How to Perform Hicho Nokara in Ninjutsu

Ninpo or ninjutsu is more commonly referred to as the art of the ninja. Funnily enough, the term ninja is not commonly used in Japan. The word shinobi is preferred. Though many people think training to be a shinobi involves learning how to fight, this is not the case. Much of ninjutsu involves psychological warfare, navigation, stealth techniques and other arts of deception. Remember that the shinobi was a spy; he would only fight if his presence was discovered. And even then his combat style would be reactive, a quick dodge followed by a counter intended to floor an opponent long enough to give the shinobi time to escape. This technique is known as "hicho nokara." It involves defending against an attacker attempting an uppercut by assuming a “kicking bird stance.”

Performing Hicho Nokara
Step 1:
Begin standing at least three, preferably four feet from your opponent. Your opponent will assume an aggressive combat stance known as ichimonji. He will drop down low on his knees. His left hand will form a vertical blade pointed at you, his arm at full extension. The right fist will be balled and held horizontally at waist level.

Step 2:
Stand with your legs close together. Keep your weight on your back right foot which is turned sideways so that the inner flat and ankle are facing your opponent. Plant the ball of your left foot down directly next to the right foot, with the toes facing your opponent. The back of your heel should be raised so high it presses into the side of your right ankle. This should look a bit like the way a heron or egret will stand in open water. Cross your right arm over your chest, fist pressing against your left pectoral muscle. Your left hand should be extended in a manner mirroring your opponent, but keep your elbow bent slightly.

Step 3:
Wait for your opponent, who will lunge forward. The uppercut from an ichimonji is a bit different than a Western uppercut. Instead of being aimed at the chin, the under swinging punch is aimed at the solar plexus near the top of the abdomen. Immediately push off with your left foot, keeping the heel raised, and take a half step backward with your right foot to get outside your opponent’s optimum range of attack. Keep your weight on your back foot and immediately pull your left foot backward to resume your bird stance. As the uppercut is driven forward, turn your left hand palm downward and cross your body with the lower forearm. Drive the hand down at the appropriate moment to catch your opponent’s upturned right fist. Hold onto your opponent’s fist to immobilize his right arm.

Step 4:
Push off with your rear foot and raise your left foot at the knee, swinging it forward to kick with the heel into your opponent’s upper right leg or midsection.

Step 5:
Continue the kick by stepping forward with the same foot and placing it behind your opponent’s right heel. Extend your right fist from its coiled position across your chest to backhand your opponent across the side of the cheek or neck. This is meant to wrong foot and disorient your opponent.

Step 6:
Step forward with your right foot so you are straddling his right leg, with one foot in front and one foot behind. Place your right hand on the front of your opponent’s right shoulder. Twist your upper body counterclockwise, pulling your opponent’s right arm back while pushing his upper body backward using his shoulder as the contact point. Your opponent will trip over your rear foot and topple backward to land on his rump or back, finishing the technique.

Becoming a Demon

A raging sense of self hatred warring with an all consuming pathological apathy does not lend itself to a good night’s sleep. Throw in a bowl of homemade chili and a glass of Absinthe and who knows upon what weird Morphean shores one will wash up.

Despite all this, I slept the sleep of one who has lost all interest in the affairs of man and sought solitude in the depths of the mind.

I dreamt I was dead and free of all mortal concern. But not for me were the harp and wings intended. Not for me was the gift of eternal peace. I was damned, consigned to Hell for spurning the gift of life and its many tainted opportunities. It was not my fault; I had been born into a world overpopulated with filth. The prodigal and the vain, the debaucherous and the predatory. They had destroyed the world long before my arrival, cluttering it with the products of their own self important delusions and ensuring that no New Eden could be built.

And so I withdrew, seeing any attempts to progress in the world as futile. I became a hermit, only trying to control my own little world and leaving mankind to wound itself moronically as it repeated the mistakes so well illustrated by history.

And so upon the hour of my death I was damned en masse alongside countless others. Our crime: failing to “make the effort”. But I have to say in my own defense. In a world of the lost is the man with infinite hope a leader? No. He is an unlearning fool, doomed to have his spirits crushed time and time again.

