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Modern Taijutsu schools do exist, and practitioners are
called “ninja.” Some teach a reinvented form of Ninjutsu –
complete with stealth training, costumes, and nunchaku.
Others focus almost exclusively on Taijutsu. Currently,
there’s only one certified Grand Master of Taijutsu, who
heads three schools of Ninpo (Ninjutsu) and six other
martial-arts schools amalgamated into a single budo ryu.
These schools use the standard 10 kyu and 10 dan ranks,
although a few have 15 dan ranks. Students do partner
drills, perform kata (sometimes modified by broken
rhythms and improvised techniques), and wear gi.
Historical ninja would learn a combat style nearly identical
to this. As noted above, they would acquire their
weapon skills separately. They should study styles for primary
weapons (such as the katana, wakizashi, and spear)
and backup weapons (such as the shuriken and kusari). For
more about ninja, see Ninja and Ninjutsu (p. 202).
Skills: Acrobatics; Judo; Karate; Karate Art; Savoir-Faire
(Dojo).
Techniques: Acrobatic Stand; Arm Lock; Breakfall
(Acrobatics or Judo); Choke Hold; Ear Clap; Elbow Strike;
Evade (Acrobatics or Judo); Exotic Hand Strike; Eye-Poke;
Feint (Karate); Kicking; Knee Strike; Targeted Attack
(Karate Exotic Hand Strike/Neck); Targeted Attack (Karate
Kick/Groin); Targeted Attack (Karate Punch/Neck).
Cinematic Skills: Blind Fighting; Body Control; Breaking
Blow; Flying Leap; Hypnotic Hands; Invisibility Art; Light
Walk; Lizard Climb; Mental Strength; Power Blow; Pressure
Points; Pressure Secrets; Sensitivity; Throwing Art.
Cinematic Techniques: Eye-Pluck; Hand-Clap Parry;
Lethal Eye-Poke; Lethal Kick; Lethal Strike; Pressure-Point
Strike; Roll with Blow; Timed Defense.
Perks: Acrobatic Feints; Improvised Weapons (Any);
Style Adaptation (Any Japanese armed style); Technique
Adaptation (Feint); Unusual Training (Sensitivity, Only
while at least one hand is in physical contact with the opponent).
Optional Traits
Advantages: Enhanced Dodge; Language (Japanese).
Disadvantages: Delusions; Overconfidence; Reputation
(Silly ninja wannabe).
Skills: Jumping; Knife; Kusari; Polearm; Shortsword;
Shuriken; Spear; Staff; Two-Handed Sword; any weapon
skill under Kobujutsu (p. 178).
Techniques: Ground Fighting (Judo).
WING CHUN
4 points
Wing Chun is a combative martial art native to southern
China. According to legend, it was founded in the early 18th
century. After the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, a nun
named Ng Mui fled south. She met Yim Wing Chun, a shopkeeper’s
daughter, and taught her Shaolin boxing. Yim
added techniques and went on to teach her style to her husband,
who named it after her. Variations on this story have
Yim learning the style to defeat a bullying general who
wished to take her as his concubine.
Wing Chun’s actual origins seem to be more prosaic. The
style appears to have coalesced out of fighting techniques
used in southern China – particularly by boatmen. References
to fighters using forms and technique names unique to Wing
Chun suggest that its history extends back more than a century
before its legendary founding.
There are several schools of Wing Chun. The most common
variation today is that of the Yip family, who have taught
Wing Chun for centuries. The art’s most famous student,
Bruce Lee (pp. 24-25), was a student of Yip Man.
Wing Chun is notably short on ceremony and ritual. It traditionally
lacks ranks and bowing, and has only three forms.
The style focuses on a small set of widely applicable tools and
stresses practicing these until they come naturally in combat.
The emphasis is on close-range fighting – short punches, lowline
defensive kicks, soft parries, and standing locks. Its characteristic
stance is slightly backward-leaning, with the feet set
side-by-side. Wing Chun includes two weapons: the butterfly
sword, used in pairs, and the staff, used like a two-handed
sword to make wide swinging attacks.
Fundamental to Wing Chun are the concepts of the centerline,
an imaginary line drawn down the center of the practitioner’s
body, and the six “gates” (high, middle, and low, on
either side of the centerline), which are openings to attack
from or through. Stylists learn to keep their centerline pointed
at the foe while staying off his, minimizing his ability to
strike while maximizing their own effectiveness. Another key
aspect of the art is chi sao, or “sticking hands”: feeling an
opponent’s shifts of balance or focus in order to respond with
a parry and counterattack, or to trap his limbs. Students
sometimes practice chi sao blindfolded to increase sensitivity.
Wing Chun expects the practitioner to seize the initiative
and steamroll his adversary with rapid attacks. The Wing
Chun fighter uses “chain punches” – strings of Defensive
Attacks, often thrown as Rapid Strikes – to keep the foe offbalance.
Kicks frequently target the legs and tend to be
Defensive Attacks as well. The stylist meets the enemy’s kicks
with a Jam. If using Combinations (p. 80), Combination
(Karate Punch/Torso + Karate Kick/Leg) is common among
stylists. This sometimes follows a parry that drags down the
opponent’s guard to open him up for the combo; model this
as a Counterattack. The fighter continues to attack like this
until he stuns or weakens his victim, then uses strikes – likely
in combination with a lock – to finish him.
Cinematic Wing Chun stylists are extremely powerful.
They can sense enemy attacks using Sensitivity and use their
chi to root themselves in place. Their unarmed strikes are
especially lethal, aimed at pressure points or vital locations to
paralyze or kill.
Wing Chun is widespread. Finding a teacher isn’t difficult.
Some schools use a formal ranking system of colored sashes;
others have no ranking system at all.
Skills: Karate; Shortsword; Wrestling.
Techniques: Arm Lock; Close Combat (Shortsword);
Counterattack (Karate or Shortsword); Elbow Strike; Feint
(Karate or Shortsword); Jam; Knee Strike; Stamp Kick;
Targeted Attack (Karate Kick/Leg).
Cinematic Skills: Blind Fighting; Immovable Stance;
Mental Strength; Power Blow; Pressure Points; Pressure
Secrets; Sensitivity.
STYLES 203