The Kung Fu Hero & Art of Ninjitsu- Why martial arts are still badass
We’ve all seen the martial arts films, one man takes down a mob of attackers single-handedly as they pass out at a single touch. If only things worked out the same in real life.
Well apparently they do. A bona-fide Kung Fu hero has emerged in the form of Mr Shen Jianzhong, who took on a gang attempting to evict him from his home. The 38-year-old Chinese fitness instructor fought off the mob as they attempted to force into the house. With the help of his 18-year-old son and inspiration from his hero Bruce Lee, Shen fought the gang of “30 to 50 men”, The Telegraph reported. “It was self-defence. I really cannot remember what Kung Fu skills I used,” Jianzhong said.
All this was a result of a property developer’s six-month attempt to secure Shen’s house in a planning proposal. The project would have meant demolishing the whole street to turn the village into a town. It was rejected by Shen who saw other villages getting a better deal. When negotiations failed to conclude, things soon got violent: “This mob of thugs would block the street most days. They would pick on the women, threatening to kill their kids. Then people started tossing bricks through windows and letting off fireworks at night. Some people got beaten on the street.”
Jianzhong describes the whole event as: “quite messy. Only seven people were injured because the rest were scared and stayed outside. Some of them ran away”. In fact the seven were discovered near unconscious as a result.
Watch the video here with over 2-million hits on this Chinese website.
Ninjitsu
While Jianzhong demonstrates that Kung Fu still has relevance, other badass forms of may sadly be dying out. Like Ninjitsu, the art of the iconic Ninja. Tracing back 1000 years to a time of opposition to the Samurai class in Japan, Ninjas are know clearly identified by their unique fighting skills, weapons and shadowy presence. Disappointingly most of the ideas we now associate with the ninja are inflated myths. Good old American entertainment. In fact they didn’t even wear black (navy blue kept them far better hidden under moonlight).
But don’t despair, ninjas aren’t all exaggerated myth. They were still highly skilled assassins, hired for espionage and able to handle a range of lethal weapons like the samurai sword, blowpipe and ‘shuriken’ (affectionately: ninja stars). Kawakami, a descendant of the Koka ninja clan, started learning ninja techniques from the age of 6 and has been branded ”Japan’s last ninja”. The martial arts organisation Bujinkan runs internationally by founder Hatsumi with a following of more than 300,000 around the world. Forget Kung Fu, who wouldn’t want to become a 21st century ninja?
But sadly ninjas are hard to come by. Despite the tradition of Ninjitsu passing down from father to son, Hatsumi says that no new grandmaster will be appointed. “we now have guns, the internet and much better medicines, so the art of ninjutsu has no place in the modern age.” he tells the BBC . Still, you can study ninja history at Mie University where Hatsumi teaches part-time. It might not give you the skills to fight off a 30 strong mob like Kung Fu master Shen did, but then again that stuff doesn’t really happen in real life right?
Via BBC & Business Insider
Main Image: Jeyhun Pashayev
Other image: Generation Bass
About the Author
Jodie Rawl Student, writer, procrastinator. Forming incoherent (and oh-so-hilarious) thoughts into actual type, one word at a time.
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