I arose from by birth caul into the world of shadow full grown, naked, and very confused. I was cold, shivering uncontrollably. It was dark, I could see no more than an arms length before me, but even that was far too much to bear.

I was shoulder to shoulder with others like me, naked and bewildered. They pawed at one another in anguish. For you see, they were on fire.

The fire did not cast light, emitting only smoke which filled the air and wrapped us all in our own cloaks of darkness. I was on fire, but I was not being consumed. I did not feel heat either, but a cold in my chest so intense it burned. Our bodies were simply projections of our minds and could not be harmed. It was our souls that were aflame.

And so we languished for an eternity in the blink of an eye. Our mouths were open as we screamed, yet the sound was muffled. It seemed as if it was coming from some great distance. Our flesh was not real, we had no tongues to mold our cries, and no lungs to give them breath. We had no ears to truly hear either. In truth the sound we were making was quieter than a gnat’s heartbeat.

I called out again and again for friends and family, anyone we could think of whom we’d considered loved ones in life. Our pain was not physical, it was mental. We were filled with fear and horrific loneliness, desperately wishing to be comforted by the embrace and presence of a friend or companion.
This is what it was to exist without love, without a purpose, and without a higher being. Man without the love of God, by whatever name you call him, is a shell of himself, without purpose or peace. Though we were packed together as tightly as sardines in a tin, we were, each of us, alone in our own private Hell.

We were driven by the emptiness within to act out. The predatory among us brutalized the rest as the burning itch behind the eyes grew, right where it could not be scratched. Assault, battery, disfigurement, rape, cannibalism; they were all committed with desperate abandon. But the damage done was fleeting, healed in moments. The pain of it could not be felt either.

Demon archetypes battered shades aside as they waded through the press. Demons, djinn, devils, fiends, cenobites, beasts, the fallen; call them what you will. They were unnamable and indescribable things whose existence was wholly devoted to violence, torture, and anguish.

As they neared, the sheer malevolent hatred emanating from them warped minds. We hallucinated countless diabolic scenarios of imprisonment, torture, dissection, fear, helplessness, and pain.

We endured this time after time without choice or hope. As time passed my heart hardened and grew cold. The demons’ visions affected me less and less as any sense of morality and the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong eroded away.

I began to brutalize other shades. I knew it was pointless as they could not feel it, but it was till something to do. It became a pastime, a hobby, and eventually an art. The demons pointed me out amongst themselves for my viciousness and cruel creativity.
I became like them. A demon.

The pain within me still did not recede. If anything, it drove me to greater heights of brutality against the other souls. I no longer saw myself as like them. Instead I saw the chance to punish those who had destroyed the world with their arrogant ways, dragging me and others like me into the Pit in the process. In this way were demons made.

Having purpose, I became more terrible than the other demons, a beast among beasts. I existed for the next scream of fear and the next look of insane terror on the faces of the cattle.

I found myself a foot soldier of the infernal army, a legionnaire of Hell. I destroyed any who stood before me, sinners and the pure alike. The lust for destruction grew, drowning my mind in an orgy of violence and bloodletting. As the beast grew, my soul was consumed. All that I was before the evil took hold was slowly smothered. As my soul was destroyed and only the mindless demon remained, I found the peace that I’d been searching for since birth. Peace through oblivion.

All Aboard The Midnight Crazy Train

Mental Anguish. It’s a term used to indicate in Psychology and modern parlance to indicate perceived pain or discomfort arising from the mind and one’s emotions. Alone, the term anguish is used to indicate immense pain and suffering. This previous connotation colors the term “mental anguish”, causing most people to bring to mind mental suffering on a biblical scale when the term is used. In most cases this is not so.

In reality many people experience a low level of mental anguish as a result of day to day stress. It’s so minor that they usually do not even realize it, but it manifests itself in their behavior.

You may wonder why someone snaps at you in passing or commits some petty act of vandalism or destruction. Littering for example, or kicking at a small animal as they go by. If you were to stop that person right then and there and ask them why, the odds are that they would not know. It’s because they are in pain.

There are also people out there who are either better able to perceive this pain, or experience it to a greater degree. I became one of these people as soon as I was old enough to express it.

