# Ninja Magazine



## MisterMike (Aug 12, 2005)

Who started this mag and how did they screen who got in it and why did anyone from Japan want to be in it?


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## Cryozombie (Aug 12, 2005)

Are you talking about the original one from the 80's? or is there a new one?


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## MisterMike (Aug 12, 2005)

Oh, the original one, sorry...


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## Kreth (Aug 12, 2005)

I believe initially the mag was somewhat legit, with articles from Hatsumi sensei, SKH, Bud Malmstrom, et al. Towards the end, it featured mainly articles from Duncan, Bussey, Robert Law, and James Loriega (aka The Angry Ninja Dwarf ©).


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## Tgace (Aug 12, 2005)

Speaking of....

http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26087


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## Tgace (Aug 12, 2005)

Buy em here...

http://www.entertheninja.com/ninja_store/magazines.shtml

Wish I had kept em all.....


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## MisterMike (Aug 12, 2005)

Yea, admittedly, I had a few, buying them for about a year when I was 15 or so back in 86-87.

I just remember seeing articles from all the names mentioned above and now today they all hate each other (for the most part)


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## Tgace (Aug 12, 2005)

I remember an issue where R. Duncan was showcasing a baton that held a 12ga shotgun shell that was fired by smacking the end of the baton....good times.


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## MisterMike (Aug 12, 2005)

I know I still have some kicking around, so I can probably answer my own original question about who started/published it. I was just at work when I wrote that originally...shhh...


I remmeber an articla with Richard Wigginton throwing knives, broken scissors, butter knives and hatchets with a hood over his head and landing them in a wood block on the wall.


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## Tgace (Aug 12, 2005)

Ahhh and "The Master" TV series...I also remember there was a made for TV movie about a Ninja (some white kid adopted by a Japanese Ninja master). I miss the 80's.


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## Cryozombie (Aug 12, 2005)

"The Master" incidently, was picked up by MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, and was done in TWO episodes of the show... Master Ninja 1, and Master Ninja 2.


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## Bujingodai (Aug 13, 2005)

The Master, cheezy fun. I picked up episodes 1-7 at a garage sale last week. They need to make a new version of this, recreate the Ninja boom of the 80's. Seems everything else retro is coming back.


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## Shizen Shigoku (Aug 13, 2005)

Oh my!
Ninjutsu is "retro" now!

I'll have to find some Ninja Magazine issues for nostalgic purposes.


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## Grey Eyed Bandit (Aug 13, 2005)

I have several ninja posters by a certain "Spanish ninja midget" anno 1986...on one side they have pictures of ninja in cool poses, sometimes ambushing a samurai, and on the other there are descriptions of "ninja weapons" such as aikuchi, katana, ninjato (straight of course), neko-te, wakizashi-teppo, tekken etc...

Now all I have to do is rent a few Sho Kosugi/Lee van Clef movies, wear fatigues and play the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack on the hi-fi system and the nostalgia trip is complete...:ultracool


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## Tgace (Aug 13, 2005)

How many of the people in that magazine were "legit" practicioners? There seemed to be a shift from Tokagure to Koga as the issues went by.


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## Tgace (Aug 13, 2005)

This stuff was priceless!!


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## Kreth (Aug 14, 2005)

It's been a while since I thumbed through a copy of Ninja magazine. As a general rule of thumb, if they were making Koga claims (Loriega, Duncan, Robert Law, et al) they were frauds.


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## Grey Eyed Bandit (Aug 14, 2005)

Then again, Togakure ryu has had Soke from both Iga and Koga if I'm not mistaken.


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## MisterMike (Aug 14, 2005)

Isn't the "history" of Togakure Ryu a bit shady to begin with?


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## Grey Eyed Bandit (Aug 14, 2005)

As in "strange line of headmasters"? Yes. As in "high kicks, numbchucks, straight-bladed 440C mailorder ninjato and white guy changing his name into something Asian-sounding"? Nah.


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## Don Roley (Aug 17, 2005)

Kreth said:
			
		

> As a general rule of thumb, if they were making Koga claims (Loriega, Duncan, Robert Law, et al) they were frauds.



Just a small correction. All three you mention were frauds that made money _knowing_ that they were spreading lies. But only Ron Duncan and James Loriega were _Koga ryu_ frauds. Robert Law claimed to be the 43rd head of the Meijin ryu. His is a familiar story to those used to dealing with ninja fruads. No mention of his art at all in Japan and he never even gave the name of the teacher that supposably made him the head of the art.

As an aside, I think that at the beggining Hatsumi contributed articles to try to get some good info about ninjutsu out there. But it really was obvious that the magazine was more of a benefit to frauds than the legit folks. As silly as most of us find Honraku Hoshino and his silly outfits, to the target audience that was the reason they bought the magazine. The frauds were able to make stories that sounded interesting since they were not bound by the truth. And you can tell the target audience of something based on the advertising. In this case- they were running ads for x-ray glasses and fake vomit.   

So, the articles by Hatsumi seemed to have tapered off and they started re-running old ones as often as they could. But they lost the legit practicioners once that happened and the x-ray specs folks all dropped off and moved to the next fad.

I liked a lot of the articles, but I am not sorry to see it gone.


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