e235 – KUDEN! – The Ninja’s Psychological Maai: Using Distance to Protect Your Sanity


It’s easy to understand physical distance, known generally as MAAI in Japanese, regardless of whether we’re talking about a carpenter or other tradesman measuring off a certain length of wood or tubing to make sure things fit, or the distance between our body and that of our assailant in a self-defense situation. It’s also one of the first lesson’s a new Ninjutsu student learns in order to stay out of reach from their assailant’s attacks, rather than “trading shots” distance.

This “distancing” or “spatial awareness” is a core concept within the martial arts in general, and Ninjutsu specifically. But Ninjutsu takes thing further in looking at both the physical combat realm, as-well-as the social “life-mastery” aspect of success and self-protection.

This psychological aspect of the Ninja’s maai is this week’s topic, specifically from the perspective of protecting those aspects of us that, in Today’s modern world, require just as much, if not more attention than the physical “fighting” skills.

Interested? Then, join us for this week’s episode of KUDEN! Radio!