The ninja philosophy, or Ninpô, can best be illustrated by the words
of the former sôke. Takamatsu Toshitsugu stated, “The essence of all mar-
tial arts and military strategies is self-protection and the prevention of
danger. Ninpô deals with the protection of not only the physical body, but
the mind and spirit as well. The way of the ninja is the way of enduring,
surviving, and prevailing over all that would destroy one. More than sim-
ply defeating or outwitting an enemy, Ninpô is the way of attaining that
which we need to live happily, while making the world a better place”
(Hatsumi 1981, 4).
The Japanese grappling arts exert a continuing global influence, espe-
cially in the cognate forms derived from the earlier combat systems. Jûdô
is an Olympic sport with an international following. In the area of popular
culture, the films of American actor Steven Seagal have drawn attention to
the more combative elements of aikidô. At the close of the twentieth cen-
tury, submission fighting in various formats provided a popular no-holds-
barred arena for grapplers in both “pure” Japanese systems such as jûdô
and jûjutsu and those non-Japanese arts heavily influenced by Japanese
wrestling, such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Russian sambo.
Glenn J. Morris
See alsoAikidô; Boxing, Chinese; Boxing, Chinese Shaolin Styles; Japanese
Martial Arts, Chinese Influences on; Jûdô; Ninjutsu; Sambo; Samurai;
Taijiquan (Tai Chi Ch’uan); Wrestling and Grappling: China
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