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"A Link with the Subtle Worlds": Negotiating Spirituality in Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu (Ninjutsu)
Södertörn University, School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, The Study of Religions.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9264-0395
2025 (English)In: Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies, ISSN 2521-7038, Vol. 16, no 1, p. 142-193Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The Japanese martial art bujinkan budō taijutsu (ninjutsu) was disseminated globally in the 1970s, becoming popularised in the early 1980s in conjunction with a surge of ninja films. The article uses the evolution of bujinkan in Sweden over the last fifty years as a case study of how spirituality, a key feature in the books by the art’s grandmaster Hatsumi Masaaki and some of his western disciples, is negotiated among practitioners. It draws on interviews with instructors and participant observation in several dōjō, as well as bujinkan books, magazines, and websites. The analysis focuses on nine themes: broad conceptions of spirituality and religion; dōjō paraphernalia and ceremonies; the use of kuji (mudras); notions of subtle energy and vibrations; extrasensory perception; views of the grandmaster’s abilities; photography as a means of cultivating the mysterious; bujinkan as a holistic body-mind practice; and understandings of secrecy and transmission. It is further argued that the early Euro-American reception of bujinkan was coloured by concerns in the contemporary holistic milieu, but that this dimension has gradually faded in importance, at least in Sweden.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Walter de Gruyter, 2025. Vol. 16, no 1, p. 142-193
Keywords [en]
Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, Martial Arts, Ninjutsu, Religion, Secularity, Spirituality
National Category
Religious Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58001DOI: 10.30965/25217038-12345006Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105014087430OAI: oai:DiVA.org:sh-58001DiVA, id: diva2:1993734
Part of project
The neglected masculine side of new age: "Eastern" spirituality in martial arts, Swedish Research Council
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2022-02594Available from: 2025-09-01 Created: 2025-09-01 Last updated: 2025-10-07Bibliographically approved

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Faxneld, Per

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • harvard-anglia-ruskin-university
  • apa-old-doi-prefix.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-harvard.csl
  • sodertorns-hogskola-oxford.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf