How Long Does It Take To Master Ninjutsu?

Ninjutsu is an ancient martial art that has its origins in the 15th century. Existing in imperial Japan, ninjutsu is not a classic martial art. Whilst ninjas were taught to fight, they were mostly used for espionage working as spies or assassins. They used various underhand methods to achieve their objectives such as poisoning people or setting buildings on fire.

When speaking about mastering ninjutsu, the past must be distinguished from the present. Whilst many modern-day practitioners claim that they have an ancient and historical lineage. It’s neither likely nor traceable since the masters of the art died around 600 years ago.

In addition to this, ninjutsu is no longer needed in the modern world. If you’re caught poisoning someone you will likely spend life in prison for murder. To make matters worse, techniques from over 600 years ago will likely not be relevant today. For example, people have guns in the 21st century, which completely changes the dynamics of how people try to kill one another.

Ancient ninjutsu has been replaced by intelligence agencies and spies. In modern times this probably requires a lot more boring things such as paperwork and hacking, rather than actually running missions on neighboring factions and killing their leaders. Similar to being a spy today, being a ninja in Japan was a full-time job, so it really took a long time to master ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu For Beginners

If you’ve ever seen a 1980s movie involving ninjas, the chances are they’ve jumped 10 meters in the air and landed behind a wall. Whilst this might be a nice skill to have, unfortunately, it’s not possible for humans.

With that being said, ninjas would have been in good physical shape. If they had to murder an opposition leader, they would have had to make a quick exit and get out of town fast. This would have needed fast running and the ability to jump over obstacles at speed. Many of you will be aware of the TV show “American ninja warrior”. This TV show isn’t the best example of what ninjas would have to do at all. However, it does at least show the condition your body would have a need to be in if you want to learn ninjutsu properly.

Skills Needed For Ninjutsu Mastery

Alongside conditioning your body, you would also need a way to kill people (often discretely). Obviously, there were no ancient guns in Japan, which meant you generally had to be close to someone to kill them. As people were wary of outsiders during this period of history, it would be difficult to gain access to an inner circle. Other than poisoning or a honeytrap, it would be very difficult to get close to someone with a weapon.

Shurikenjitsu & Archery

As you couldn’t always get close to a target, shurikens and arrows were considered a great way to kill someone. This is because they were relatively light compared to carrying armor and a sword. In addition to this, you could set up in a dark spot on top of a wall and have easy access to people who couldn’t see you. Think of this as an ancient short-range sniper.

Ninjas wouldn’t be a master of every single technique as these skills are extremely difficult. However, when considering how long it would take to master ninjutsu. To learn one of these skills proficiently would take at least 3-5 years from scratch. If you have never picked up a bow and arrow or thrown a shuriken before, it is a lot harder than it looks. Remember you likely wouldn’t get 2 shots off, if you miss your first opportunity, that would probably be your only chance.

How Do I Find A Good Place To Learn Ninjutsu?

This is probably the hardest reason why ninjutsu is so difficult to master. Seeing as ninjas have not really been needed for hundreds of years, most of the martial art has been lost in the sands of time.

There are many schools and teachers across the globe who claim to be able to teach you ninjutsu, however, where did these professors or teachers learn their skills from?

In general, you really don’t have much of a selection to choose from other than Bujinkan (under Masaaki), Jinenkan, and Genbukan. Other than these 3 organizations, not much is known about the quality of other teachers. So you will just have to compare other schools to these if you have limited choices of where to train.

It should be noted that there may well be other decent places to train. However, if I don’t know about the instructor I am not comfortable promoting them.

Summary

In short, it will take a very long time to master ninjutsu and is pretty much a lifelong endeavor. There are many different skills you must master so it is quite different from traditional martial arts. The only real similarity is that you should be in good physical condition and have a strong body.

Overall the closest martial art to compare ninjutsu to in terms of mastery over time would, strangely enough, be Brazilian jiu-jitsu. By this, I mean that it would probably take you around 10 years to gain a black belt level of knowledge. After this, you aren’t necessarily a “master” but at least have a good understanding of the martial art. Simply put, you won’t be a master after 10 years but you will be competent. It will probably take at least another 10 years after this to become a true master.

More information on ninjutsu can be found on this DVD which has hours of content by black belt, Richard Van Donk.