What exactly is the Bujinkan and what is Budotaijutsu?
What is Ninjutsu Really?
What is the connection between Ninja and Ninjutsu?
How do I know that this is the real thing?
Will I learn to kill people?
Will I get hurt?
What exactly is the Bujinkan and what is Budotaijutsu?
The term Bujinkan is the proper name of the world wide martial arts training organization which was founded by Soke (head teacher) Masaaki Hatsumi. Soke Hatsumi teaches his students the martial arts schools he learned from Toshitsugu Takamatsu. Sensei Takamatsu passed to Soke Hatsumi nine distinct lineages of which Takamatsu was the recognized head master. These nine schools are now taught together by Soke Hatsumi to his students. Of these nine schools, some are harder, some are softer, some contain weapons, others do not. Collectively, the Bujinkan martial arts are known as Budo Taijutsu (lit. Warrior's way of body movement). The term Budotaijutsu is used to refer collectively to all nine schools.
What is Ninjutsu Really?
Ninjutsu is actually a term for a class of martial arts. In modern times, terms such as Karate or Judo are familiar to most Americans. Historically, martial arts were known by the name of the specific school of the art (also called a Ryu or Ryuha in Japanese), and that name usually contained some phrase indicative of the nature of the training in that school. For example in the school name Koto Ryu Koppojutsu, the term Koppojutsu refers to the type of the school, in this case, Koppojutsu roughly translates to "bone breaking method". Other styles are Koshijutsu, Jujutsu (also called Jutaijutsu), and many others. The term Ninjutsu technically is one of these terms and describes a class of martial arts characterized by a particular approach to martial matters.
Sadly, of the many schools of Ninjutsu known to exist historically, only three are known to survive to this day. All three of these schools: Togakura Ryu Ninjutsu, Kumogakure Ryu Ninjutsu, and Gyokoshin Ryu Ninjutsu are part of the Budotaijutsu taught today by Masaaki Hatsumi. It is important to keep in mind however that historically there were very many Ninjutsu schools. Other teachers have, over the years, claimed secret lineages to these schools. Unfortunately, none of these teachers have been able to authenticate these claims, and most have been debunked as frauds.
What is the connection between Ninja and Ninjutsu?
The term Ninja literally means something like a practitioner of Ninjutsu. But in modern times, this is not so useful a concept. Most people who train in Ninjutsu, would not describe themselves as Ninja - and regard the term largely as an anachronism. This is because Ninja implies not only a body of skills, but also a profession, and complex historical and political context which made being a Ninja a necessity - or at least a practicality - in Medieval Japan.
How do I know that this is the real thing?
In the 1980's it became very fashionable to have a ninja in every movie. Ninjas appeared on TV, movies, comic books, sometimes as space aliens, turtles, or even hamburger delivery men. Ninja were very cool. As a result, countless martial arts teachers set about describing what they were doing as Ninjutsu, in order to attract students who were taken by this Ninja boom. Over the years, one by one, most of these famous Ninja people turned out not to really know much more about Ninjutsu than what they might have read in a book, or at best, learned from the Ninja Museum in Japan (yes, there really is a Ninja museum and it is quite an interesting place - albiet a little campy), and whose martial arts background was in other Japanese or even Chinese and Korean martial arts.
It is natural to ask then, if all of those people were frauds, why would one believe that Masaaki Hatsumi is not a fraud. The simple answer is that martial arts lineages are passed on from teacher to student, and from master to subsequent master. The voracity of a claim of lineage is mainly backed up by two things: authentication of that person's teacher, and authentication of that teacher's right to claim himself the master of a particular school. In Soke Hatsumi's case, the former is well established, through a trail of photographs, letters, and other written documents. The latter is traditionally accomplished through Densho which are scrolls listing (among other things) the sequence of masters, and handed from one master to the next. Soke Hatsumi has made available to many people the opportunity to view and authenticate the Densho which he recieved from Toshitsugu Takamatsu.
Will I learn to kill people?
Bujinkan Budotaijutsu is from a class of martial arts now usually called "Koryu". The Koryu are old style martial arts, from a time when "martial" really meant "military". In the course of life as a professional soldier, one needed to do many things, which included resolving complex situations. Killing is not always the appropriate method of resolving even a military matter. Having said that, a soldier's responsibility is to know how to apply force when force is needed, and in whatever quantity is needed to defend himself, his family, and his country.
Will I get hurt?
Training in the martial arts has some inherent risk associated with it, it would be naive to think otherwise. Having said that, good and proper training, in a good martial art with a good teacher, should not be a cause of constant injury. In Koryu martial arts where one is studying the real thing, one must train with great care. How to train in complicated and potentially lethal matters without becoming injured is in fact one of the hallmarks of the Koryu arts. In many modern schools, such as Judo or sport Karate, the arts themselves are designed for sport, not to do great bodily injury. Thus, like a sport, people are often careless, or driven by the needs of competition to perform in such a way as injury results. It does not take a great leap of logic to understand that a military leader can not afford to have his troops training in such a manner that they arrive on the battle field already injured or crippled. Even beyond this, schools in which students spend much of their time injured are schools in which they spend a lot less time training.
So to sum up, training is inherently dangerous. But unlike other dangerous activities (motorcycling, rock climbing, cliff diving) those involved are well aware of the danger, and the lineage of teaching is largely about how to study these dangerous topics without becoming injured.