Secrets of the Ninja

Rating:
Summary: Enter the night Warrior
Review: Another fine text by Ashida Kim. You either love him or hate him and believe him or not. For his fans and followers this is a must buy for traditional ninja fans maybe avoid it and for those wishing to begin a journey of the Martial Arts have a look at it. Remember that a book cannot teach you as good as an Instructor can, but you can pick up knowledge and tecniques here and there. The text has some interesting chapters in it including for the stealth concious; the Art of hiding, the Nine Stealth steps, positions of concealment, covert entry, sentry removal, methods of escape and attacking from an ambush. For those after weapons techniques there are sections on the nunchaku, sword drawing and a star throwing kata. Also included is ninjutsu basics, meditation and mission briefing. As always there are plenty of photos showing our balaclava clad little friend dispatching his enemies. This is an interesting read but as I said earlier this may not appeal to traditional ninja exponents. I do not judge i mearly review.

Rating:
Summary: Enter the silent warrior
Review: Ashida Kim you either love him or hate him. This is a great book on his style of ninjutsu. Traditional ninjutsu students will hate it but his fans and prospective Martial Artists will enjoy it. This book is a very solid text, easily read and features lots of photos of our ski masked little buddy. Here is a brief overview of the contents. We open up with a chapter on the basic philosophy of ninjutsu and then a chapter on meditation with finger weaving. Stealth is then covered with hiding skills, stepping motions,climbing devices,concealment,covert entry,sentry removal and ambushing/escaping techniques. Next we have a section on fast sword drawing, nunchaku and star throwing. Finally the book winds up with sentry avoidance, leaving the mission scene and the philosophy of the mission. There is a lot of information in this book. Remember the traditional ninja student/teacher will not agree with this book. For the Ashida Kim fan though this is a must buy.

Rating:
Summary: IT's half and half
Review: Egotistical writing, poor production (copy machiene like), but whats also in 'Ninjutsu: History and Tradition' seems to mostly corrolate with the material in this book. The nine ways of throwing sequence is surly impressive. Basicly, it's a standard 80's ninja book.

Rating:
Summary: This is the book!!
Review: Sad comentaries about the art being made by the ones that know nothing about ninjitsu (with an "i" like in jiu-jitsu). This book is great. Crossing his legs is called Heng Pu, the very foundation of the art!!! Try to use a hook and rope and try to climb with your back to the wall!!!Funny!! A skilled Black Dragon Ninja would have observed the environment before making the climb!! Also, after jumping from the top of the fence, you will land on your feet, wouldn't you. If you read the book ...it's explained that, AFTER landing on the feet, you should roll! Ashida is a skilled Ninja. Mi LU PU is also the very foundation of the art. This Black Dragon is a complete system. In Secrets of the Ninja you are given the basics. This knowledge is to be expanded as you go along. Positions of concealment are ok. Hai Lung is the best ryu!!

Rating:
Summary: A Good Fraudelent Book
Review: This is a pretty good book. It actually does contain authentic Ninjutsu techniques, but they are not taken from Koga hai-Lung Ryu. They also are not taken from Tokagure Ryu. They are taken from Iga. Ashida Kim always complains how this book is illegally being produced and distributed by paladin press without him making money, blah blah blah. But Ashida forgets to mention that he stole information for this book.

Everyone who has this book, go purchase "Ninja: The Invisible Assassins" by Andrew Adams. It was written over 10 years earlier than this book. Ashida Kim got the majority of his Ninjutsu knowledge from that book, and Secrets of the Ninja being one of Kim's first (very first?) you can clearly see the connection. Ashida Kim has taken almost all of the tactics from the chapters in Adam's book where Adam specifically notes that he got the information from Heishichiro Okuse's book "Ninjutsu no Rekishi: Iga Ryu Ninjutsu no Subete".

So, that right there is proof of Ashida Kim / Christopher Hunter's fraudelent claims. But because he stole that information from Andrew Adam's book, I say this book is a good one because those are some cool techniques to read about.

Also in this book, the chapter on "Sentry Removal" was taken from a military manuel written in the 1930's.

I hope this "review" was informative for you, showing you where Kim has actually learned his "ninjutsu". Not Koga, no master named Shendai. Iga from Andrew Adam's book "Ninja: The Invisible Assassins".

Rating:
Summary: A Sad Fantasy
Review: While I am not informed enough to comment on Kim's chapter on Shingon Tantric Buddhism, I can comment on the rest of this gong-show of a book. Throughout the book we see pictures of Kim hopping around, skulking about in the most unnatural positions possible, and crossing his feet (something that ANY martial arts instructor, anywhere, will tell you NEVER to do). A few other ill-concieved items; landing evenly on one's feet after dropping from atop a fence (pg. 53 - FIG. 50) instead of rolling to absorb the force and muffle the sound of impact, climbing a rope while facing the wall (pg. 67 - FIG. 73) instead of facing away from the wall, which would allow a would-be infiltrator to observe his surroundings and have a smaller profile, not to mention Kim's almost comical chapter "Positions of Concealment" and his chapters on sentry removal and attacking from ambush with 2 of the 5 illustrated techniques allowing the target ample time to scream or call out. My conclusion: follwing the examples in this book would get someone hurt or possibly killed (the gun-disarmament techniques in "The Art of Escaping" spring to mind). Ashida Kim must have a fine imagination, I'm sure, but he seems to be lacking in the common-sense department as well as, arguably, in the morality department as well. Publishing a book full of half baked methods and then teaching the to others as if they were practical is, in my opinion, ethically suspect. DO NOT BOTHER BUYING THIS BOOK.