Ashida Kim

Grandmaster Ashida Kim is an internationally famous martial artist specializing in Ninjitsu. He has written over a dozen books on the Secrets of the Ninja, invisible assassins of feudal Japan, and toured all over the world teaching and training Kata Dante-The Dance of the Deadly Hands. He is a member of the Patriarch Council of the American Chapter of the Black Dragon Fighting Society founded by Count Juan Raphael Dante.

When the "Ninja craze" hit in the nineteen eighties, Ashida Kim was not the first to break the code of silence surrounding the Art of Invisibility, BUT he was the ONLY Ninja to appear masked to maintain the secrecy of the Art. For that, many so-called experts and internet commandoes called him a fake and a fraud and a charlatan. But, not to his face.

His study of the martial arts began at age twelve. His father was a career soldier, so he had frequent opportunities to attend a variety of Judo classes. Almost every post where they were stationed had one. At that time Judo was the only Oriental system available to Western students. Karate was an advanced level that was offered only to seniors, although there were a few striking techniques in Judo known as Atemi-Waza. Since most of the members of these clubs were professional soldiers, they had little time for children. Thus, much as in the Shaolin monastery experience, Kim was more often than not restricted to sweeping the mat and observing than to any actual instruction until age fourteen. By the time his father retired he was sixteen years old and at Brown Belt level: although the experience of often changing Judo clubs had left him with little regard for earning belt rank, since Judoka of that period held to the tradition that one must begin each time from the beginning. He does credit this training, however, with teaching him the proper and safe way to fall; which has held him in good stead throughout his practice, and saved him many times.

While at university, he attended a Karate demonstration given by a Yudansha who had trained in Okinawa. His style was Shotokan and he too had learned while his father had been stationed overseas. By then Karate was fairly widespread and there were hints of an even more deadly art known as Kung Fu that began to surface. Adding the repertoire of kicks and punches to his arsenal of Judo and Wrestling holds he had learned on his High School wrestling team, he soon picked up the system, based in large part on the discipline of patience and practice he had learned in the Gentle Way. Hard style or linear Karate is widely taught today, the most popular being Taekwondo, the Hand and Foot Way. Many basic strikes and practice forms are similar. They can be taught to large or small groups by rote, and develop excellent military discipline.