A short review below. Please note that I am calling him "Kacem" and not so many other things (Dr. Zoughari, Zoughari shihan, etc.). No offence is meant by this. Despite being nearly 4 years old, Kacem's book hasn't gotten the attention it deserves.
Kacem Zoughari holds a Ph.D. in the history of Japanese classical martial arts, and is also a licensed instructor of Ninjutsu. His book "The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan" is a research-based attempt to demonstrate the actual existence of the ninja historically, and then to connect that existence to modern times.
This is difficult work. For one, nearly all of the world was no literate 300-1000 years ago. Second, much of what was written was destroyed or hasn't been located. Third, much of what was written and survives is written in Kanbun or a stylized script that is nearly indecipherable. Kacem is quite fluent in these old forms of Chinese and Japanese.
Kacem was given access to many private scrolls and works of art to write the book. His translate of Takamatsu's autobiography, albeit short, was powerful to me personally. The art shown in the book is beautiful and adds context to the text. His writing style felt like a loving student's who lends his professional training (history) to a long-held passion.
Adding to the challenge is that possibility of bias. As a student of this art, Kacem could be biased toward legitimizing the illegitimate, connecting the unconnectable, and aggrandizing the not-so-grand. Kacem holds seminars in this martial art, and certainly has the motive to be biased in his writings.
I reject this hypothesis for several reasons. First, much of what he has written is reasonably well-known. He adds color and context that is helpful and improves understanding, but didn't add entirely new histories that seem either unreasonable or 'convenient'. Second, as a historian, he was trained to make his logical leaps clearly described as such. In much of the book he shows the logic behind his hypotheses.
The book is 208 pages long, and has dozens of pages of footnotes which in my opinion should have been 'promoted' into the text. Importantly, this is not a training book. Few or no techniques are described.
Kacem Zoughari holds a Ph.D. in the history of Japanese classical martial arts, and is also a licensed instructor of Ninjutsu. His book "The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan" is a research-based attempt to demonstrate the actual existence of the ninja historically, and then to connect that existence to modern times.
This is difficult work. For one, nearly all of the world was no literate 300-1000 years ago. Second, much of what was written was destroyed or hasn't been located. Third, much of what was written and survives is written in Kanbun or a stylized script that is nearly indecipherable. Kacem is quite fluent in these old forms of Chinese and Japanese.
Kacem was given access to many private scrolls and works of art to write the book. His translate of Takamatsu's autobiography, albeit short, was powerful to me personally. The art shown in the book is beautiful and adds context to the text. His writing style felt like a loving student's who lends his professional training (history) to a long-held passion.
Adding to the challenge is that possibility of bias. As a student of this art, Kacem could be biased toward legitimizing the illegitimate, connecting the unconnectable, and aggrandizing the not-so-grand. Kacem holds seminars in this martial art, and certainly has the motive to be biased in his writings.
I reject this hypothesis for several reasons. First, much of what he has written is reasonably well-known. He adds color and context that is helpful and improves understanding, but didn't add entirely new histories that seem either unreasonable or 'convenient'. Second, as a historian, he was trained to make his logical leaps clearly described as such. In much of the book he shows the logic behind his hypotheses.
The book is 208 pages long, and has dozens of pages of footnotes which in my opinion should have been 'promoted' into the text. Importantly, this is not a training book. Few or no techniques are described.
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