Shuriken Mythology
(Stories, anecdotes, memoirs, and legends about the great men of the art which contribute to the air of mystique and power associated with the art of shuriken)

Visitors with their own stories are encouraged to contribute to this page. Please send email to with "Stories" in the subject line.

I will start off with a few stories about Morihiro Saito Sensei, of Iwama Dojo. The two stories I have are not personal experiences, rather ones I heard from sempai who were there. They are both pretty old.

 

Saito Sensei apparently had a few people around town who didn't particularly like him, because of either some property deal he had negotiated for O-Sensei, or for his role on the town council. One night during training, a couple of tough guys turned up to the dojo, calling Saito to come out. Saito ignored them, so they stepped into the dojo. Saito apparently also had a reputation around town as a shuriken guy, and these guys must have turned up during class thinking he would be unprepared. Saito didn't even look at the guys as they came, didn't even acknowledge that they were entering the dojo. But he just slighly pulled open his keikogi a little bit, enough to show them the three shuriken sticking out of his obi. It seems the guys weren't so tough after all, and they turned and ran out the door.

 

 
The other one concerns a fairly high graded French woman who was uchi deshi at Iwama for a while. I won't mention her name but you could probably work it our. She literally begged Saito Sensei to teach her shuriken. Saito refused. This French woman was known to be a bit "unstable", having tried to stab someone with a knife for taking her food out of the fridge in the shokudo. One day in the shokudo, Saito was there with the deshi, when she asked him to teach her shuriken. Saito said no, she asked why, and Saito Sensei says he doesn't teach women, only men. She blurted out "I am a man", and Saito became so enraged that he drew a shuriken and hurled it at her, missing her head by a few inches and embedding itself it the wall. Apparently she turned white and made a timely exit. Everyone who was there and saw it were unsure whether Saito missed his mark or hit it. Saito then said "I couldn't possibly teach it to a person like that"
 
On Saito Sensei, by Ethan Weisgard, Copenhagen
I was taught by Sensei a bit, and have enjoyed struggling with the art since then! I have some wonderful memories of Sensei coming in to the dojo one evening in a great mood (enhanced to a great extent by his favorite pastime) and getting the uchi deshi to set up an old tatami in the dojo for throwing. He proceeded to throw the shuriken for about 5 minutes, and not one of them went in! He usually would nail them everytime, but his favorite pasttime was too great an influence on him in this case. He laughed all the way through, and stopped after 5 minutes. He never let his ego get in the way, and this was a perfect case. He chuckled a bit over his misses, and went on with keiko. What a great man!