I too have read this entire post (phew!)
and alot of you have posted some very interesting ideas in reagards to the existance of ninjutsu.
Through from my experience as a former practitioner of ninjutsu and having a general hobby of researching the history and origins of martial arts.
I would whole- heartedly agree with takamatsu and Iwakawa Arimasa's statement of the subject.
Though it must be said there are alot of uncertainties in regards to the general history of ninjutsu, due to the age of the art and more importantly its isolation from the rest of japan, then the subsequent near destruction of the art by the tokugawa shogunate. This near destruction also unfortunately caused many schools of ninjutsu to be lost as much knoledge was lost during this time. To my knowlege only 9 schools remain, still a fair bit.... but know where near what the art was during the waring states period.
I would also argue that the only reamaing lineage that can be assosiated with ninjutsu is that of Hatsumi Masaaki soke and the assosiation of Bujinkan.
Though this i also feel i must mention, i having studied this art form for 2yrs realise their are no people who i consider who could use this art at the level it was used before. What i mean is that no1 trains enough even hatsumi masaaki's school does not train more than 6hrs a day 6 days a week. In the past the ninja vilages would raise children from birth using games to influence the child's martial development. This subsequently made ninjas among the best fighters in the world, there r stories present in boths shaolin and ninjutsu of ninjas comeing to china to have friendly matches with monks and exchange and discuss new ideas about martial arts.Thanks to modern demands though there is no1 who undertakes this dedication to training. I am not saying that no1 can use it any more, i am well aware they can for self defence and such but i dont expect a practitioner of bujinkan ninjutsu to win against a talanted muay thai fighter as an example. Though having said this i still regard Taijutsu and bojutsu having studied these forms quite a bit i realise they r works of genius and if some1 cud effectively use them would be near undefeatable.....only probem is no1 can...theory still exists though (as the scrolls of the 9 scools remain) so technically if some1 trained hard enough they cud still use it.
Reason i stated this in so much detail is because ninjutsu used to be one of the best arts in the world, problem is u can have the best martial art in the world but if theres no1 good enough to use it effectively the martial art is not the best anymore.
Generally i believe the last true ninja to be Takumatsu sensei. Though i still have much respect for hatsumi masaaki and his teachings.
1 thing is for certain however ninjutsu did exist.
back to the original topic though if u wanna learn more about ninjutsu by a book written by Hatsumi Masaaki.
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