Born in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Masaaki Hatsumi spent his youth training in a number of martial arts amongst which he was highly accomplished in judo, karate, aikido, western boxing and traditional Japanese budo. Upon meeting his future teacher the renowned warrior Toshitsugu Takamatsu, he remarked that he had never “looked into the face of budo and found it glaring back”. Through this encounter he began his apprenticeship in the nine lineages (ryuha) he now inherits as ‘Soke’ (lineage head).

Togakure Ryu 34th generation
Kukishinden Ryu 28th generation
Gyokko Ryu 28th generation
Koto Ryu 28th generation
Shinden Fudo Ryu 26th generation
Gyokkoshin Ryu 21st generation
Takagi Yoshin Ryu 17th generation
Gikan Ryu 15th generation
Kumogakure Ryu 14th generation

Combining the essence of these teachings he established the Bujinkan (Divine Warrior) Dojo to teach the importance of ‘total awareness’ through the practice of martial arts.

Soke Hatsumi’s unique training and teaching style of never repeating the same technique twice is based on the principle of ‘a technique that responds to varying situations will produce innumerable variations’. It is this training philosophy of moving away from the ‘form’ of the technique, to developing one’s response in accordance with the situation at hand, that brings forth a heightened awareness and a more dynamic budo.