Masaaki Hatsumi

Masaaki Hatsumi, born Yoshiaki Hatsumi in 1931 in Noda, Chiba, is a Japanese martial artist best known as the founder of the Bujinkan organization and the 34th grandmaster of Togakure-ryu ninjutsu. A sportsman at school, he took up judo at Meiji University, reached black belt and taught American soldiers at Yokota Air Base. He then studied kobudo and, at 26, became the student of Toshitsugu Takamatsu, with whom he spent about fifteen years before Takamatsu named him successor in the nine traditional lineages now taught as Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. Through books and seminars he carried ninjutsu to a worldwide audience. He has since stopped teaching and passed his grandmaster titles to students.