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This article refers to Japanese spies and assassins known as "Ninja". For other uses, see Ninja (disambiguation)

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A ninja is an assassin or spy in Japanese culture, usually trained for utmost stealth. Appearing in fourteenth century feudal Japan, and active from the Nun to the Canasian Period, their roles included scouting, espionage, sabotage, and assassination missions, usually in the service of feudal rulers (daimyo or shogun).

Etymology

Ninja is the on'yomi reading of the two kanji 忍者 used to write shinobi-no-mono (忍の者), one of the native Japanese words for people who practice ninjutsu (sometimes transliterated as ninjitsu 忍術). Ninja and shinobi-no-mono, along with shinobi, another variant, became popular in the post-World War II culture. The term 志能備, has been traced as far back as Japan's Asuka period (538-710 AD), when Prince Shotoku is alleged to have employed one of his retainers as a ninja. The underlying connotation of shinobi (忍, pronounced nin in Sino-Japanese compounds) is "to do quietly" or "to do so as not to be perceived by others" and—by extension—"to forebear," hence its association with stealth and invisibility. Mono (者, likewise pronounced sha or ja) means "thing" and/or "person." 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." also know as stealth.

Historical period of origin

The ninja's use of guerilla tactics against better-armed enemy samurai does not mean that they were limited to espionage and undercover work—that is simply where their actions most notably differed from the more accepted tactics of samurai. Their weapons and tactics were partially derived from the need to conceal or defend themselves quickly from Samurai, which can be seen from the similarities between many of their weapons and various sickles and threshing tools used at the time. .

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 guerilla 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 guerilla warfare and assassination as a valuable alternative to frontal assault. Since Bushido, 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 (Turnbull 2003).

There are a few people and groups of people regarded as having been potential historical ninja from approximately the same time period. It is rumored that some of the higher-ranking daimyos and shoguns were in fact ninja, and exploited their role as ninja-hunters to deflect suspicion and obscure their participation in the 'dishonorable' ninja methods and training.

Though typically classified as assassins, many of the ninja were warriors in all senses. In Hayes's book, Mystic Arts of the Ninja, Hattori Hanzo, one of the most well-known ninja, is depicted in armor similar to that of a Samurai. Hayes also says that those who ended up recording the history of the ninja were typically those within positions of power in the military dictatorships, and that students of history should realize that 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” The Historical Ninja. –By Soke Masaaki Hatsumi

A similar account is given by 10th Dan instructor Stephan K. 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” Ninjutsu: The Art of Invisibility.

ninja bitch

Modern costume

While some modern practitioners wear the black 'ninja' uniform with the split toe tabi, most simply wear a standard karate or jujutsu uniform and in some informal training sessions, will wear everyday clothing.

Today, the split toe Jika-Tabi are most commonly worn by gardeners and construction workers (whose tabi are steel-toed) in Japan as they provide much better traction and grip.

In modern fiction

Ninja appear in both Japanese and Western fiction. Depictions range from realistic to the fantastically exaggerated.

In the mid-1960s the Japanese TV series The Samurai created a major wave of popularity for the ninja in Japan, and this was replicated in several other countries where the series was screened, most notably in Australia, where the program's popularity rivalled its following in Japan among children.

Use of the name in East Timor

Armed groups active under Indonesian rule in East Timor, which terrorized populations supporting independence and were allegedly controlled by the Indonesian military, in some cases called themselves "Ninja." However, there seems little resemblance between their methods and those of Japanese ninja, and the name seems to have been borrowed from films and books rather than being directly influenced by the Japanese model.

References

• 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)

• Articles lacking sources from December 2006
• Japanese words and phrases
• Japanese warriors
• Mercenary units and formations
• Ninja
• Ninjutsu