Magic City Dojo

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

Above taken from: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

Happy 4th of July!

In Honor of America's Fallen Protectors

The Magic City Dojo will use the day as inspiration to keep training in warriorship, in Budo.

What is the job of a warrior? I would say to stand between evil and innocence. To oppose evil in all forms in any place. This is why we train!

So, rather than take the night off, we will train at the dojo.

Training will be held from 6pm-9pm.

I look forward to seeing everyone there!

-Michael

Shidoshi Tucker taking ukemi from Shihan Masse at a recent seminar

The martial artist must be consistent in his training – sharing and learning from his teachers and peers. This is where skillfulness begins. Through consistent training one has the possibility of reaching enlightenment.

If you aren’t currently training, you cannot call yourself a martial artist. You are a former martial artist. Talking about martial arts won’t get you there. Collecting videos and books just makes you a museum curator. You must show up to practice! This is the only way to build real skill.

This takes guts. It takes courage to keep going year after year. Most don’t persist very long, much less thier entire lives.

Gambatte kudasai!!! (keep going!!!)

Kamidana at the Bujinkan Honbu Dojo

If your heart is open, then respect flows naturally. The martial artist must have impeccable manners – etiquette.

In the dojo we train to be able to protect ourselves. This is the base level. In the course of protecting ourselves or protecting an innocent we may have to cause pain or injure another human being – our attacker. Therefore, in order to not abuse the power we gain through training or to avoid accidentally injuring our training partners, we practice proper dojo etiquette (rei-ho).

But the dojo is more importantly a place to transform our lives for the better. To forge our spirit and body to do the difficult job of a warrior. To be able to effectively stand between innocence and evil.

But etiquette must go beyond the dojo and into our everyday lives. How rare is it in modern times do we hear people say “Yes sir” or “No ma’am?” As a culture we have become slack and simply say “yeah” or “na” to complete strangers. How many of us have shaken hands with someone that doesn’t seem to know how to shake with a firm grip. When was the last time you saw someone take their hat off when they go indoors?

The dojo is a place to train Budo. Budo is a way of life. Budo has the power to change our lives for the better. Does that not deserve respect? Reverance?

Etiquette builds respect. Respect builds reverance. Revere your Life training.

Back in the early Eighties, several low-budget Ninja movies were produced creating what is known in the martial arts community as the “Ninja Boom of the Eighties.”

Seemingly overnight, there was a ninja “master” on every street corner wearing a black karate uniform with the mandatory ninja mask. This is the nature of things. When The Karate Kid movie came out, karate became the big thing. Presently the UFC is the popular thing, so now everywhere you look there is an MMA gym with expert wrestling, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and muay thai coaches.

Now a new ninja movie has come out. I doubt there will be a resurgence of ninja movies on such a scale as what happened 25-30 years ago, but I do think a short spike in interest on what the ninja and their art really was will happen. Well, if you’re reading this, then I guess that’s true…

Still, after all the efforts to educate the public on what the true ninja and ninjutsu was like, the ninja have been portrayed in movies the same way for more than thirty years. So, I would like to shed some light on a few of the common misconceptions about the ancient ninja and ninjutsu. After all, I became interested in martial arts all those years ago because of a cheesy ninja movie!

Myth: The Ninja & Samurai were sworn enemies.

False. This would be like saying that the US Navy and the SEAL teams are sworn enemies. The ninja in most cases were in fact, samurai. They simply performed special operations from time to time.

Myth: The Ninja were evil assassins.

False. This would be like saying that our Marine Corp snipers are evil assassins. The ninja did occasionally perform an assassination, but these instances were rare. Espionage was the more common special operation performed, gathering intelligence on enemy strengths, battle plans, etc. Again, spies are a necessity of warfare. And of course they would also fight in open battle as samurai. It’s the movies that vilify the ninja.

Myth: The Ninja did not follow the Bushido code of honor like their Samurai counterparts.

