What Is Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu?

According to Wikipedia:

The Bujinkan (武神館) is an international martial arts organization based in Japan and headed by Masaaki Hatsumi, it is best known for its association with ninjutsu. The system taught by this group, called Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu, consists of nine separate martial arts traditions. According to the Bugei Ryuha Daijiten, the head of the Bujinkan organisation, Masaaki Hatsumi is the lineage holder of several ryūha taught in the Bujinkan...The training is generally referred to as taijutsu (body arts), and is composed of both armed and unarmed methods of fighting...In training, students are encouraged to always use any available weapons, including the environment. In some dojos, students will practice hiding training weapons in their uwagi or somewhere on the mat, and surprise their uke (training partner) during technique. While in many other oriental martial arts this is seen as dishonorable, the emphasis Bujinkan places on stealth and deception makes it a valuable exercise when practicing awareness.

Our instructor refers to Taijutusu as a "soft" martial arts style. The techniques that we learn do not require any muscle, we simply use energy and balance against our opponents. Often our teacher's teacher comes in to assist us in class. He never ceases to amaze me with his grace and subtlety. I just want to cry out "Watch carefully, kids this guy is a REAL Jedi Knight!" You can't even see him move when he dodges a kick or a punch. He told us that he had seen Grandmaster Hatsumi throw somebody over from three feet away! Also, no one can take his picture without his express permission...he's just a blur...talk about the Jedi mind trick!

I feel uncomfortable doing the techniques sometimes. Somehow punches and kicks seem a lot more straight forward than imote and ura gyaku, a self-defense technique against a lapel grab in which you grab their hand and twist their wrist in such a way that they fall to the ground. But Ninjitsu is all about the "feeling" and that is where my strength lies. You can explain the technical aspects of something a thousand times but when my mind, body, and energy come together the "feeling" is there and I know I have it! Maybe that makes me slower to learn certain things but I believe that in time, after many years of practice, that feeling will make me more agile and able to react in real situations that someone who simply focuses on the technical aspects.