Handing out rank before it has necessarily been earned is part of Hatsumi's approach to belt rankings. He learned this from Takamatsu [Hatsumi did NOT start that trend]. As to the Bujinkan being so big that Hatsumi doesn't know what is going on, that is incorrect. This is intentional on Hatsumi's part. After administering the 5th degree balack belt test to the 1000th successful recipient, Hatsumi was praised for being so prolific as to have so many students reach this rank. Hatsumi's frank response was words to the effect of, "Yes, 500 good ones and 500 bad ones." Rank means absolutely d1ck to Hatsumi, this is why he keeps on changing how many belts he offeres and how long they take to get. The people that worry about rank aren't getting what he is trying to say.

It has also been mentioned that Hatsumi only teaches the eclectic Bujinkan budo taijutsu. Having scene a Bujinkan syllabus, as handed to me by Jack Hoban, the ryu are taught individually after shodan. Each rank after shodan focuses on a particular ryu. Hatsumi does not publicly teach a lot of stuff he knows, but there are students, that he has shown it all to.