How does Ninjutsu compare to other martial arts?
Most martial arts that we are familiar with today are rather new; developed either during or after the Meiji Period (1867-1912) to be enjoyed as sports or for spiritual refinement. Even though they are oriented towards actual fighting or combat, they are not sufficient for life or death fights – but then, that was not the goal. It is important to remember that Dr Kano developed Judo as a sport to introduce to the schools, Funakoshi did the same with Karate, and Ueshiba developed Aikido as a means of self-improvement and spiritual enlightenment. Having said that, this does not mean that these arts are ineffective, merely that they were refined from ancient Samurai combat systems to have a different and sometimes very specific focus Ninjutsu, in contrast, is a broad-based ancient martial art that developed through more than a thousand years of actual combat experience. Ninpo Taijutsu (Ninjutsu) and the other styles taught in the Genbukan system are with us today because they survived in