What is the Bujinkan?

The Bujinkan (Warrior Spirit Training Hall or House of the Divine Warrior), or more properly the Bujinkan Dōjo is a martial arts organization. It is headed and operated by sōke Masaaki Hatsumi, who learned from Toshitsugu Takamatsu. The Bujinkan Honbu Dōjō is in Noda just outside Tokyo. Bujinkan dōjō can be found all over the world.

The Bujinkan Dōjō method is named Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, and is a collection of nine martial arts family lineages, called ryūha. The art was previously called Bujinkan Ninpō Taijutsu and before that it was known under the more generic name of ninjutsu.

The training is generally referred to as taijutsu, and is composed of both armed and unarmed methods of fighting. Much of the basic taijutsu taught to beginners comes from six primary lineages in the Bujinkan compendium, namely Kotō-ryū, Gyokko-ryū, Shinden Fudō-ryū, Takagi Yōshin-ryū, Kuki Shinden-ryū, and Togakure-ryū.

A large variety of weapons are taught, such as sword (including daito, wakizashi and tanto, bamboo shinai, wooden bokken, iaitō a flexible aluminum replica sword that holds no edge, or swords made by soft modern materials are employed for safety such as padded bokken), staffs of various lengths (bō, jō, hanbō), rope, kusari-fundo (weighted chain), kusarigama (sickle with chain), yari (spear), kamayari (spear with 2 rearward hooking blades), bisento (similar to the naginata), kyoketsu shoge (similar to a kama except it has a dagger point and a rope of several feet attached to an iron ring), jutte (shaped like a sai with just a single prong, at a smaller distance from the shaft of the weapon) tessen (iron fan), naginata (Japanese halberd), kunai (a bladed digging tool), as well various form of shuriken including bo-shuriken and senban shuriken. Weapons are categorized into four primary classes - sticks, blades, flexibles, and projectiles.

Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu practitioners don't engage in competitions or contests.