Heart, Faith & Steel is the Bujinkan New York Dojo blog. The Bujinkan New York Dojo is one of the premier New York schools offering authentic ninja and samurai martial arts training. The school was founded by Joe Maurantonio with the help of his senior student, Glenn Catania.
Joe Maurantonio-sensei is a native New Yorker. Born in the 1960s, he became interested in the martial arts at a young age. His first interest in martial arts was piqued by TV shows, movies and books. What captured his interest was not the fighting, but the sense of perseverance and courage the warriors in these shows demonstrated.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Maurantonio-sensei practiced some different unarmed and armed martial arts. He became very interested in ninjutsu after reading several articles and books (Ninja by Andrew Adams, The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art by Stephen Hayes and Ninjutsu: History and Tradition by Masaaki Hatsumi).
Shortly thereafter, during his freshman year at college, Maurantonio-sensei began training in ninjutsu and joined Stephen Hayes-sensei Bujinkan training. About 4 years later (1986), he met Masaaki Hatsumi-soke (headmaster) of Bujinkan ninja and samurai arts.
Maurantonio-sensei passed the instructors exam in 1991 and was awarded the title of Shidoshi (teacher of the warrior ways). He has been teaching in Westchester, NY since that time. He regularly travels to Japan for the purpose of keeping a living connection to this wonderful martial art.