Clearly, the authors of the article don’t know of Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi of the Togakure Ryu.
He is the 34th Grandmaster in a long, long line of Bujinkan Ninjutsu.
I guarantee the “last ninja” engineer does, though.
Dr. Hatsumi trained Shidoshi Stephen Hayes, who brought it over here.
I’ve been wanting to know in other posts, has he come forward with any proof of that claim? He has some kind of government recognized status, but sometimes even government officials and knowledgeable people screw up. Frank Dux (yes, ‘Dux’ is a 4 letter word) had a lot of people fooled. I’m involved in the European Renaissance side of things and there are quacks on our side who say they are the sole descendant of a line of masters who kept the art alive secretly. Some make claims of having old manuscripts but never give them over for academic scrutiny and I think that is required of all such people who make those claims.
I still rather take Judo then even real Ninjitsu. I tease I tease.