Hatsumi Sensei A page about the Grandmaster of the Bujinkan Dojo
Toshiro Nagato

The following is what I have pieced together over the years training with Nagato Sensei. Nagato Sensei is one of the most combat practical teachers out there. He does not waste any movement and drives the point home, usually with a swift kick or shuto. Even though he has forearms that would make Popeye cry, and a naturally muscled 90 kg(about 195 pounds)frame. He uses none of his physique in his technique. He also has a presence about him that eludes strength. He is like the quintessential martial artist, in that his skills are deadly but has a good heart. He is a loving husband to his wife Mamiko and father to his two sons, Yoshiki and Yuhe. He is by profession, a Sekkotsu Isya(bone doctor)with a thriving practice. He is very knowledge and has traveled the world. 

Nagato Sensei is in his late forties and has been studying martial arts from the age of eight. When he was a boy had been weak though tall for that time. His parents started having him participate in various sports to strengthen his body. He has gone gymnastics, swimming, wreseling and like most Japanese school children, he took part in the compulsory judo lessons at school. Even though he did not like studying Judo(Until college) he took third place in the Kodokan tournament for junior high school students. In High School he wanted to join the swim team but, his Junior School Judo coach had already talked with the High school Judo coach and he was pushed into doing Judo. After years of training he started to like his Judo training. He liked Judo so much that he went to the U.S. to teach judo at a University in Oregon.

While teaching there and studying at the university, he was thinging about something else. He had heard the name of the budo master, Masaaki Hatsumi and, while in the states, had read Andrew Adam's book Ninja: The Invisible Assassins. Nagato wanted to be a true martial artist not just a judoka, and ninjutsu seemed the way to go. He decided then and there that when he returned to Japan, he would seek out this art. Things didn't quite work out the way Nagato had planned. As circumstances led him into the professional kickboxing ring. He began entering competitions in Tokyo to earn badly needed money; he also began working as a bouncer on the Ginza. He did well in the ring, becoming the middle weight kickboxing champ of Japan. Even with his success, he did not enjoy getting hit in the head all the time.

Then, a friend in America, Michael Echanis, a former Green Beret, professional soldier, Vietnam veteran and practisioner of Hwarangdo, invited him back to the States and he accepted. He had spent time hunting and getting into trouble. On day, Echanis, came to him and said there was a job waiting for him at the Special Forces camp in North Carolina. "They wanted me to be a Green Beret, and when there was a mission for everybody in South America, they asked me to join them. I felt wrong about it and I told them that I wasn't interested. Something in me said, 'Danger'". Unfortunately, Nagato's feelings about the mission were well founded. While in South America, the plane crashed and all aboard were lost. "There was a feeling inside me that told me not to go," said Nagato. "It convinced me that it was time to go back and find a true martial arts teacher". Nagato found Hatsumi in Noda City. Ninjutsu was completely different from anything he had yet experienced in the martial arts. "It wasn't a sport, but I was glad for that because I didn't want to fight in the ring any more. I didn't go there to fight. Lately, though, I feel that I miss the fighting a little bit, but it's nothing". On the question of entering the Ultimate Fighting Championship; He says that he does not have any need to prove himself but, if he was ever in dyer straits for cash, he would consider it.

 Hatsumi immediately saw talent when Nagato came to him. He saw the man's fighting spirit right away. There is no wonder in this, however, as street-fighting was common in the neighborhood that Nagato grew up in. His background in judo and kickboxing was a big asset as well. Nagato rose through the ranks like a rocket. He put a lot, into his training and, before he knew it, he was a master teacher. Nagato teaches a handful of students in a small, family-like dojo. Most of his people are foreigners, but he does have a few Japanese under students. Most of his students are above 5th Dan many of them passing the GO DAN TEST on the 1st try.

 Nagato doesn't feel very special being graded as a 10th dan "I still have so much to learn. I must stick to Hatsumi Sensei and hold onto him to learn all that I can learn. Okay, so I have a little feeling of what it means to be a martial artist, not much more."