well, obvious to you now) might upset you. The sad thing is, a lot of what I read on line about his qualifications are, at best, exaggerations. I have been told while I lived in Japan that he had to learn a lot of things from books and such by Hatsumi and adding in things from other sources to cover his gaps. Any who really want the truth will ask about it in Japan, and not the person that is trying to present his credentials in as good a light as possible.

A good example of Hayes and his training in Japan comes from my first Bujinkan instructor. He started under Hayes and when Hayes announced a chance to train with him in Japan, he jumped at the chance. As it turns out, they went to Japan, trained a total of one time with Hatsumi and the rest of the trip was spent touring temples in Kyoto and the area around Iga and learning from Hayes. My old teacher could not believe that for all the talk about going to train in Japan Hayes talked about, he only went to a single session with the head of the Bujinkan and the rest of the time Hayes did the teaching instead of learning. It was because of this that my old teacher stopped training with Hayes and he later termed the training Hayes did in Japan as the “temple tours.” It would be honest to say that Hayes went to Japan and trained with Hatsumi that year, but it should make you wonder at all the other claims he makes about his training experiences.

Mistakes are only to be expected from anyone involved in martial arts, especially when you only show up for a single training session a year and try to make as much as you can from it. There are problems with language, preconceptions and a lot of other things. And as you can see in the blog by him, he does not call attention to the fact that he did things he is now trying to portray as mistakes in the past. I can understand why very easily. When you admit making a mistake in how you taught people, you risk losing a lot of them. I personally think that anyone who wants to leave me if I ever admitted to making a mistake and trying to correct it, then they are not really ones I want training with me anyway. But I do not make a living off of teaching martial arts and Hayes does. Losing those students means he does not have the money to pay his heating bills or groceries.

Of course, when you have mistakes like he does you often add 'patches' to try to make things work. I wrote a blog about this, please take a look.

http://www.coloradospringsninjutsu.com/Blog/Entries/2012/7/24_Confessions_of_a_Japan_Elitist..html

As you can guess, all of Hayes' patches, as well as his reluctance to admit that he makes mistakes, are taking him further and further away from what he originally learned during his brief stay in Japan.

The fact that Hayes won't admit his mistakes is rather sad. When I announced I was writing this to let people know why Toshindo folks were getting turned down, I got tons of messages from people who used to study under him. Almost all of them seem to despise him and the number one reason they gave was all the stuff they thought was correct Bujinkan, but they then had to unlearn in order to progress on Hatsumi's path. A lot of it is just bad habits in moving, but a lot of the complaints are about things like his version of ninjutsu history, the myth that the ninja used straight swords and the five elements.

In regard to that, it may surprise you to hear that the elemental system you use in Toshindo is not anything Hayes got from the Bujinkan. I have had certain people try to tell me that Hayes admits that it was something he came up with, but if you go to the copies of Black Belt Magazine that are saved on Google Library, you won't find any mention that they are anything other than an ancient way they ninja used to view the world. It was not until the late 90s that Hayes finally admitted in an internet magazine called Ura and Omote that he created it. By that time, there were hundreds of people that had been to Japan and reported that it was not being taught in Japan, so it was not much of a revelation for most at that point. Several people have been looking, and that is the earliest mention we can find in a public source of him admitting that it was not learned from Hatsumi. Many, many people harbor resentment against Hayes for teaching them things like that and letting them believe it was what Hatsumi was teaching.

Hayes does not seem to understand the source of this resentment. He talks frequently about how people are jealous of him and chalks up the bad blood to that. One frequent charge he makes is that folks who point out his errors and problems do so in an urge to take over students and make money. The truth is actually the opposite. The fact that you are getting a link to this blog is because someone is telling you they do not want you to show up and train with them and get your money. There are a few people that really do not care as long as they get cash and the best strategy for them would be to welcome Hayes with open arms and work together for mutually beneficial financial goals.

And then there are those that just don't know and think his stuff should be followed. As I said, he was very influential in the beginning and not everybody has woken up to the fact that he has gone off in another direction. As Hayes paints things, he is very devoted to Hatsumi, respects him, they are on good terms and Toshindo is only his way of modernizing the art. So some folks believe him and treat him as a fellow Bujinkan student.

