Secrets of the Ninja Grandmaster is a collection of heart-to-heart lessons from ninja grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi to his senior student and first American disciple, Stephen K. Hayes. When this book was first published in 1987, it gave Western martial artists their first chance to learn what the grandmaster himself had to say about the essence of warrior training that emphasized real-world battlefield fighting methods (jissen-gata) - from the use of weapons to ninja invisibility to kuji warrior spirituality - as opposed to art or sport. This important volume is now available once again through Paladin Press, with an all-new epilogue and a techniques section that illustrates various classical ninja fighting defenses. This is essential reading for every martial artist who has ever wanted to go beyond the stereotypical images of the ninja sensationalized in action-adventure movies and gain access to the true secrets of the ninja grandmaster.

Stephen K. Hayes was inducted into the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame for his years of pioneering work in introducing the Japanese ninja martial art to the American public. Hayes was awarded the extremely rare Ju-dan Tenth Degree Black Belt license by grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi of Chiba-ken, Japan. He is the founder of the martial art of To-Shin Do, a contemporary mind and body self-protection system based on ancient ninja martial arts principles updated and adapted for application to modern threats and pressures.

Masaaki Hatsumi trained with grandmaster Toshitsugu Takamatsu for 15 years and was granted the title of soke (lineage head) for the nine martial arts that he learned from Takamatsu Sensei. Hatsumi was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame in 1986. His many books on the history, philosophy and methods of the Japanese martial arts have been translated into several languages.