Japan resident, Hombu teacher, and Zero point Budo Taijutsu Founder Rob Renner and I are going to be having a zoom call soon. We'll be discussing Hatsumi-den, self-defense, life, martial arts in general, etc. If you have any questions for him please post them here in the comments. I'll make sure to get to everyone's questions even if we have to do multiple parts to the conversation. Happy training.

A lot of what I heard in this interview was very similar to what my own teacher has described (Japan resident for 20+ years) concerning what I like to call Hatsumi sensei's systemless system. This aspect of the Hatsumi-den is something distinct from what is commonly known as Bujinkan or Takamatsu-den arts, while also being it's functional core. https://youtu.be/SRmCYGvmoMs?si=V6Q_R_24KfHUNM0w

Kamae are deployed into the empty space so as to occupy and control (direct) the attacker's next move. By having a correct base, posture, guard, directional movement, and connection with the attack and its potential source, we get to practice control much earlier and with the entire body. Hatsumi-den style self defense leverages this control to generate surprises for the attacker, such as metsubushi type counters.