But for a lot of us, a big reason we will not associate with Toshindo teachers or students is because of the incredible rudeness Hayes has shown to Hatsumi, our teacher. There have been a few attempts to hold co- events in the name of 'ninjutsu unity' or brotherhood or something like that. People think that it would be better if we worked together in seminars and stood shoulder to shoulder. But how can we do that and still respect our teacher? If someone calls your wife a bitch, would you go our for a few beers with him? Well, Hayes' various acts of rudeness and disrespect so angered our teacher that he ordered his name taken down from the list in the main dojo. He had it done in public and called attention to it. In a Japanese context, this is worse than a public dressing down on television would be in the states. That is how mad Hayes made him. How can we disrespect our teacher by associating with you? Really, I understand the marketing logic of telling folks that the reason the Japanese all seem to be doing things differently than Hayes is because Hatsumi has modified the art to make it more palatable and Hayes teaches what they originally taught back in the old days. It is much better for Hayes than the logical conclusion that he didn't learn things correctly. But how do you think Hatsumi feels when he hears accusations that he has watered down the art and that you can only get the 'real deal' from Hayes. (Admittedly, this is a great way to turn a problem into a fantastic marketing campaign.)

Some might wonder why Hayes was not thrown out before he finally was. In fact, I expect a few people to try to say that he was allowed to maintain his claims as proof that Hatsumi has no problem with what Hayes did. The truth is that the Japanese in general, and Hatsumi in particular, like to use carrot rather than the stick. I have been told in Japan that the dissatisfaction and anger towards Hayes went on for decades, almost from the very start. Hatsumi has been very kind in attempting to try to let Hayes mend his ways, but to no avail. Many people loyal to Hayes also lobbied for him, and according to conversations I have had with Japanese over beers there were a few times when it was thought that Hayes had finally seen the light, only for him to fall back into his old ways while trumpeting all the benefits he had gotten when he seemed to have changed. It seems quite clear that Hayes had heard that he had angered Hatsumi, but he always denounced all the various stories from multiple sources as being lies motivated by jealous rivals. The conclusion that many in Japan have passed on to me is that either Hayes is really narcissistic and really does not have much knowledge of Japanese culture and ways of doing things and his Japanese wife has not advised him that public denouncements or direct confrontations are not really to be expected in cases like this, or (as the Japanese generally believe) he knew and took advantage of the cultural differences for his benefit. Most Westerners expect public announcements of disapproval, but that is rare in Japan. So asking people to look for a public announcement by Hatsumi that Hayes had been cast out is the act of someone who either does not know Japanese culture or is hoping to manipulate others because of their ignorance.

And actually, when Hatsumi ordered Hayes’ name taken down he said that Hayes had not paid his dues in years and was thus not part of the Bujinkan. It appears that Hayes stopped being part of the Bujinkan by maintaining his dues about the time that Hatsumi announced that he would not have a part in casting people out of the Bujinkan, but would honor the decision of ten or more tenth dan members who petitioned for someone’s removal. By not paying, Hayes would have taken himself out of such maneuvers by others to cast him out. Hatsumi basically says that he did not cast Hayes out, Hayes removed himself from being a member years before Hatsumi ordered his name taken down in a very public show of removing support from him and what he does.

I heard about how Hayes had given out certificates with the name “Kukishinden ryu bojutsu” on them without getting Hatsumi's permission because everyone was talking about how Hatsumi exploded when he heard about it. You never, ever, do that in Japanese martial arts without the express permission of the head of the tradition. For decades Hayes has done numerous things that were rude to Hatsumi in order to build himself up, banking on the Japanese reluctance to air dirty laundry in public and it all came to a head with Hatsumi ordering his name being taken down after the last insult in 2006. Years before that, a friend of mine in Japan was there when it was announced in Hatsumi's personal training hall that Hayes and two other people were ex- students of his that he did not want people training with because they had not trained in a long time with him and were going their own path. One of the people continued to go his way and is Hatsumi seems fine with him cutting ties, another started trying to bridge the gap and amend his ways and is back in good graces but Hayes just told people that it was a false rumor spread by jealous rivals. He showed up twice after that, the first was just long enough to take some pictures of him training in Japan before the Japanese could really react in a social situation and the second he tried the same thing, but got 'asked' to come with the Japanese out of the view of others. There he was chewed out and told to not come back.  Everyone in Japan at the time was talking about it. Steve posted on his web site something that made it sound like the meeting was a friendly one and as a result, Hatsumi had enough and ordered his name taken down, later saying he did not care if people called it "hamon" (cast out of a tradition.)

