| Interview with ninja master Brian McCarthy 8th Dan | | | | Japan; they lived in the mountains. They were no |
| [Adrian]: This is an exclusive pod cast from the | | | | longer welcome. The powers that be were after |
| websites of the BBD. On Remembrance Sunday, the | | | | some of them at the time. If you were on the losing |
| final national seminar of the BBD in 2006 took place in | | | | side of the battle you had no futures and would |
| Edinburgh. The head of the BBD, Brian McCarthy, | | | | generally be executed. So when they left that part of |
| joined me on my breakfast show to talk about Ninjutsu | | | | the country and they moved to the mountains, that |
| history and tradition, Brian's journey as a renowned | | | | was going to be their new place and where they |
| martial artist and training within the BBD. First part of a | | | | would have lived. |
| three part discussion about Ninjutsu history and | | | | [Adrian]: I was going to ask you the question, how did |
| tradition. | | | | they become ninjas, so are you suggesting that it was |
| [Brian]: Thank you, Adrian. | | | | a clan system based on family? |
| [Adrian]: Good morning, Brian. Now I'm going to ask you | | | | [Brian]: Yes, it's not a fact that people become ninja; It's |
| some fairly obvious questions because if I said Ninjutsu, | | | | a matter of fact that traditionally they developed from |
| most people wouldn't know what it is. If I said shinobi, | | | | many differing backgrounds. The defeated samurai, |
| they definitely wouldn't know what it is. But if I said | | | | the monks who had left china who were forced into a |
| ninja, they certainly get this sort of Hollywoodization of | | | | new way of life. These are the people who formed |
| maybe we wear a half-shell, eat pizza and carry | | | | Ninjutsu . And over a period a time then because |
| swords in our backs. But who and what were the | | | | they're a mix of the mountain people, because they're |
| ninja? | | | | living in remote areas, they formed communities. |
| [Brian]: Ninja, Adrian, were originally samurai who had | | | | [Adrian]: Scotland has a strong tradition in the martial |
| faced difficulties in battles or lost battles or warlords | | | | arts with many varying flavors and Ninjutsu is one of |
| they work for would have been ceded, which means | | | | those martial art practised quite heavily in Scotland. But |
| essentially that then they're unemployed or some of | | | | I want to know...shinobi and ninja's... but I don't know |
| them are unemployed. That was the basis of Ninjutsu | | | | why they call themselves shadow warriors or invisible |
| -- coming together with Chinese monks who went to | | | | assassins. |
| being warrior monks in the eastern part of Japan and | | | | [Brian]: Well, they never did and still don't. People call |
| living in communities in the mountains that were | | | | them that by virtue of the perception of what ninja is |
| essentially enclosed. They then structured their training | | | | and the term "shadow warrior" is kind of an |
| and their way of living into a military style farmer | | | | Americanized updated term but the term shinobi |
| fighting, and it just evolved from there over a period of | | | | essentially means "stealers in"... a person who steals, |
| hundreds of years. | | | | who enters at night, and when they say "steal" they |
| [Adrian]: Even today Japanese still fear Ninjutsu mostly | | | | don't mean actually in theft point of view... but enters |
| because of their supposed magical powers but how | | | | quietly, covertly, and the name was given to them by |
| did they structure themselves if they were fighting | | | | the general public by virtue of the fact that the type of |
| monks? How exactly did they organize themselves? | | | | work they did -- they would come in the dark, they |
| [Brian]: There are two way to answer that. First of all, | | | | would go in the dark, people did not know they were |
| they are still feared in Japan and sometimes they are | | | | there, they would do what they had to do and hence, |
| even recognized in Japan... this huge part of Japanese | | | | they were called stealers in or shinobi. |
| culture that says ninja never existed but then again the | | | | [Adrian]: So basically it's the westernization of the ninja... |
| history was written by the samurai's so they entirely | | | | [Brian]: Yes. |
| say we didn't exist. And how they organized | | | | [Adrian]: ...as we have with the turtles and the |
| themselves... primarily because of this samurai | | | | half-shells. |
| involvement on initially who were obviously highly | | | | [Brian]: Yes. When we go back to the comment I |
| trained military officers, they had a military style | | | | made that it took them a number of years to evolve, |
| background, so they were able to organize | | | | the word " Ninjutsu " or the term "ninjitsu" or "ninja" |
| themselves into small close fighting groups and to | | | | didn't evolve for about 300 or 400 years. These |
| communities. Over a long period of time they | | | | people just were there. They could have been called |
| intermarried. The children of these marriages have their | | | | bandits, they could have been called outlaws, they |
| own kids and the family's extend in to the mountains | | | | could have been called warriors but by virtue of how |
| and become a clan of its own. | | | | they, over that period of time, how they developed |
| [Adrian]: So it wasn't a case of a bunch of lads got | | | | their profile and how they developed their method of |
| together, trained together and then said, "Right, we're | | | | working...there was the broad general population and |
| ninja, let's go off and fight." | | | | the authorities who put the name ninja on them or |
| [Brian]: No, no, no, no, no, they just changed their | | | | shinobi on them. |
| lifestyle completely. They lived in the remotest parts of | | | | |