About the Bujinkan Training Group (Harstad)

Let me start by saying, Welcome! to anyone reading this!

At the urging of several friends, I have again become active in budo taijutsu, studied under Soke Masaaki Hatsumi's Bujinkan, and under the authority of my instructor (and a damn good one, at that!), 13th dan Ed Martin.  Ed is putting alot of trust into me, and I know it, especially being some 4000 miles away!

But.. that's probably not the kind of information you're looking for on this page.

Most of the items we'll need are listed on the pricelist.  Obviously, some items are much more necessary then others.

Registering

One of the things that all students of Budo Taijutsu have in common, beyond our love of the art, is that we are all registered with Soke in Japan. 

What you're gonna need

The most important item you'll need for training is a gi.  This is the Japanese term for a martial arts training uniform.  The uniforms we use are black.

Why do we use these instead of street clothes?  The easiest answer to this is to avoid destroying your regular clothes!  Our art includes alot of throws, rolls, grappling and sweating... normal clothing just doesn't stand up.  Personally, I also find that putting on my gi puts me in the right frame of mind for training.

As part of our uniform, we wear a form of Japanese shoe, called tabi.  These are split toed, and can be worn inside or outside.  We also use leggings, which hold down our pant legs.

Why don't we just go barefoot like in Tae Kwon Do? Although most of our training is indoors, we will occasionally do some "field" work.  Tabi work very well for our needs, and are actually quite comfortable after you get used to them.  The provide a margin of safety for our feet during training both indoors and out.

Ok.. so why do I need leggings?  Because I said so! Seriously, our martial art is NOT a sport.  We do not train to fight in a ring, with a judge.  The lovely "snap" of your pants when you perform a kick has absolutely no place in the real world.  By binding down the pants, we reduce noise, as well as avoid having our pants get caught when we're trying to do a roll or avoid some object.

Eventually, you will also need to acquire training weapons.  These include the 6ft (182cm) bo, 4ft (122cm) jo, 3ft (91.5cm) hanbo, shinai (bamboo training sword), bokken (wooden training sword), and various other implements.  I recommend getting the best quality training gear possible.  These items usually take a beating, and cheap one's tend to break.

The items we need for training are ordered through me from www.fighter.no.