We are proud to present the first women's TaiKai, a first in the history of Bujinkan. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to train with top Bujinkan women Instructors. Soke has been pressing for all women in Bujinkan to step forward and make their presence known. He asks that we support one another, work with each other and find ways to strengthen ourselves in Bujinkan, thereby strengthening the art. Soke so often in his teaching says, we must have balance in life. As women we bring different strengths to the art, and by strengthening ourselves, we add a force that brings balance to the whole of Bujinkan worldwide.

Working together, we can share, ask questions we may otherwise feel uncomfortable asking, discover our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses. We can become better practitioners of Bujinkan and become better partners for our male counterparts.

Please take a look around the site, get familiar with the various areas of information, and if you have questions, email us. As you can see, the TaiKai is scheduled for September 2010 in Germany and you have plenty of time to plan to attend. Take advantage of this one time opportunity. It is an event not to be missed!!

Bujinkan Kunoichi

http://www.bujinkankunoichi.com/

The Kunoichi

Kunoichi is the term for a female ninja, or practitioner of Ninpo. The term is thought to derive from the names of characters that resemble the three strokes in the kanji character for woman (女, onna); said in the order they are written: ku (く) - no (ノ) - ichi (一). In Japanese, the 'ku' is written in hirigana, 'no' in katakana and 'ichi' in kanji - add the three together, as in the image below, and you get the Japanese word (in kanji) for woman.
Another proposed derivation is from the character 九能一 (能 "nō" : talent) with Japanese numbers "ku" (九) for "nine", and "ichi" (一) for "one", meaning "nine talents in one person", though no creditable source lists these "nine talents".

The training of the kunoichi was different from the male ninja. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender as an advantage. They were trained in close combat and this knowledge was to their benefit if they were caught. Some of their disguises were as geishas, prostitutes, fortunetellers, servants and so on, in order to get very close to the enemy, or to use this intimacy to obtain information.

Kunoichi could hide their weapons in their disguise. Those weapons were: small blades up their sleeves, or in their belts, even in musical instruments or in sex toys, poisons pins in their hair, or long nails used for raking, blinding powders, ropes and fans could be hidden and used at close range. There were also trained in more psychological warfare and mind manipulation. They could play on the emotions of the enemy with highly trained skills of intuition.

Modern day kunoichi fulfill the same roles as men, playing parts in security, law enforcement, private investigation (where they can still use various disguises and means unique to the gender).

In Bujinkan, the women train and study the same skills and techniques as the men. The emphasis is on effectiveness as power and strength is not a factor. This can be an advantage in learning the effortlessness of a technique, not being able to fall back on muscular strength. In real life situations, the combination of power and strength to the effortlessness of a technique can be formidable.

The Purpose of the Taikai

In order to better communicate the purpose of the Kunoichi Taikai, the organizers have compiled an open letter to all Bujinkan Shihan, Shidoshi and Dojo-cho, in order to ask for their support regarding the event.

See Sheila Haddad's letter below.

"As you probably know, the women in Bujinkan are planning a Kunoichi Taikai in the fall of 2010. We ask for your support as fellow Bujinkan Shihan and Buyu. The women themselves brought up the idea of having all the women in the world get together to meet and train – a women’s taikai.

Our aim is to bring a balance to all of Bujinkan by providing a full and satisfying training experience for everyone. We will come together from all over the world to meet, share, train, learn from one another, and take that experience back to our dojos, our country, and to Bujinkan. The more confident women are in the dojo, the more they are role models, and the more other women will tend to stay and train.

As we have many more women training in Bujinkan, now more than ever, is a gathering of this nature so important. With female instructors coming together to share not only their knowledge and skills but also their personal experiences in training, it inspires other women to not feel so alone. We have a unique perspective that we can share for a positive outcome.

Women sometimes require a different learning strategy. This may be difficult to understand, but I know for myself, it takes a unique woman to walk into a dojo, to be interested in studying (being hit, tied up, and generally thrown around) - it isn't easy to keep going in that sort of minority.

Soke has requested that women become more visible, that they become more united as a force in Bujinkan. He felt that having this would lead to a better balance in the art. He requested something be done that would achieve this and he likes the idea of a Kunoichi Kai.

We hope you will find the results of the taikai beneficial to your dojo, your students, and all of Bujinkan everywhere. We are planning to show your female students how to get more from your teaching as it fits for them, so when they return, they will be better training partners. Female students and instructors in any dojo can often feel outnumbered – having this community will help that.

In this spirit, I thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Sheila Haddad"

http://www.livingtheway.com/

Foto by Sheila Haddad

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