As a child I developed both mentally and physically very quickly, though still cried often. I also could not bear to be separated from my mother, the poor woman, for any length of time. At that age one’s mother is like unto a God to you. I guess I thought she would be capable of banishing the evils lurking in the corners of my mind, waiting to pounce. To some degree she did, the power of belief lending credence to her presence via placebo effect.

As soon as I could formulate the words, I complained about the “hurt and badness in my head”. After several CT scans turned up nothing, they realized I was referring to mental pain. Cue the child psychologists, padded stage left.

For the longest time I wondered why I was being taken to see these people, no one ever told me what they were supposed to do. I didn’t know why I was going to see them, and no one would give me a straight answer why. It was always “He/She is going to try to make you feel better, sweetie”. Thanks for the sentiment and all, but that’s not really a helpful answer. I thought I was going to get a backrub, I remember that the last time I had one I felt much better; too bad it did nothing for my head. After I my first visit I felt cheated, I sat listening to that man prattling on for an hour, answering all of his inane questions about my “life” and I still hadn’t gotten my backrub! What was I supposed to say to the guy anyway? I was less than a decade old; I didn’t have a “life”. I had no friends because I lived in the arse end of nowhere populated by non English speaking immigrants and rednecks with family trees that didn’t branch. As such my social life was restricted to my own family. I knew nothing else, so I was content with it.

The bottom line was that I was in mental anguish without cease, and I still am. The child psychologists never discovered any issues worthy of dealing with, so they did nothing, though they were happy to take my parents’ money regardless. After that came the psychiatrists. For those unfamiliar with the difference, a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who prescribes medications to deal with mental illness; a psychologist has a PhD and seeks to treat his patients through reason. I’ve been on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds since I was ten. I’ve got nothing to show for it save minor nerve damage from being given adult doses of medications that had not been extensively studied, meaning my hands and entire body shakes and twitches endlessly, completely destroying any ability to play a musical instrument or shoot straight. For someone who dislikes other people as much as I do, the latter is a real crime.

The truth is that I don’t dislike people in theory, but am in too much mental pain to put up with the requisite social niceties that seem to tie everyone’s lives up in knots. When I see two friends talking, I listen. Not for gossip, but because I’m curious about what they have to say. The vast majority of the time it’s nothing of value or interest, to myself of those parties involved. So why bother, I ask myself. If anyone would care to explain the allure of social interaction I am all ears. If you’re serious with me, I will take everything you have to say just as seriously.

Anyway, I’m off on a rant. Let me get back to the matter at hand. On a daily basis, I am very short with others and myself. This is not out of any anger, though most people perceive it as such. Mental pain is no different in it’s affect on behavior than physical pain. Though it is not addressed with such importance because it is not accurately perceived or identified, by the sufferer or those around him. For most of the day I’m able to get by through focusing on the important matters; money, work, household upkeep, personal upkeep, and entertainment. During the night, when the rest of the city sleeps, I have no such distractions. That’s when the pain gets through my mental defenses.

I’ve talked it up so much but have done nothing to describe it. Personally I experience several sensations. The first is a pressure in the solar plexus, not painful, but binding. The second is a heaviness in the skull, like a fog or wad of cotton cluttering up my brain and slowing my mind. The third is an infuriating itch at the center of the forehead, just above the bridge of the nose. But it’s not on the skin; it’s on the inside, behind the skull, where it can’t be scratched. I understand that this is not at all uncommon among Americans.

On a side note, I thought it pertinent to say that many cultures perceive mental pain differently. During my attempts at graduate school I learned that most Africans experience mental anguish as a prickly heat in the chest, while the Japanese feel it is a burning pain in the legs. Interesting how something entirely psychosomatic manifests itself differently, based on values and beliefs apparently.

In any case, the final and worst pain which only appears at my darkest moments in the small hours of the nights is the screaming. It’s difficult to describe in that there is not sound and nothing which was perceived. It’s like being woken from a sound sleep from a sudden loud noise. The noise itself is not registered; we never hear the sound that wakes us unless it continues whilst we are conscious. However we are aware that a noise did occur. It’s like that; somehow I know it’s screaming without actually having heard it.

