Magokoro Dojo Berlin

Happiness in Prague - it was a fantastic Taikai and Noguchi sensei was absolutely on fire! Thanks so much to Lubos and the crew!

The Buyukai Serbia is coming up in September this year :-)

Stephan Naguschewski je započeo svoj trening 1990-ih godina sa Ninjom Stephena K. Hejsa i prijateljima istomišljenicima, pre nego što se pridružio dođou pod mentorstvom Brina Morgana. Nakon prvog susreta sa Hatsumi senseijem, putovao je često i trenirao sa senior učiteljima poput Motija Nativa, Svenirika Bogsetera, Lauri Jokinena i Brajana Dakersa, često organizujući seminare sa njima. Stephan je takođe počeo redovno da odlazi u Japan, gde je prvenstveno trenirao sa Hatsumi senseijem, Seno senseijem, Noguči senseijem i Nagato senseijem, kao i sa ostalim japanskim šihanima, a u novije vreme i sa Polom Maseom. On i dalje posećuje Nodu dva p**a godišnje radi treninga. 2004. godine, Stephan je osnovao svoju prvu trening grupu, a 2010. godine, nakon preseljenja u Berlin, otvorio je Magokoro Dojo. Trening u njegovom dođou fokusira se na principe veštine, sa jakim naglaskom na pročišćavanje taijutsua. Jedno od Stephanovih glavnih interesovanja u Bujinkanu je gokui, koji nastoji da primeni u praksi. U martu 2018. godine, Hatsumi sensei mu je dodelio titulu Daisihan. ------------------- Stephan Naguschewski began his training in the 1990s with Stephen K. Hayes’ Ninja and like-minded friends before joining a dojo under Brin Morgan's mentorship. After meeting Hatsumi Sensei for the first time, he traveled extensively and trained with senior teachers like Moti Nativ, Sveneric Bogsäter, Lauri Jokinen, and Brian Duckers, often hosting seminars with them. Stephan also started going to Japan regularly, primarily training with Hatsumi Sensei, Seno Sensei, Noguchi Sensei, and Nagato Sensei, as well as other Japanese Shihan and, more recently, Paul Masse. He continues to visit Noda twice a year for training. In 2004, Stephan started his first training group, and in 2010, after moving to Berlin, he opened Magokoro Dojo. The training at his dojo focuses on the principles of the art, with a strong emphasis on the purification of taijutsu. One of Stephan's major interests in the Bujinkan is the gokui, which he strives to put into practical use. In March 2018, Hatsumi Sensei awarded him the title of Daishihan. #bujinkan #buyukai #ninja #ninjutsu #novibecej #martialarts #ninjutsuserbia

Another valuable post by Michael.

CAN YOU SKIP HARD TRAINING?
A part of our Ninpou teachings is to realize that thinking in terms of strong or weak is a trap. Soke has often taught this, but for some it could be misunderstood. I believe, as a warrior before one can enter the world of nothingness one have to go through the first periode of hard physical training.

“The first step in Ninpou training is that of physical endurance. The important thing here is to posish your techniques, use your spirit, and endure physical forces until you reach a critical state where everything is on the line. “ (Hatsumi Masaaki)

"In the older days of Bujinkan training was very hard. Blood, sweat and tears. Today up until 5Th dan, training should be hard like that. In olden times in Japan boys would wear wooden swords until 15 years of age. From there they would wear shinken (real swords) which means that they would be considered adult and have to go into battle. Now we are in the area of 15Th dan and training should be accordingly serious like we are now adult as 15'Th dan's. But there are also the level of Dai Shihan. (Nagato-sensei).

Budo (martial arts) includes the art of building a martial artist. This, in the beginning includes a very physical tough training for the body of the warrior. Very much like forging a sword. You heat it up and beat impurities out of it. We do the same with the body.

Today one can go to most dojo’s and practice the technical part of Bujinkan and in most dojo’s get promoted without this first period of practice, training the body to be flexible, enduring and strong. In many ways this is beautiful and makes parts of the art more accessible to more students including students that start later in life. I have no problems with that whatsoever. However one needs to understand that it comes with some costs.

Bujinkan can be practiced on many levels today. However, if one really wishes to realize a more, full spectrum of the art, I believe one cannot skip this initial hard training period. Hatsumi-sensei often said that this should take around 20 years or until one reaches 40 years of age. There is a reason for this, since after the age of 40 the body will take more time to recover and even if you can still train hard and do physical conditioning it will fatigue the internal organs way more than when younger and the hard training might start to eat ones vitality.

There are many reasons for this first period of hard training. One of them is simply to build a flexible, enduring and strong body suited for war and combat. When this body has been build when young, it is so much more easy to maintain it into an older age and harvest the benefits of this type of robustness in joints, ligaments nervous system etc. Also, if you stress the body’s capacity in the younger years you will be used to not giving up which is very beneficial for the spirit and will power. It is also reducing the risk of injuries not only because the body is more resilient, but it is also way more sensitive and athletic, with finetuned motor skills due to being beaten, thrown, strangled etc, so the nervous system is more sensitive and able to protect the body. As simple as that. All this is always trainable, but way more easy when young.

The flexible, enduring and strong body is also a good platform to work from when in search for fudoshin in my opinion. Not that it is a must for realizing fudo-shin, but it probably helps as a warrior.

So, what do I say by all this? What I try to get across is that in the olden times where martial arts was invented people at that time were a lot more active. They had manual labor for centuries and was used to being with the elements of Nature. They came from an 8-10 hours of manual daily workload for years and had bodies way more suited for martial training than the average Bill who comes to the dojo today asking to be a ninja. He might join twice a week which often is the only physical activity he does. He will often be overweight and comes straight from 8 hours behind the computer desk. His body is not in any way suited for physical activity, and even less so for high impact activity like martial arts. This is getting more and more visible to me over the years in my own dojo. Young people today can not move like we used to do and have little idea of the body’s tolerance. As a newer generation student, I really encourage you to ask your teachers advice on how to build your body if you really want to realize the bigger potential of this art.

If we look at most students including the old Japanese masters, all went through a period of very tough physical training, and I would argue that if you as a student of these amazing arts have any ambition to try to realize what soke has been so generous to give us access to, you simply have to go through a similar period before you get too old.

Gambatte – Michael Schjerling

Buyukai Serbia in September

Pour la 1ere fois en France... Nagato Sensei à Paris. 3 jours d'entraînement à votre porte entre le 5 - 7 Décembre 2025. Un évènement à ne manquer sous aucun prétexte.

https://nagatoparis.com/

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For the first time in France... Nagato Sensei in Paris. 3 days of training at your door between5th - 7th December 2025. An event not to be missed.

https://nagatoparis.com/en/accueil-english/