Dojo Caracal
The Tradition
Tradition in a martial art is not just a collection of ancient techniques or an attempt to preserve the past exactly as it was. For me, a living tradition is the transmission of knowledge, principles, a way of moving and a way of thinking from teacher to student, from generation to generation. It is preserved precisely because it continues to be tested in training and in life, and to exist within a changing reality.
Such transmission is not mechanical copying. The same principle may find different expression in different teachers and different students, according to the body, the experience and the situation. Form is important, especially in the early stages of learning, but its purpose is not to imprison us in it. Its purpose is to pass on principles that can be understood, felt and applied even when conditions change.
The Budo Taijutsu I learn and teach is connected to the traditions passed down from Takamatsu Toshitsugu (高松寿嗣) to Hatsumi Masaaki (初見良昭), and from him to his students. Within the Bujinkan organization it is customary to speak of nine different traditions, each of which brings its own way of moving, combat principles and heritage. Three of them are ninjutsu traditions, and the other six deal with combat with the body and with weapons. Hatsumi explains that he chose the term budo, the martial way, rather than ninjutsu alone, because these traditions come both from samurai schools and from ninja schools.
Hatsumi and me, Noda, Japan. September 2012
Takamatsu and Hatsumi
Takamatsu was the teacher from whom Hatsumi received the traditions on which the Bujinkan organization was later founded. Within the Bujinkan it is customary to speak of nine ryūha (流派), schools or martial traditions, each preserved as a tradition with its own character, principles and emphases.
I think it is important to stress that these traditions are not a single system that split into nine. Each ryū has its own identity and characteristics, while at the same time they are studied within the broader framework of Budo Taijutsu.
When we talk about the history of these traditions, it is important to distinguish between the tradition as it is passed down within the Bujinkan and what can be verified from external historical sources. Not all lines of transmission are equally documented, and for some of them there are scholarly debates and disagreements. On this site I prefer to present the tradition with respect but also with honesty, and to distinguish as far as possible between what we have received from within the tradition and what can be independently verified.
The Traditions I Learn From
My way in Budo Taijutsu rests on the nine traditions passed down within the Bujinkan organization. Each of them has its own ways of moving, principles and tools, and the meeting between them creates a broad language that makes it possible to examine, again and again, the core working principles of the Bujinkan: distance, timing, structure, control and adapting to change. I describe the nine traditions and their characteristics on the Budo Taijutsu page.
For me, the importance of the traditions is not only in preserving techniques from the past: they offer different ways to learn to use the body, to see what is happening, to sense change and to respond to it without being fixed on a single solution. As I continue to study them, I meet the same principles again from different angles and deepen my understanding of the way as a whole.
From Danny Waxman to the Dojo
Danny Waxman and me training in the park. Winter 2026
Danny Waxman, born in 1936, is one of the figures who most influenced the way I understand budo today. As a young man he studied with Moshe Feldenkrais, and in 1958, after his discharge from the IDF and on Feldenkrais's recommendation, he traveled to Japan. There he trained in judo at the Kodokan in Tokyo, and at the same time studied Sōtō Zen with Prof. Masunaga Reihō, who became his Zen teacher.
In the early 1960s his friend Donn Draeger introduced him to Hatsumi Masaaki. Danny, together with Doron Navon, was among Hatsumi's first Western students. It was also Danny who introduced Hatsumi to Doron Navon, whom he knew from judo training at the Kodokan.
Danny holds a 7th Dan in judo from the Kodokan. What is unique about his way does not come from an artificial combination of different fields, but from the way judo, Zen, Feldenkrais's work and the budo he learned in Japan became, for him, parts of one way. His work emphasizes release from unnecessary tension, free movement, precision, minimalism and clarity, but alongside all these there is also total combativeness. One of the most striking and impressive things about Danny's way is the ability to move in an instant from a calm, quiet and relaxed state to a sharp, full and determined fighting state, and to return immediately to calm once the task is done. For him there is no contradiction between calm and combativeness. Calm makes combativeness possible, and combativeness ends the moment it is no longer needed. Power does not come from greater effort, but from the ability to use body and mind in a complete, simple and precise way. He gave this approach the name Satori no Michi, “the Way to Awakening”. On the method's website it is described as a way that combines Danny's experience in Zen, judo, ninjutsu and the principles he learned from Moshe Feldenkrais, not as a collection of separate methods but as a single approach to training, learning and development.
I have studied with Danny since 1999. Over the years I was introduced to Satori no Michi and learned it from him through Budo Taijutsu, judo, Zen and, above all, through training and an ongoing, personal relationship with him. For me it is not just another training method, but a way that has largely shaped how I train, teach and understand budo.
Written in October 2026. I have been Danny's student since 1999 and continue to study with him today, and I hope and wish to keep learning from him for many more years.
The Tradition Continues at the Dojo
For me, the tradition does not end with Takamatsu, Hatsumi or Danny. It continues as long as it passes from person to person and is tested again and again in training and in life. What reaches Dojo Caracal today is more than a collection of techniques, names of schools or forms to be reproduced. It carries within it the traditions of the Bujinkan organization, the way of learning I received from my teachers, and what I continue to examine for myself in training and teaching. Forms and kata are a central tool in passing on the tradition, but in my view the goal is not just to remember them. The goal is to understand the principles they carry and to know how to act through them even when the distance, the timing, the opponent or reality changes. This is how I understand a living tradition: not something preserved because it must not be touched, but a way we keep learning, examining, living and passing on.
This is how I understand a living tradition: not something preserved because it must not be touched, but a way we keep learning, examining, living and passing on.