The echoes of unheard screams ring in my mind, having ignored my ears entirely. It is ceaseless and maddening, and increases in intensity when there is no work to be done. That’s why I write. Not because I enjoy it, though there are times when it is very satisfying, I must admit, but because it’s the only thing which keeps the screaming from getting to me. It’s still there, it’s always there. I cannot change that. It’s similar to the way people in the military have been trained to resist torture, by placing their minds elsewhere for a time. Writing is the best way I can distract me from myself.

Before I learned this method I was a screaming nightmare, I would pace like a caged animal and press my hands to my ears until my skull creaked. I drank and took all sorts of pills. Thanks to the psychiatrists there was no shortage of those. Unfortunately I am a very big man with an Irish/German/Scottish constitution. I metabolize chemicals obscenely fast. The only time I’ve ever been dead drunk was when I drank the entire bottle of Jack Daniels. I don’t have the money or the wish to do that every night as I am of no use the next day. I pounded my head into the walls in a frenzy, trying to drive out the pain or crush my skull, I cared not which. In truth the only reason I’m not doing that now is that I’m focusing on writing this.

I have noticed in recent pop culture the startling interest in depression, mental illness, pain, and suicide. Some call it emo, though frankly I don’t care what it’s called. It may be popular, but it’s not healthy. To all those who act like they are depressed or pretend they have some sort of mental disorder, this is a warning. You play along the shores of a vast ocean. It roils and rages indiscriminately. Madness can be infectious. Those who are not in mental pain should not pretend otherwise, lest they be lost to that ocean without the knowledge of how to swim through it unharmed. Most people with mild mental illness that have not been institutionalized are still alive because they have learned coping strategies over many years of hardship and pain. This does not lessen the pain; it simply allows them to function in a world which cares nothing for anyone’s suffering. There are far easier ways to get attention; just asking for it for example.

To all those who are truly emotionally ill and in need of help, you will not find it in the form of a doctor or a pill. Taking yourself out of a functional situation and placing yourself in the stasis of a treatment facility does not work as it does not address those functional issues and problems you will face in the real world. This is the biggest reason that people who are institutionalized, either by force or voluntarily, experience relapses. Those facilities which actually attempt to treat their patients rather than simply medicate them, rendering them docile but unable to care for themselves, do not have individualized treatment procedures which account for the necessities of daily life and its routine. The bottom line is that people who go into mental hospitals tend to stay there. It is up to you to find a viable alternative. Good luck, and remember you are not alone, though you will always feel as if you are.

Important Notice

Just wanted to post and let you all know that I won’t be submitting any updates for the rest of the week, and will likely not be able to update next week either. A series of serious medical problems has me both terrified and in a great deal of pain. I noticed a growth in the shower which bore all the signs of a tumor about the size of a kiwi fruit. I went immediately to the physician who is referring me to an urologist to check to see if it’s cancerous or benign. While I was waiting to be contacted by the urologist I noticed that my eyes had gotten very dry. They stayed this way for well over a week and became even more painful as time went by, to the point that I’ve had to tape my eyes shut for days on end just to get any relief. I purchased every kind of eye drop on the market; without effect.

Managed to get to an ophthalmologist clinic today; man was that guy rough. He poured what felt like three types of acid in my eyes before turning my eye lids inside out and then sticking strips of litmus paper against my corneas. They were held in place for over two minutes while the paper changed color to indicate some sort of chemical reaction. Frankly I would’ve rather been stabbed again, that hurt a hell of a lot less. In any case the doc tells me I’ve got some form of conjunctivitis. It’s an autoimmune disease which stops the glands around the eyelashes from releasing moisture and fluids onto the surface of the eye, keeping it moist.

As a treatment I’ve got to instill three different kinds of eye drops in my eyes four times a day in a specific order while massaging the eyelashes and using boiling hot compresses to loosen the oil in the glands. The eye drops also have the consistency of Vaseline. Bottom line is that I won’t be able to see anything for the next week or two until this treatment is over.

Hopefully it will work. If it doesn’t then there are two reasons why. The one reason is that I have a severe thyroid disorder, one of the symptoms of which is this conjunctivitis. This means I’ll have to see yet another specialist. Thyroid problems are very tricky too. There are no medications out there which govern the operation of the thyroid effectively, meaning chemical imbalances causing a lot of nasty side effects are common. The second reason is that the next form of medication needed to fix the conjunctivitis, while dealing with the thyroid problem, costs more than my first car did.

