The Research Resource Area of the website shall deal with Koga Ryu Ninjutsu and related arts within their historical context. Here you will find scannings of historic scrolls, books, and many related links. The KRNS monthly contribution is listed after the links below. Please let us know your thoughts.

This site contains the volumes of the Bansenshukai, a classic ninjutsu text, in PDF form. The copy that you find here was scanned from photocopies made of the copy in the national archives in Japan. These are original copies, in the original Japanese.

http://ninjutsu.robertk.com/Bansenshukai/

This site contains a basic guide through a few classic scrolls. Shows many authentic pictures. Covers the Bansenshukai, Ninpiden, Shoninki, Picture Scrolls, Kojiki, Taiheiki, Azuma Kagami, and Oninki.

http://www.ninpo.org/historicalrecords/histrec.html

This site contains an excellent introduction to the many Shurikenjutsu schools. It draws heavily from Seiko Fujita's Zukai Shurikenjutsu.

http://www.secrets-of-shuriken.com.au/schools.htm

This site contains pictures from the Koga/Koka Ninjutsu Museum. They give a feel of the rich history associated with this combat tradition.

http://photoguide.jp/pix/thumbnails.php?album=116

This site provides translations of kanji, kanji look up, English to Kanji translation, etc. An excellent resource for researching Japanese documents.

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

This website is a dedication to martial artist Charles Vincent Gruzanski. It contains a large amount of facinating histroic information regarding Gruzanski and his training with Yumio Nawa, Gozo Shioda, Masaaki Hatsumi, Masutatsu Oyama, Robert Trias, Tadashi Nakamura, Harry McEvoy and others. Excellent Information and lots of great pictures and documents.

www.robertg.com

This site is run by a Japanese Historian. Its focus deals with the historical accurate depiction of medeival Japan.

http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/

This site contains many excellent books that are usually only available in Japan. Aside from providing excellent information they also have excellent prices.

www.budogu.com

http://www.freewebs.com/bankeshinobinodenkensyujyo/

This month's abstration from the KRNS is of Seiko Fujita's Zukai Hojojutsu. Here we have several scannings from the book, many that previously have never been available online.

Some key points to guide your personal research and experimentation:

*You should only tie an opponent once they have been immobilized. If the opponent is free to move all your tying will be reactive and ineffective.  

*Ties should first and foremost be fast and effective. The more elaborate ties that you may find are the result of Japanese hierarchy rather than funcition. People of higher status require more elaborate and sophisticated ties and knots than those of lower status (historically).  This rule has no value in the world of today.

*Due to the symmetrical nature of the human body, balanced ties are most effective. Tie both hands rather than just one.

*Experiment in a free flow manner with an emphasis on joint locking. View a tie as a bonus, not as a goal.

Please let us know your opinion. kogasociety@hotmail.com