Читать книгу The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art онлайн

26 страница из 32

Toshitsugu Takamatsu, having inherited the legacy of the Togakure- ryu, willed it on to its thirty-fourth generation in Masaaki Hatsumi, who in the 1950s and 1960s traveled across Japan every week to study with his teacher. Now in middle age and an osteopath by profession, Masaaki Hatsumi passes on the knowledge of the centuries from his quiet small-town residence in Noda City, a little north of Tokyo.

I arrived in Noda City, Chiba Prefecture, on a warm June evening in 197 5. It had not been easy finding the place, its small railroad depot now busy with commuters hurrying home for supper. Gnomelike farm women tottered out, bent under massive crates of vegetables tied to their backs. A group of schoolgirls in dour blue uniforms spotted the foreigner and tittered behind hands raised to their mouths. Wearily, knowing no one, I looked about the tiny train station and asked in rather shaky Japanese how to get to the hotel. There was polite laughter, as such towns have only ryokan (small, old-fashioned inns) for travelers. A phone call was made for me, and someone kindly allowed me to ride along to the inn.