True. But the Samurai didn’t follow the Bushido either. War is hell. The goal is to survive. This happened on many levels: “dirty” fighting tactics, spies and double agents, political alliances and betrayals. No different from any other warfare in human history. The idea of Bushido came much later in history, during peacetime.

Myth: People who practice Ninjutsu are Ninja.

False. People who practice ninjutsu practice ninjutsu. They practice the methods and skills of the ancient ninja, but they are not ninja. This would be like saying that someone who learns to shoot a gun skillfully is a soldier or a cop. Not so. The ninja performed a certain job in a certain period of history. Many of the skills are passed on in the various Bujinkan dojo around the world, but those people are not ninja. If you want to do the job of the ancient ninja and spy and sneak around, my advice would be to train hard and try to gain entrance into one of the US Special Forces groups: SEALs, Green Berets, Delta Force. Or try employment in one of our intelligence agencies. There is much more to ninjutsu than sneaking around playing hide and seek.

Myth: The Bujinkan, Genbukan, Jinenkan, Toshindo, and others are valid places to study ninjutsu.

False. The Bujinkan is the only legitimate place to study ninjutsu. Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi is the only Soke of the nine ancient schools or Ryu-ha that are taught in the Bujinkan curriculum. The Genbukan, Jinenkan, and Toshindo are offshoots of the Bujinkan. All others are frauds. Period. Do your homework.

The Bujinkan is made up of nine ancient schools, six of which are samurai traditions and the remaining three are ninja traditions. The nine traditions are:

Gyokko-ryu (a samurai school)
Koto-ryu (a samurai school)
Togakure-ryu (a ninja school)
Shinden Fudo-ryu (a samurai school)
Kukishinden-ryu (a samurai school)
Takagi Yoshin-ryu (a samurai school)
Gikan-ryu (a samurai school not taught openly)
Gyokushin-ryu (a ninja school not taught openly)
Kumogakure-ryu (a ninja school not taught openly)

I do not know why Hatsumi-soke has not taught the last three schools on the list openly. You would have to ask someone in Japan.

So what is true Ninjutsu?

True ninjutsu is about never giving up. It’s about persevering to the very end. How devoted you are to your own training will determine where your limits are and how far you’re willing to push them. Not just in combat, but in life as well. These are qualities that everyone can benefit from.

In combat, ninjutsu is about deception. The opponent thinks you are attacking low, but you attack high. At the highest levels, the opponent doesn’t know how to attack you or how to defend against your attacks. This is more difficult than it sounds and requires a lot of dedicated training. The combat techniques are highly effective.

Ninjutsu is about increasing your awareness to an extraordinary level so that you can use the things that most people overlook to your advantage. Again, not just in combat, but in life as well. The ability to tell how someone is feeling. Reading body language. Knowing the right words to say to get that promotion at work. Knowing when to be behind the scenes and remain hidden. Anything really…

Because the Bujinkan has both ninja and samurai traditions, the term “budo taijutsu” is more commonly used to describe the actual martial art. Ninjutsu or nin-po is at the heart of budo taijutsu and is the driving force.

Above all else, ninjutsu/budo taijutsu is performed in the spirit of selfless service! Enduring the hardships so that others may enjoy a better life. This is one of the reasons the organization is called the Bujinkan. Continued below…

Kanji for "Bujin" or divine warrior

Bujinkan is roughly translated as “divine warrior house.” A place to train ourselves to become better human beings, to serve something greater than ourselves: our family, our community, our State, our Nation, our World and so on! This is where the true richness and beauty of this art lies.

That beauty cannot be described in words, but must be experienced in training. If you would like to catch a glimpse of that beauty, contact us!

Mary Josephine Oberst

The following was sent as an email from one of Shidoshi Zane Prater’s students, Lt. Hahn:

Hey guys,

This Monday, me and my team of Soldiers will be serving at the burial of Mary Josephine Oberst, a 95 year old lady from Louisville, KY who died of natural causes, outlived 3 brothers and has no children.  Doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary right?

What the average person doesn’t know is that this little old lady probably had a more adventurous life than anyone we have ever known.  She enlisted into the Army Nurse Corps in 1937, served in Alabama first then was shipped overseas to Sternberg during the war in the surgical ward of Army hospitals.  From there she went on the become one of the “Angels of Baton” who served in the area of the Baton Death March while attached to the 44th tank battalion.  She was captured as a POW in 1942 where she was tortured.  She was liberated by (I think) British allied troops and put back into service once she recovered.  She was captured again and wounded during a German raid on the base she was stationed at, she survived again.  She was captured as a POW a THIRD TIME AND SURVIVED!  Unfortunately she was injured again and medically discharged finally in 1947.

62 years later she passes away and is given a small blotter in a local newspaper.

I happen to think this is an incredible story, one that you hear about in books or movies but never in real life.  It actually does feel good to be assigned to carry out her funeral honors, WW2 veterans like this are very short in number and you may not always realize that pretty soon they will all be gone, the ones who served in the single greatest conflict in history which shaped our entire world as it is today.

Just thought I’d share this story with those who I think would appreciate it.  I tried to find more information about her on the internet but unfortunately she is probably one of the thousands of unsung heroes we all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to but never even knew existed.

~Jarod

Shihan Koch teaching sword at BTSD Tuscaloosa in 2004

Please join us once again for our annual Daikomyosai training seminar.

This year is special as we are hosting Shihan Karl Koch to teach this event! For more details, check out our Seminars & Events page to the right.

We look foward to training with you!

Attendees with Shihan Pearce at the BTSD Raku Rai Dojo

Ah, where to start?

“Eye opening” might be the best way to describe this seminar’s training. We spent the bulk of the two days covering the Tenchijin Ryaku no Maki (Book of Heaven, Earth, & Man). This is Hatsumi-soke’s old instructor manual for the Shidoshi in the Bujinkan which forms the fundamental techniques and principles of everything else we practice in these arts.

Most of us, even those of us with many years of experience in training, quickly discovered that we really couldn’t do the basics as practiced in Japan. What we had practiced up to this point was practical and effective, but not even close to the level of skill and precision that Shihan Pearce taught. This is why I say that it was “eye opening.” For those of you training in the Bujinkan – you need to go to Japan as often as possible! Trust me.

Many of my own questions about technique and more importantly, about training methods, were answered. Some of the newer black belts began to experience their first dose of training frustration. “I feel like a white belt again”, was a common phrase heard over the weekend. I personally like the critisisms and corrections Shihan Pearce made over the weekend. It means I have a starting point to continue improving. That process of improvement and refinement never ends.

One of the many things that Shihan Pearce talked about was that many folks training outside of Japan often find a way to “cheat” in a particular technique, or “do their own version” as a way to rationalize the fact that they cannot do the basic form correctly. He went on to show how the basic form, when performed correctly, will naturally overcome the strength and pressure of a real fighting situation.

It’s always a good thing to be put back on the correct course in training.

Beyond the excellent training, everyone just had a great time and a lot of fun. We had barbecue and beer, had some laughs, talked about Budo and what’s currently going on in Japan. Everyone made new friends and got to see old friends again.

In my opinion, besides being able to go to the Honbu dojo in Japan, Shihan Pearce brings the best training possible during his seminars around the world. I highly recommend attending his seminars whenever you get the chance.

A little shameless plug…

Shihan Pearce films training in Japan and uploads the videos on the internet. You can subscribe to the training videos at www.onibujin.com

Also, if you are planning your first training trip to Japan, you can hire Shihan Pearce to be your personal tour guide. For more info, please visit his website at http://web.me.com/mpearce/Training_and_travel/Welcome.html

Until next time…

Shihan Michael Pearce at the Bujinkan Honbu Dojo in Japan

The BTSD Raku Rai Dojo presents Shihan Michael Pearce for a Taijutsu Seminar focusing on the Basics from Tenchijin. 

Check our Seminars & Events page to the right for more details.