Nympo (sp??)

Chinafoot

hi all,

i was just wondering if any of you had heard of this martial art called Nympo?

my mate from work is big into it but his best friend reckons its a bit dodgy. they have to pay loads of money and are told that material possessions are wrong. he also starts every sentence with "master says" whereas it used to be "i think".
im not saying this thing is a cult or anything it just seems a bit strange.

anyone know anything bout it? cant ask my mate cos he gets very defensive.....seems im not the only one who finds it strange.

D-Generate

There is a martial art called Ninpo that might be the one you mean. Don't know much about it though.

Cake Fiend

Do you have any details about his club? A lot of martial arts clubs are run in a similar fashion, it's very common for people to get caught up in cult-like behaviour in martial arts, as it's so easily concealed behind lies about 'tradition' and 'respect' etc, and the students get caught up in the idea of being a samurai, ninja, whatever. This kind of crap isn't particular to one martial art either, it's widespread and happens all the time. The fact that he gets defensive upon being questioned about it would imply that he himself sees that something is not quite right (but won't admit to it).

You shouldn't pay through the nose for martial arts training, and you certainly should be told material possessions are 'wrong', or indeed anything about how your life is run outside the dojo. Martial arts are not a religion. Your mate needs to realize that this is not 14th-century Japan, he will never be a real ninja and, by the sounds of things, he's being taken for a ride. See if he's willing to take a couple of lessons in another dojo (there are plenty around, see http://www.bujinkan.ie ) or even another martial art to see what things are like there. Maybe it will put things into perspective.

Seion

I have some experience with ninpo, or Bujinkan Ninpo/Budo Taijutsu as it is otherwise known, so perhaps I could reassure those reading this that the ideas mentioned in the first post are certainly not those associated with the Bujinkan Dojo. (Can't talk about Nympo, but that sounds like much more fun than budo training )

my mate from work is big into it but his best friend reckons its a bit dodgy. they have to pay loads of money and are told that material possessions are wrong. he also starts every sentence with "master says" whereas it used to be "i think".
im not saying this thing is a cult or anything it just seems a bit strange.

anyone know anything bout it? cant ask my mate cos he gets very defensive.....seems im not the only one who finds it strange.

A number of things set off warning bells in this post – obviously paying loads of money is a warning sign that something is not right (although ‘loads of money’ is a relative measurement – loads compared to what?).

The ‘material possessions’ thing is also deeply suspect. As Sico said above, your martial arts teacher doesn’t really have much of a right to start making comments like that about people’s lifestyles. Also, the idea that a Bujinkan teacher would request his students to call him ‘Master’ is laughable. So much so that I wonder if this person is in Ireland and if so where they train. I say out them. Finally, the icing on the cake is the defensive attitude to criticism or questioning. Really, it's up to your mate to figure out if he's hanging around with a suspect group of people, but what you have decribed here is not particularly encouraging.

Unfortunately, ninpo has attracted a larger than average number of fraudsters who feel authorised to open schools with often very little of no training in authentic budo. In the 1980's ninja schools opened across the US (and even here in Ireland), to take advantage of the 'ninja boom' that started when the first students of Masaaki Hatsumi Sensei started appearing in the West.

The legacy of that time is that there are still made-up schools of 'ninjutsu' out there run by people who may be competant martial artists of a sort, but who don't have any real experience with the Bujinkan arts. Thankfully the advent of technologies like the Internet have meant that it's now realtively easy to check a teacher's credentials. As with everything in life though, caveat emptor.

ryoishin

ninpo is a martial art practised by the ninja. the current grandmaster (soke) of this art is shoto tanameura. He operates under the Genbukan Ninpo system. I met him about two weeks ago and he is a very nice man. I dont know if your friend is talking about him but he does not like to be referred to as master instead we simply call him sensei. Ninjutsu is the techniques of the art but ninpo is the culture, the combat system and the philosophy. Perhaps your friend is talking about hatsmi whoi ruins the bulinkan system of ninjutsu. However Tanameura is not into money and if your friend is paying large fees then perhaps this is down to his instructor