What is Budo Taijutsu 武道体術

 

Budo Taijutsu for many years has been known as Ninjutsu.

This is a limited term though, considering the Bujinkan consists of nine ryu schools, with three of them being ninjutsu ryu.

Ninjutsu was developed in the Iga and Koga regions of Japan. It is believed that the art is a result of the training methods of the Shugenja and Yamabushi mountain ascetics.

The majority of the ninja clans were founded by warriors who had the misfortune of being on the losing side of a war and chose to live by taking their families into the mountains, rather that facing ritualistic suicide as the samurai code would demand. Other ryu were founded by simple peasants and farmers who were basically considered less than human by the military government. Many traditional Japanese Bujutsu Ryu contained a ninjutsu curriculum.

Their only chance of survival was to flee to outlying regions and develop skills that would not only help them survive the elements, but the aggression of the samurai as well, experts in all aspects of combat and strategy, intelligence gathering and networking, and seekers of spiritual enlightenment and truth.

 

Ninja clans were despised by samurai and peasant alike. Legend and myth surrounded them and their tradition. They were feared, and many common folk believed them to be nothing more than fairy tale. More than one samurai general set about to rid Japan of ninja clans, most notably Oda Nobunaga.

Daisuke Togakure was a samurai in mid 1100. He was on the losing side of a battle and escaped to the mountain region of Iga. It was here that he is credited for founding Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu.

 

The lineage of Soke of Togakure Ryu is as follows:

1. Daisuke Togakure  

2. Shima Kosanta Minamoto No Kanesada

3. Goro Togakure

4. Kosanta Togakure 

5. Kisanta Koga

6. Tomoharu Kaneko 

7. Ryuho Togakure 

8. Gakuun Togakure

9. Koseki Kido

10. Tenryu Iga   

11. Rihei Ueno  

12. Senri Ueno  

13. Manjiro Ueno  

14. Saburo Iizuka  

15. Goro Sawada a

16. Ippei Ozaru  

17. Hachiro Kimata

18. Heizaemon Kataoka

19. Ugenta Mori

20. Gobai Toda

21. Seiun Kobe

22. Kobei Momochi

23. Tenzen Tobari

24. Seiryu Nobutsuna Toda

25. Fudo Nobuchika Toda

26. Kangoro Nobuyasu Toda

27. Eisaburo Nobumasa Toda 

28. Shinbei Masachika Toda

29. Shingoro Masayoshi Toda

30. Daigoro Chikahide Toda

31. Daisaburo Chikashige Toda

32. Shinryuken Masamitsu Toda

33. Toshitsugu Takamatsu

34. Masaaki Hatsumi