Masaaki Hatsumi - Ninjutsu Lineage

Ninjutsu Lineage

Hatsumi claims that ninjutsu was developed by Japanese mountain clans, using "esoteric skills and philosophies" brought to Japan by Tang Dynasty exiles. The 1963 version of the Bugei Ryūha Daijiten has this to say regarding Takamatsu's Togakure-ryu:

"this genealogy refers to various written records and oral transmissions and there are many points/places where embellishments have been added and people appearing in the genealogy are also made older than they actually are. Thus the genealogy can be considered to be something that (Toda) Shinryūken newly arranged around the end of the Tokugawa shōgunate.".

The Iga-ryū Ninja Museum of Japan lists as the only legitimate inheritor of authentic Ninjutsu as Jinichi Kawakami (Jinichi Kawakami is also the honorary director of the Iga-ryū Ninja Museum).

The Bugeicho (November 1963) editor Kiyoshi Watatani states that Hatsumi's ideas and lineage are only his ideas and that he has no proof to support them. In the words of Donn Draeger:

The late Fujita Seiko was the last of the living ninja, having served in assignments for the Imperial Government during the Taisho and Showa eras. No ninja exist today. Modern authorities such as T. Hatsumi are responsible for most research being done on ninjutsu. —Donn Draeger, Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts, p 130-131, 1969