I believe it was Kim that was featured in a Black Belt interview way back then.
When asked how his "ninja" moves compared to other traditional martial arts techniques, he said, "I try to make them more sinister"......
Perhaps he was referring to some of his film experiences.
There is more than a little controversy over the authenticity of any of the ninjitsu (there are other names) techniques.
For a long time, the sole practitioner and keeper of the only ninja school in existence was Mr. Hatsumi out of Noda city, Japan.
Hatsumi had a rather small practice and a museum of ninja artifacts and weapons. Some of his students appeared in "To Live And Let Die".
The first American to graduate from the school (though perhaps not the first Westerner) was Stephen Hayes, who came back to America certified to teach.
He published a couple of books, including one in collaboration with Hatsumi.
This was essentially the start of the "ninja craze" that swept the martial-arts community back then, largely displacing the "kung-fu craze" that had preceded it.
As happens with these things, a variety of competing "masters" sprang up, often claiming to have recieved instruction from conveniently-dead teachers from other traditions than that practiced by Hatsumi.
Soon, ninjas became stock villains in a wide variety of movies and TV shows.
As well, film distributors began importing the huge variety of made-for-Asian-audiences ninja films, mostly coming out of China and featuring all manner of ridiculous stunts.
I see now that an "official" ninjitsu organization has sprung up, and Mr. Hatsumi is in dispute with these people.
Some years ago, the historian Stephen Turnbull wrote a book on the ninja. Turnbull is a well-respected authority on feudal Japan and the Samurai culture.
His book created quite a stir, for he maintained that almost none of the ninja lore that we have today is authentic.
It all sprang, he said, from the period after the reformation that re-organized Japanese society and abolished the Samurai. The ninja, already objects of folklore, became glorified in plays, books, and so forth which (not unlike our own "dime novel" Westerns) greatly exaggerated their feats and legends.
According to Turnbull, the ninja were irregular warriors who were not part of the Samurai class. Coming from wild-and-wooly provinces like Koga and Iga, they developed methods of fighting different from the highly organized armies of Samurai, and became skilled at infiltration, guerilla warfare, and so forth.
This was quite a shock to the martial-arts community, who essentially accused Turnbull of making the whole thing up.
The silliness continues.