Keep in mind that this is while I’m still waiting to find out if I’ve got cancer and am going to need surgery to remove a portion of my anatomy which, although it doesn’t see much use, I’ve grown sentimentally attached to. Whoever says curses and bad luck don’t exist has never met me.

On top of all this, I’m self employed. I’ve got no medical coverage whatsoever. So far I’ve paid for my medical visits out of my personal savings. If I end up needing surgery my only option, aside from dying, is taking out a loan and then declaring bankruptcy. I don’t own anything and have no assets which I can’t officially sign over to a family member, so I won’t loose much aside from my credit rating.

I’m going to go lie down now. I’d cry but my eyes can’t produce any moisture right now. If you’ve been kind enough to read this far, I thank you deeply. I suppose it’s a bit like watching a train wreck; it’s horrible but you can’t look away. If you can do me one more kindness, please click on one of the adjacent advertisements. They are completely harmless and put a few cents in my pocket every time someone clicks on them.

How to Perform an Ooyopu Throw in Ninjutsu

Here is a guide explaining how to perform Ooyopu, also known as the thumb choke technique, which is performed as a defense to an attacker grabbing the defender by the shoulders or sleeves of the upper arms.

Step 1:
Begin by responding to your opponent grabbing you by the shoulders and sleeves. Place your right arm on the top of your opponent’s shoulder and the left arm against the back of his elbow. This is known as the Kunichi position and is common for many different grappling throws and holds. You should also be mirroring your opponent’s stance by keeping your weight forward on your left foot.

Step 2:
Place the palm of your right hand against the front of your opponent’s throat and snug the V of flesh between your thumb and index finger at the point where the throat gives way to the underside of the jaw. Lean your body’s weight back onto your rear right foot while firmly extending your right arm and locking your elbow. The point of this is not to harm your opponent, but force him to push him slightly away. This will mean your opponent will have to lock his own arms in order to keep hold of you, which is exactly what we want.

Step 3:
Shove your opponent back sharply by transferring your body’s weight back to your forward left foot and leaning forward. Take a half step to the left and drive your right heel into the inside of your opponent’s right knee joint. Again this is meant to unsteady your opponent rather than do any harm. Your opponent will be pushed to his left and will have to release his left hand on your sleeve if he wants to regain his balance.

Step 4:
Take the opportunity that this moment provides to grip your freed right hand around your opponent’s right wrist. Step inward toward your opponent with your left foot while pivoting clockwise to put your back to him. As you do this, raise your opponent’s arm to rest his elbow across the top of your left shoulder. It should be noted that for this throw to be effective, the back of the elbow must be pressed against the shoulder, not the inside of the elbow.

Step 5:
Complete the technique by leaning forward at the waist while pulling your opponent around from your left, pulling the arm down as you do so to propel him into a rapid tumble as he will not be able to keep his balance as fast as you draw him around your body.

How to Counter a Right Left Right Punch Combination with a Leg Attack Series in Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu is colloquially referred to as the art of the Ninja. It was an art expounded during the Japanese feudal era. The term encompasses many years of training in the fields of: stealth, subterfuge, psychological warfare, chemistry, and many forms of combat. It was in essence a training program to create a ninja; the modern day equivalent would be guerilla soldier or insurgent. The majority of these techniques involved acting and observing without being caught or seen. In the rare instances where violence was required for an operative to complete his task, the target would typically never see his/her end coming. Unarmed combat was only ever used for immediate self defense should the operative come under attack suddenly. Its entire purpose was to safely neutralize the attacker long enough to allow the operative to escape. Today Ninjutsu self defense can be just as effective. Here is a guide detailing how to defend against an attacker throwing a right, left, right punch combination by striking at the legs and forcing the attacker to the ground.

Step 1:
Begin in a natural standing position with your opponent facing you. As you are not the aggressor it is likely that your opponent will be the one taking a combat stance. It would be a costly waste of time to attempt to mimic this. As your opponent throws a punch aimed at you with his/her right fist, sidestep to the right, using the back of your left hand to guide the fist out to your left and away from your body.

