Ha! No, I've never met or corresponded with Dr. Turnbull, though I can see how you might get the impression that he, like, ran over my dog or something at some point.
In all seriousness, though, I do have good reasons for singling Turnbull out so frequently - it's not personal (honestly). One is that Turnbull genuinely does have respectable academic credentials, so his works are perceived as more scholarly than a lot of the other stuff out there, and therefore more credible. By contrast I've not written anything about, say, Ashida Kim, because my impression is that nobody really takes Kim's stuff seriously, so it doesn't seem as urgent to critique his stuff.
Another reason is that Turnbull's influence extends into the field of Japanese history in ways that are not always immediately apparent. Because of his reputation as more scholarly than most, a lot of other 'ninja' writers use his stuff, and they don't always acknowledge doing so. So Turnbull's work sets the agenda for the field of 'ninja' writing in ways that are not always apparent unless you've read very widely in the field (which I have). I'll explore this point in some depth in the next few weeks with an in-depth review of Kacem Zoughari's 2010 "Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors" (https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/search.php?search_query=zoughari).
This degree of influence unfortunately includes some academic publications as well. Louis Perez's 2014 update of Mikiso Hane's survey book "Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey" (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Premodern_Japan/ERdWDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1), for instance, makes some claims about the 'ninja' for which the sole cited source is Turnbull's 2003 book "Ninja: AD 1460-1650." Hane & Perez's book is a general history intended for intro college courses about Japan or maybe general readers, but Turnbull's 2003 book literally contains fictional episodes presented as fact, so the fact that Turnbull is cited as a source for further info is pretty alarming.
I have been following you for a while and am still trying to figure out the early motivation for the nonsense writing outside of "ninjutsu" teachers doing branding
Hi Todd - thanks for reading! I think there's a range of different motivations at work. For Okuse Heishichiro, for instance, who was a fairly prolific 'ninja' writer between 1960 and 1980 or so, a big part of his interest in 'ninjutsu' was to drive tourism for Mie Prefecture and for the town of Ueno, of which he was the mayor. It's revealing that his first publication about 'ninjutsu' in 1956 was a pamphlet published by a railway company as part of a series of brochures designed to promote people visiting the sites along the rail line (see here: https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA43205971?l=en).
For others, like Hatsumi Masaaki and Stephen K. Hayes, it's fairly obviously about promoting their martial arts studios, as you say, or enhancing their standing in the martial arts communities, like Donn Draeger. Others seem to be in it mostly to sell books, as far as I can see.
I’m curious if you’re ever crossed paths with Mr. Turnbull, like at a conference, or on a remote forest road at night?
Ha! No, I've never met or corresponded with Dr. Turnbull, though I can see how you might get the impression that he, like, ran over my dog or something at some point.
In all seriousness, though, I do have good reasons for singling Turnbull out so frequently - it's not personal (honestly). One is that Turnbull genuinely does have respectable academic credentials, so his works are perceived as more scholarly than a lot of the other stuff out there, and therefore more credible. By contrast I've not written anything about, say, Ashida Kim, because my impression is that nobody really takes Kim's stuff seriously, so it doesn't seem as urgent to critique his stuff.
Another reason is that Turnbull's influence extends into the field of Japanese history in ways that are not always immediately apparent. Because of his reputation as more scholarly than most, a lot of other 'ninja' writers use his stuff, and they don't always acknowledge doing so. So Turnbull's work sets the agenda for the field of 'ninja' writing in ways that are not always apparent unless you've read very widely in the field (which I have). I'll explore this point in some depth in the next few weeks with an in-depth review of Kacem Zoughari's 2010 "Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors" (https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/search.php?search_query=zoughari).
This degree of influence unfortunately includes some academic publications as well. Louis Perez's 2014 update of Mikiso Hane's survey book "Premodern Japan: A Historical Survey" (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Premodern_Japan/ERdWDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1), for instance, makes some claims about the 'ninja' for which the sole cited source is Turnbull's 2003 book "Ninja: AD 1460-1650." Hane & Perez's book is a general history intended for intro college courses about Japan or maybe general readers, but Turnbull's 2003 book literally contains fictional episodes presented as fact, so the fact that Turnbull is cited as a source for further info is pretty alarming.
I have been following you for a while and am still trying to figure out the early motivation for the nonsense writing outside of "ninjutsu" teachers doing branding
Hi Todd - thanks for reading! I think there's a range of different motivations at work. For Okuse Heishichiro, for instance, who was a fairly prolific 'ninja' writer between 1960 and 1980 or so, a big part of his interest in 'ninjutsu' was to drive tourism for Mie Prefecture and for the town of Ueno, of which he was the mayor. It's revealing that his first publication about 'ninjutsu' in 1956 was a pamphlet published by a railway company as part of a series of brochures designed to promote people visiting the sites along the rail line (see here: https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA43205971?l=en).
For others, like Hatsumi Masaaki and Stephen K. Hayes, it's fairly obviously about promoting their martial arts studios, as you say, or enhancing their standing in the martial arts communities, like Donn Draeger. Others seem to be in it mostly to sell books, as far as I can see.