Jinichi Kawakami

Jinichi Kawakami (川上仁一), head of Banke Shinobinoden, claims to be the last sōke and only heir to authentic ninjutsu. He says he is the 21st head of the Koga Ban family (Iga and Koga Ninjutsu) and is the honorary director of the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum. In 2011, he was specially appointed a professor at Mie University to research ninjutsu at the university's research cooperation center.

Contents

• The true spirit of the ninja jinichi kawakami at tedxbermuda 2013
• A true japanese ninja jinichi kawakami interview 2015
• References

Kawakami boasts no ninja bloodline of his own, but says he learned his art as a boy from a man named Masado (Masazo) Ishida, a medicine peddler claiming to be one of the last remaining ninjutsu practitioners alive. According to Japan Times, "Kawakami has something most other ninja claimants do not — an earnest combination of humility and scholarship. Not to mention some highly polished martial arts skills of his own." He is also a former trained engineer.

His top student, Yasushi Kiyomoto, is the only one teaching from the Banke Shinobinoden group. Kiyomoto operates a dojo in Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, but he no longer takes on new students. But his Shihan Yasushi Kiyomoto. Since 2003 José Defez, and then others members, began their training in Japan of Bujutsu and Shinobijutsu of BAN family of Koka, In October 2010, Soke Jinichi Kawakami and Sensei Yasushi Kiyomoto decided to name this group of Spain as the first and only official school branch outside Japan. Becoming an official Dojo, and Valencia its headquarter. http://www.bankeshinobi-spain.com/introduction.html

In 2012, Kawakami decided that he will not appoint anyone to take over as the next ninja grandmaster. He told BBC News: "In the age of civil wars or during the Edo period, ninjas' abilities to spy and kill, or mix medicine may have been useful. But we now have guns, the internet and much better medicines, so the art of ninjutsu has no place in the modern age."

Jinichi Kawakami and his student Yasushi Kiyomoto were first introduced to the Western, English speaking world in the book, "A Story of Life, Fate and Finding the Lost Art of Koka Ninjutsu in Japan" first published in 2008.