Step 2:
Immediately widen your stance to lower your upper body for greater strength for the coming attack. Ball your right fist and drive it in an underhanded punch directly against the inside of your attacker’s upper right leg. This serves multiple purposes. It will force your attacker backward for a moment and warn them you’re not afraid to fight back. It will cause physical pain as that part of the leg is sensitive. Most importantly, it will temporarily numb the muscle. This will reduce your opponent’s mobility and weaken his/her sense of balance.

Step 3:
Allow your attacker to strike again with his/her left fist. Instead of dodging it, form your left arm into a horizontal bar and force the punch upward by raising your arm sharply. Latch your hand around your attacker’s wrist before he/she is able to withdraw it. This will force your attacker to punch again with the only arm she/he has control over.

Step 4:
Deflect the second punch by forming a horizontal bar with your other arm and raising it sharply upward. Again make sure to grab your opponent’s other wrist before the arm can be retracted.

Step 5:
Pull your opponent toward you, turning sidelong so your right shoulder and right leg and nearest to your opponent’s midline. Raise your knee up and out to the side and drive it sideways into your opponent’s leg in the same spot that you first attacked. Immediately compound this by slipping your leg between your opponent’s legs and wrapping it around his/her left leg. The back of your knee and his/her knee should touch. Pull back with you leg, forcing your opponent’s leg up into the air. Pull your opponent onto his/her wounded leg and he/she will stumble, falling backward to his/her rump or back.

How to Defend a Two Handed Choke in Shorin-Ryu Karate

Sokon Matsumara pioneered Shorin Ryu Karate in the early 1800s as he played his role as the bodyguard for three successive kings of Okinawa. Okinawa is, as you may know, the birthplace of Karate, many different forms of which have since evolved. As bodyguard to the kings of Okinawa it was Matsumara’s responsibility to train the household troops guarding the Okinawan palace is unarmed combat. He taught them a variation of Karate which included principles and movements typical of Chinese Wushu, given that he’d traveled extensively in China during his youth. The result was a form of Karate which utilized quick, precise, energy efficient movements and attacks as well as a much narrower stance than was traditionally proscribed. The benefit of this stance was greater mobility and quicker response time at the expense of one’s balance. Shorin Ryu Karate has been called a “reactive” martial art, in that it teaches quick and immediate reaction to various attacks. Some people see this as less aggressive, reasoning it gives less opportunity for one to go on the offensive. Actually it simply follows the doctrine of energy conservation. By letting the enemy attack first and commit himself to a specific course of action, you as the defender have a wide array of possible responses without tiring yourself unnecessarily. A good example of this is seen in the defense technique against a two handed choke.

Step 1:

Begin with your opponent wrapping his hands around the side of your throat and pressing inward with his thumbs in the hollows of the neck. This is where the carotid arteries are. If they are compressed for more than 15 seconds you will get very fuzzy and confused. If they are compressed for more than 30 seconds you will pass out. It’s a pretty fair assumption that if you saw this coming your opponent wouldn’t have been able to grab your throat, so changing your stance retroactively is a waste of time.

Step 2:

Immediately tense the muscles in your neck as best you can and drop your chin down atop your opponent’s hands. Turn your neck 45 degrees to the left, attempting to shift the angle of your opponent’s grip.

Step 3:

Turn your body in the same direction that you are facing and take a step forward with your right foot. This will bring you off to your opponent’s right rather than directly in front of him. It will make the angle of his left hand on your neck awkward and loosen his grip even further, it also brings your right shoulder close enough to comfortable get an arm in between his arms.

Step 4:

Pull your right wrist back and curl your fingers inward, leaving the flat ball of your thumb and palm exposed. From below, drive it upward between your opponent’s arms to impact hard against the underside of your opponent’s chin. This will snap his head back.

Step 5:

Do not retract the arm. Instead extend your fingers and arch them into claws. Place them as high on your opponent’s face as you can, above his eyebrows for preference and claw them down in a straight line all the way to your attacker’s upper chest. Your opponent’s natural reaction will be to release you and clutch at his face, particularly his eyes.

Step 6:

Continue the downward motion of the scrape, swinging your right arm back, forming it into a fist and placing it over your heart. Simultaneously take a half step backward with your right foot, bend at the knees, and extend your right fist to enter a Back Stance should your opponent attempt further attack.