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In Japanese history, a ninja (忍者, ninja) is an elite warrior, highly trained in all aspects of combat martial arts, and specializing in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. The methods used by ninja included assassination, espionage, stealth, camouflage, unconventional warfare, specialized weapons, and a vast array of martial arts.

Their exact origins are still unknown. Their roles may have included sabotage, espionage, scouting and assassination missions as a way to destabilize and cause social chaos in enemy territory or against an opposing ruler, perhaps in the service of their feudal rulers (daimyo, shogun), or an underground ninja organization waging guerilla warfare.

Etymology

Ninja is the on'yomi reading of the two kanji 忍者 used to write shinobi-no-mono (忍の者), which is the native Japanese word for people who practice ninjutsu (忍術, sometimes erroneously transliterated as ninjitsu). The term shinobi (historically sino₂bi₂ written with the Man'yōgana 志能備), has been traced as far back as the late 8th century to a poem to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. The underlying connotation of shinobi (忍) means "to steal away" and—by extension—"to forbear", hence its association with stealth and invisibility. Mono (者, likewise pronounced sha or ja) means a "person."

The word ninja became popular in the post-World War II culture. The nin of ninjutsu is the same as that in ninja, whereas jutsu (術) means skill or art, so ninjutsu means "the skill of going unperceived" or "the art of stealth"; hence, ninja and shinobi-no-mono (as well as shinobi) may be translated as "one skilled in the art of stealth." Similarly, the pre-war word ninjutsu-zukai means "one who uses the art of remaining unperceived."

Other terms which may be used include oniwaban (お庭番 "one in the garden"), suppa, rappa, mitsumono, kusa (草 grass) and Iga-mono ("one from Iga").

In English, the plural of ninja can be either unchanged as ninja, reflecting the Japanese language's lack of grammatical number, or the regular English plural ninjas.

Historical period of origin

Ninja as a group first began to be written about in 15th century feudal Japan as martial organizations predominately in the regions of Iga and Koga of central Japan, though the practice of guerrilla warfare and undercover espionage operations goes back much further.

At this time, the conflicts between the clans of daimyo that controlled small regions of land had established guerrilla warfare and assassination as a valuable alternative to frontal assault. Since Bushidō, the samurai code, forbade such tactics as dishonorable, a daimyo could not expect his own troops to perform the tasks required; thus, he had to buy or broker the assistance of ninja to perform selective strikes, espionage, assassination, and infiltration of enemy strongholds.

There are a few people and groups of people regarded as having been potential historical ninja from approximately the same time period.

Though typically classified as assassins, the ninja were warriors in all senses. In Stephen K. Hayes's book, Mystic Arts of the Ninja, a ninja is depicted in armour similar to a samurai. Hayes also says those who ended up recording the history of the ninja were typically those within positions of power in the military dictatorships, and students of history should realize the history of the ninja was kept by observers writing about their activities as seen from the outside.

"Ninjutsu did not come into being as a specific well defined art in the first place, and many centuries passed before ninjutsu was established as an independent system of knowledge in its own right. Ninjutsu developed as a highly illegal counter culture to the ruling samurai elite, and for this reason alone, the origins of the art were shrouded by centuries of mystery, concealment, and deliberate confusion of history."

A similar account is given by Hayes: "The predecessors of Japan's ninja were so-called rebels favoring Buddhism who fled into the mountains near Kyoto as early as the 7th century A.D. to escape religious persecution and death at the hands of imperial forces."

Historical organization

In their history, ninja groups were small and structured around families and villages, later developing a more martial hierarchy that was able to mesh more closely with samurai and the daimyo. These certain ninjutsu trained groups were set in these villages for protection against raiders and robbers.

Ninja museums in Japan declare women to have been ninjas as well. A female ninja may be kunoichi (くノ一); the characters are derived from the strokes that make up the kanji for female (女). They were sometimes depicted as spies who learned the secrets of an enemy by seduction; though it's just as likely they were employed as household servants, putting them in a position to overhear potentially valuable information.

As a martial organization, it has been assumed that ninja would have had many rules, and keeping secret the ninja's clan and the daimyo who gave them their orders would have been one of the most important ones.

Historical garb, technique, and image

There is no evidence historical ninja wore all-black suits. In modern times, camouflage based upon dark colors such as dark red and dark blue is known to give better concealment at night. Some cloaks may have been reversible: dark colored on the outside for concealment during the night, and white colored on the inside for concealment in the snow. Some ninja may have worn the same armor or clothing as samurai or Japanese peasants.

The stereotypical ninja that continually wears easily identifiable black outfits (shinobi shozoku) comes from the kabuki theater. Prop handlers would dress in black and move props around on the stage. The audience would obviously see the prop handlers, but would pretend they were invisible. Building on suspension of disbelief, ninja characters also came to be portrayed in the theater as wearing similar all-black suits. This either implied to the audience the ninja were also invisible, or simply made the audience unable to tell a ninja character from many prop handlers until the ninja character distinguished himself from the other stagehands with a scripted attack or assassination.

Ninja boots (jika-tabi), like much of the rest of Japanese footwear from the time, have a split-toe design that improves gripping and wall/rope climbing. They are soft enough to be virtually silent. Ninja also attached special spikes to the bottoms of the boots called ashiko.

The actual head covering suggested by Masaaki Hatsumi (in his book The Way of the Ninja: Secret Techniques) utilizes what is referred to as sanjaku-tenugui, three-foot cloths. It involves the tying of two three-foot cloths around the head in such a way as to make the mask flexible in configuration but securely bound. Some wear a long robe, most of the time dark blue (紺色 kon'iro) for stealth.

Notes

1. Takagi, Man'yōshū poem #3940; page 191
2. Satake, Man'yōshū poem #3940; page 108
3. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.; American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed.; Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1).
4. The Historical Ninja (PDF); last accessed May 28, 2008
5. Ninjutsu: The Art of Invisibility (Google Books); last accessed May 28, 2008
6. Illuminated Lantern: Ninja

References

• Takagi, Ichinosuke (1962). Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei: Man'yōshū Volume 4. Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-060007-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Satake, Akihiro (2003). Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei: Man'yōshū Volume 4. Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-240004-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Hatsumi, Masaaki (1981). Ninjutsu: History and Tradition. Unique Publications. ISBN 0-86568-027-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Turnbull, Stephen (2003). Ninja AD 1460-1650. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-525-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Bujinkan Ninja Organization
• Iga Ninja Museum
• How Ninja Work at How Stuff Works
• History of the concept of the ninja, especially in theatre
• Primary Ninja weapons
• Ninja Club

• Japanese warriors
• Japanese words and phrases
• Ninjas
• Ninjutsu
• Mercenary units and formations