It really was Hayes' actions that forced Hatsumi's hand. If Hayes had accepted the truth and had either mended his ways or made it clear that he was on his own, there would have been no taking down of the name. It was the rudeness and manipulative tactics that Hayes used to try to keep his reputation intact that so angered Hatsumi and made him make a very public gesture instead of dealing with things quietly. From Hatsumi's standpoint, to not take action would have been to let Hayes make a fool of him as he tried to tell folks the truth. Can you imagine just how angry it made Hatsumi to have Hayes try to use him like a bitch? Should Hayes ever dare to show his face in Hatsumi's class again, it would be very, very bad indeed for him. The best he could hope for is a public dressing down, probably with screaming involved, at which point tons of people would video it on their cell phones and post it to youtube within minutes.

Yes, I know you probably have heard that Hatsumi really supports Hayes and they are still on good terms. However, trace those stories you have heard and they lead to Hayes, not Hatsumi, nor anyone in Japan. Hayes has a lot to lose if people understood that he so angered Hatsumi over the years that he is not longer welcome at all at training and that is a very big inducement to try to spin things in a more positive light. As loath the Japanese are to air bad blood in the open, they have no problem making supporting comments so the world can hear them. There has been nothing like that. In the years since his name has been taken down, Hatsumi has not made a single statement of support for Hayes and all the talk about messages and such only come from Hayes. Instead, everyone in Japan tells the same story of how Hatsumi is angered by Hayes, extremely so. Hayes evidently knows this, and he unwittingly admits this reality in the blog of his I linked to above. The blog is dated from 2011, five years after his name was taken down. Consider, in the blog Steve admits that he has gone to Japan since his name was taken down in 2006, but there is no mention of him ever stopping by in all those years to say hello to his old teacher Hatsumi. His actions of keeping away from his teacher shows he is well aware there will be grave consequences (as in 'painful') if he were to try to show his face in Noda again because of his actions.

Do you want us to anger our teacher and show disrespect to him? He has made numerous comments that he does not want us to train with ex- students of his and he has been more specific and direct in private. By asking us to work with you, you are asking us to spit on our teacher's wishes. If you did not know the situation, you can be forgiven. That is why this blog was written, to let you know why you are being kept at arm's length. If you are a student asking to train, you should realize that you would have to cut ties with Toshindo and start over, catching all the mistakes you have built as your foundation.

Early on after setting myself up in America after my return, one of my students admitted that he was also going to a Toshindo group as well and had been for years. I agonized, but then had to tell him that one of my dearest teachers in Japan was very adamant about us not teaching those that follow ex-students of the head of our art. I had to give him the choice to continue training with Toshindo, or with me, not both. He chose me, and has become a dear friend. He still beats himself up because a lot of the habits he has are not correct Bujinkan but rather Toshindo and that has held him back compared with if he had a blank slate and it agonizes me to see his pain.

It is best if everyone realize that Hatsumi is going in a direction and Hayes is going in another. We need not see more of the trouble caused by Toshindo students when they heard that Hayes' name had been removed. As long as we keep our distance with you doing your thing and us doing ours there need be no drama. Only if people try to say that Toshindo has something to do with Bujinkan that we have to point out the problems with that idea. Many of us appreciate the fact that it was through Hayes' marketing that we, or our teachers, became aware of ninjutsu but it is time for us to choose either his path our the one our teacher is trying to lead us down. Many of us prefer the much vaster experience that Masaaki Hatsumi brings to the table. Please, do not try to push the issue. I have been the target of a lot of hate for saying these sorts of things in the past. False rumors about me have been spread about me by people identifying themselves as Toshindo students. It really does not stop me from trying to prevent others from walking into things without knowing what they are getting into. And there are now many people in the Bujinkan that know the real situation and just can't support Hayes, his organization or his students until he makes things right with our teacher. Take it up with our boss if you want things changed. Until then we will follow his wishes.

If you like this blog, you might want to check out the other stuff I write. Clink on the link below for the index.

http://www.coloradospringsninjutsu.com/Blog/Archive.html