Copyright 2006 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
A popular icon of the modern martial arts scene is the Ninja, Japan’s medieval secret warrior. Black-clad Ninja were the spies, commando raiders and assassins of the Middle Ages. They mastered the techniques of subterfuge and surreptitious entry.
The Ninja has become a popular figure in the West. Ninja warriors show up in everything from martial arts films to Saturday morning cartoons. One credit card commercial even featured a ‘Ninja fight.”
The Ninja fad got its first inklings in the 1960s, thanks to a book by Andrew Adams. Ninja, the Secret Assassins was a book about historical Ninja, their weapons and people claiming to be modern practitioners. Adams’ book enjoyed great popularity with martial artists. It was interesting and well-written, something unusual for martial-arts books of the day. You did not need to be a martial artist to understand it.
The Japanese Ninja is best described as an espionage agent. His work includes spying in all its forms, from intelligence-gathering to assassination. As in all things Japanese, there were various grades of Ninja. Some were field agents, others were mid-level op[eratives, and still others were spymasters. Field agents were trained in various skills: surreptitious entry, escape and evasion, camouflage, disguise, assassination and combat. Their fighting skills blended traditional weapons with unconventional arms.
Ninja were of three basic types. Some were regular members of a Japanese clan. They were part of the military, and were most likely samurai. Others were members of obscure Buddhist warrior sects. The type best known today were independent clans of Ninja who hired out their services. The two best known were the Iga and Koga clans. It is stories about these clans which provide most of the lore of popular Ninjitsu.
There are several schools of Ninjitsu operating outside of Japan today. The best known is the Togakure Ryu, which is purportedly linked to the Iga tradition. This school was mentioned in Ninja, the Secret Assassins. Its current leader, one Hatsumi Hattori, was featured in the book. In the 1970s, Hattori took an American student named Stephen Hayes. The system became established in the West through Hayes.
Other schools emerged, claiming a link to either Iga or Koga. Some are obviously recent inventions rather than old Japanese systems. Others are harder to determine. Among the more controversial is a man known as Ashida Kim. Based in Florida, Kim first made waves by promoting methods by Count Dante, a mercurial Karate teacher. Next, Kim churned out series of Ninja books. Along the way, he ran afoul of descendants of Dante’s school. A separate issue was raised among conventional martial artists. They felt that Kim’s school was 100% pure baloney.
Hayes and the Togakure Ryu also have their controversy. Some doubt the school’s authenticity. While the Ryu claims a long provenance, dissenters believe that Hattori cobbled it together from conventional Japanese armed and unarmed martial arts. To be fair, most ninja schools have their detractors. A small contingent of martial artists believe that Ninjitsu died out after the Middle Ages, and that the current schools are modern inventions.
Whatever you may think of the current crop of Ninja schools, the fact is that Ninja were a reality of Medieval Japan. Japanese warlords employed espionage specialists. Rarely did they it themselves like the iconographic image in black suit with hood. The Ninja were espionage agents. As such, they dressed to remain innocuous. A good espionage agent would outfit himself so as to be virtually unnoticed. A true Ninja would dress for the occasion. He chose whatever guise allowed him to remain inconspicuous.
You might find out more about Ninja by looking at declassified World War II OSS manuals. Modern Ninjitsu is mostly a martial arts phoenomena. Ancient Ninjitsu was the spy game.
The black-clad Ninja of cinema and books was an uncommon sight in Medieval Japan. His outfit was reserved for those rare occasions when he could not gain entry via subterfuge. If he could not gain entry with a disguise, than it was time for a sneak attack. That usually involved a night-time foray in black clothes.
Ninja did not prefer the sneak attack. There was too much chance of detection. If discovered, they stood the likelihood of facing armed adversaries. While Ninja would be able to deal with average spearmen, the Samurai were another matter. Despite myths that Ninja were the ultimate warriors, they were no match for Samurai. That is why Ninja developed smoke bombs and other ruses: escape. A smart Ninja would rather get away than try his hand with full-fledged Samurai.
The origins of the ninja vary. Though some provinces were firmly under the control of the nobility, others were less tame. Bandits, brigands, renegades and rebels held sway where samurai rule was weak or nonexistent. These were the fore runners of the independent ninja clans. Some became masters of stealth, and hired out their skills. Others functioned as a sort of anti-nobility, while still others were bandits. Japanese history records times when the ruling samurai sent armed forces against ninja clans. If the clans became too powerful or worrisome, the Samurai would launch a campaign against them.
Iga and Koga prefectures were renowned ninja strongholds. At one time, ninja even controlled Kyoto. (A prefecture is like a province, or state).
Not all Ninja lived outside of samurai society. Some practitioners of the stealthy arts were spies within a noble’s household. Often, their role was hereditary. These families would provide the espionage services for a specific ruling house.
The free clans of ninja developed fighting arts mainly to defend against samurai and other ninja. Those associated wit h samurai houses also learned fighting skills. There were four types of violent skill used by ninja:
Combat skill, for overt fighting. These were the martial sciences of the day, employing weapons and unarmed methods.
Police skill, for disarming and capturing. Ninja often served as a noble’s police force during times of peace. In medieval Japan, the goal was to capture a criminal unharmed.
Ninja developed an array of special tricks for this
Fighting to enable escape. These were techniques that gave the ninja an opeing to escape, if he were detected and attacked. Escape tricks were less concerned with hurting the enemy as with opening a way to get away.
Assassination. The assassins work is pure murder. It is the silent kill: the sneak attack Assassination is not fighting. It is killing enabled by subterfuge.
Ninja would adopt the weapons of their day. They might make specialized variations for their own purposes, but the essential weapons were the same. Ninja had two types of weapon. For outbreaks of war, they used their own versions of the weapons of the day. Ninja used bows, spears, glaives, chain weapons nd swords similar to those employed by samurai. A different type of weaponry was made for covert operations. The covert weapons were made to look like everyday implements. Examples of such items include canes that held concealed swords. The sword cane used in Japan followed the same principle as European sword canes.
For operation of infiltration, ninja had assorted weapons adapted for portability. These were mostly weapons of escape. They included short swords, daggers, chain weapons and weapons that could break down to a smaller size when not in use.
Police weapons were simple and functional. The jitte was an iron bar with a hook at the crossgaurd. It was used to trap a sword. Jitte were also fitted to cord so they could be used as a flexible weapon. A rake-like weapon allowed ninja police to trap a felon by entangling his clothes. Ladders were used by ninja teams to pin a felon, so he could not fight effectively. Naturally, flexible weapons such as chains were employed to tangle a criminal.
Ninja suit. The classic image of the ninja is a man in a black outfit and hood. These were worn for infiltration. In an open battle, ninja would wear armor.
The ninja suit is made of several parts. These inclue a halama, gathered below the knee into tight leggings. A loose jacket similar to a judo gi, was closed with a sash.. Arms were covered in cloth protectors. The head was wrapped in a hood. Soft-sole socks called tabi were worn on the feet. If battle was likely, a ninja might wear a chainmail shirt underneath his jacket.