That's precisely the book I was referring to, from back when I was a 13 year old conned into buying that garbage.
Why do you think this pankeeki ? It teaches you the form and postures , how to deal with attacks . How to counter strike , where and how and what with . How to use limb controls to either throw or choke or even throw and choke . Pretty good really as a basic .
Its badly structured; The sequence of kata and the choices that were made for including in the TCJ could be much better. Ryuha techniques are put in there without the context of the ryuha or the proper training in ryuha basics. There is no weapons kata in the TCJ but in order to really understand taijutsu you need to learn weapons (first) as all the movements are based on fighting with weapons. That is why in my own syllabus I start with Bo and sword already in the 9th kyu part. It really helps students to understand the centerline, kamae and the movement because its much more visible.
That thing I called the Tenchijin Hey guys, I'm the one that you are listing for that Tenchijin Ryaku no Maki with the Godai reference. So long story behind our "McDojo" (I assure you we are not). It was founded by my teacher who trained under Hayes. It is roughly based on the Tenchijin - but with the Godai reference (I learned that the elemental reference originally came from Shoto Tanemura of Genbukan back when he was part of the Bujinkan). However, when I purchased the dojo - I did think it was the tenchijin and that it was the "official curriculum". It's an old upload so I should probably take it down - it is a bit misleading. Turns out there is no "official curriculum"...at all...even for Dan ranks. This is according to most of the Shihan (foreign) I talked to in Japan. It's the instructors decision. The tenchijin ryaku no maki was a loose guide for teaching the art - most of it created from Hatsumi to create a common thread throughout the schools. However, talking to Shihan Steve Olsen (I think he told me or at least confirmed it), the book Secret Fighting Techniques of the Samurai by Soke is like the new (unofficial) instructor manual. If you check out the curriculum I made for our dojo it's starts with the common basics, then studying techniques by scroll and school. Seems to be working pretty well so far, but I teach now like they do in Japan; every class is different and dependent on who asks to see what. My goal is that when a student reaches Godan, they have seen every technique in all the ryu-ha. http://www.todaidojo.com/ninjutsu-techniques/ I am a product of the old Hayes system (that one referenced is an older version), and I learned pretty well. It's just a lot more repetitious, systematized and less holistic. I'm just a Godan, so I still have a lot more to learn.
This method seems to work against itself. If you teach what people want to see how will you be able to teach all the technique in all the ryuha?
With Time... Well I see what you're saying, but they have the list of techniques, and know what ryuha they should be working on. But since all our ranks train in the same class, I ask what they feel they need to work on. It gives higher ranks an opportunity to review, and lower ranks exposure to more advanced techniques. The class is 2 hours. First hour is Ukemi, Kihon, and Kihon Happo, so there is always reinforcement of the foundations. The second hour is more dependent on what ranks are there, and what different students would like to work on. It also gives an opportunity to explore things outside of ryu-ha specific techniques. Do we want to work on the Bujinkan theme of the year? Is a student curious about a particular Sensei's method of movement? It makes it so each class is a little bit unique. Also, everybody is getting something out of it. We have students from Mukyu all the way to Godan at our Dojo. So after ten years when they should be ready for Godan, they've been exposed to all the ryuha techniques (they have a list), really good foundations (we do it every class), and be familiar with the way we train in Japan. I try to teach in a similar atmosphere to the Hombu; little bit of Shiraishi (ukemi), Someya (Kihon Happo "by the book"), Nagato, Noguchi. Afterall, I'm just a middleman for the art.
This is quite an interesting POV My view is that the TCJ was put together by Soke after he'd been training for a long time. It's still taught by long term Japanese shihans. So to write it off is to suggest that we know better than Soke did at that time and the shihan know now.... I'm not so confident in my own knowledge to do this
I think what Soke was doing with the TCJ is creating a common thread amongst the schools to help students get the principles they have in common. I think he was distilling what he had experienced into a simpler form to help with the learning curve. I think, like most things, it was an experiment, and from my understanding has evolved over the years. I agree tho - no one has been studying longer than Soke, so it might be a bit presumptuous to disregard it.
Not so much. I don't classify the techniques by their "element" like in the old curriculum referenced above. However, some of our students were taught that way, and will use the Godai as an analogy for movement (i.e. it feels "windy"). I do think it was a clever way to describe a "feeling" of a certain movement tho, but it's unique to Tanemura and Hayes Sensei - not really Bujinkan.
Fair enough and as long as they are being honest about the godai. It's also good you don't classify the techniques by their "element" because it's wrong. The way the godai was introduced and presented was among other things very misleading.
Yeah it's kind of funny, students would ask me "so what element is this technique" and it would always be a "bit of water, fire, wind...err...everything." I agree that the majority of techniques are a bit too complex to classify them as an one "element". I just chalk it up to a teaching tool - just way to explain a concept.
I have never seen or heard Tanemura Sensei describe a feeling for a movement that deals with elements. So it not a Genbukan thing either.
I wasn't suggesting that it was referenced for the "feeling" of a technique, but we had an old Genbukan student at our dojo bring his manual, and there are references to Godai. Don't know if it's still taught that way, but I'm guessing it was at one point.
I believe in terms of classification according to Kyu ranks (i.e. Beginning Earth, Water, Fire, etc.). Also there were 15 kyu ranks listed I believe. I only flipped through it, and this was a while ago - so there is the possibility I misread/misunderstood it. But I remember being shocked about the reference to Godai, which I found bizarre that it would be in Genbukan and not Bujinkan if Hayes was Bujinkan originally. So I called my teacher and he confirmed that Hayes trained under Tanemura in the early days - so it made sense that's where the reference would come from.
I have all of the training manuals (old and new) and I don't recall seeing any "godai" mentioned in them. And I have been in the Genbukan since 1994.
