Transcription
Ninja. What are ninja? Ask anyone on the street and they will most likely tell you that ninja are spies or assassins from Japan. Shadowy figures in black costumes covering their faces, leaping from rooftops, scaling castles, and slaying unexpecting lords.
I'll be honest, growing up, I was never really interested in ninja. While ninja were much more popular, not only amongst my friends, but specifically to the general public, probably because ninja seemed so cool, I on the other hand was always much more interested in samurai. However, I still held a respect for the ninja, as they definitely seemed like an integral part of Japanese history and culture.
It wasn't until I finally got to high school that one of my teachers finally challenged me on the basis of ninja, clearing away the fog of myths and legends to reveal that their very existence may in fact all be made up of romanticized falsehoods. Which of course begs the obvious question, what about the ninja is true and what is not?
No doubt many of you have already seen videos here on YouTube discussing the truth about ninja. And right here I am going to be doing something somewhat similar, albeit a little different. Recently I was contacted by historian, author, and YouTuber Anthony Cumins. Many of you may already know Anthony from his historical research and published works on the real samurai in Ninja, which you can find a complete list of on his website, which I will leave a link to in the description.
Anthony has devoted much of his career to understanding not only the everyday life of samurai living in feudal Japan, but in particular the history of ninja, really diving deep into what they were, and in doing so dispelling many of the myths about them which have arisen over the years. He has done this not only through going back into time to look at the history and evolution of espionage in Japan, but also through working alongside a team to translate centuries old texts which fascinatingly detail practices of the ninja in particular the Bansenukai or the book of ninja.
So working alongside Anthony and using his research and findings through a series of videos we are going to try to uncover the mystery of the ninja and understand who they were. Anthony and I worked together to make this video, and I want to make sure to point out that you should all go down to the description where I will link not only his excellent YouTube channel full of great and informative videos, but also his website along with some of his books on the subject of ninja as well. I cannot stress enough that you should really go check him and his work out. He is a fantastic wealth of knowledge.
Now, this first video will simply act as sort of an overview regarding Ninja. Tearing apart common misconceptions and attempting to illustrate what ninja actually were, which we will come to see can actually prove to be quite difficult. And why is it difficult? Well, because most of the writing and knowledge we have today regarding ninja comes from the ado period after the end of the singjidai. Essentially, the info we have on Ninja comes from a time after they were utilized in real warfare. However, with that said, it still comes from somewhat credible sources written down by samurai who were alive during the Singuku period. So, we may see these writings with indeed some truth. A fair warning I want to throw out is that the information in this video may be nothing new for you to hear, but to many people it could also be a huge eye openener.
So then let us start with the word ninja itself. Most people do not know that the term ninja actually only started to be used around the mid 20th century. And the reason for this is that the kanji for ninja can be read in two different ways. In fact, most kanji have multiple ways of reading them. So let us take a look at the Japanese for ninja. A Japanese person looking at these two kanji would be given two options. They could either read it as ninja or shinobi nomono. Therefore, the only way we can tell how to say this term is to compare to others and also find something called furigana, which are phonetic markers.
In 100% of all phonetic markers found in old scrolls, they all say shinobi nomono and not ninja. We can also look at other words which are similar. Shinobi noho, way of the shinobi. Shinobi nojutsu, skills of the shinobi. Shinobi no maki. Shinobi scrolls. Shinobi gayishi spike defenses and shinobi hidden entrance. Therefore, it is pretty safe to come to the conclusion that in feudal Japan, ninja were actually called shinobi. And so from this point on, I shall be using the correct historical name for them.
Now, espionage was a thing in feudal Japan as far back as wars were fought. In fact, much of the early espionage tactics in Japan, of course, come from Chinese tactics. And that is because before the samurai took over, Japan was based on the Chinese system of governing and that included the military. This means that long ago in Japan, the Chinese military classics were used to help the many aspects of war. But of all of them, the one which made the greatest impact on the shinobi in particular was Sunsu's art of war and his 13th chapter, the use of spies, a staple text for all later students of the Shinobi ways.
As a side note, Anthony has published an extensive guide to this text called The Ultimate Art of War, a step-by-step illustrated guide with a full breakdown of how to use spies. Something you should all go check out.
Now, spying, reconnaissance, embedding agents, sewing confusion, or misinformation are all, of course, strategies seen across the world by anyone who ever waged war. This is something people universally like to call spycraft. And there is without a doubt shared similarities in all spy systems, even from cultures that have never mixed. The problem that we run into is when can we start pointing to espionage in Japanese warfare becoming actions of shinobi? To put it more plainly, when do spies turn into shinobi? This is where you can start making an argument for any spy or agent of espionage in Japan being what we would call a shinobi.
But with that all said, let's now move on to how shinobi actually functioned. How did their methods of espionage come to play into samurai warfare and also more simply who could be a shinobi? Shinobi were in effect actually members of the samurai or ashigaru. In fact, much like how samurai led groups of ashigaru on the battlefield, a samurai taking the responsibilities of a shinobi would lead a group of shinobi ashigaru. We can also see that a shinobi captain would even lead other samurai in night attacks because they had already scouted out the way. This is extremely important because it tears apart the myth that shinobi or ninja were a completely separate entity from the samurai when in actuality shinobi or ninja were samurai or ashugatu. They are all one in the same. I cannot stress this enough because I know it can be a very hard idea to wrap your mind around. Just like being in the vanguard, being a scout, being a medic, being a marksman, being a shinobi was just another job.
Now, the duties of a shinobi, as I highlighted earlier, ranged from spying, scouting, embedding themselves into enemy clans, collecting information, spreading false information, sewing chaos, and completely sabotaging structures or battle plans. They formed spy networks, discovered the size of enemy forces, looked into the economic power of their enemy, and fed all of this information back up to a central hub, most likely all the way up to their lord or upper commanders.
Now, notice in all of those jobs, I did not say anything about assassinations. And the reason for that is simply because that there is absolutely no confirmed evidence to suggest that a shinobi ever assassinated anyone. All we know is that some documents say that if a shinobi finds himself in a good position to kill an important enemy, they should do it. But please do not think of shinobi as trained assassins waiting to leave on a mission of murder. I know that can be a pretty hard pill to swallow, seeing as how it is one of the core things we associate with ninja today, but remember assassination is a political move and anyone can assassinate someone. So if I could, they would. But we have no solid evidence to say who was killed by a shinobi or if anyone really was.
During the singujidai, we can see there were two hotbeds for the training of shinobi. These agents of espionage. These are of course in EGA and Koka. Now this is where things start to get interesting. You have to understand that and Koka were under the rule of samurai clans and samurai families who formed a collective to fend off invaders. And we have documentation which shows how they bonded together and the rules which they put in place so that they could repel all invaders. This means that the idea of a ninja clan is false. What you actually have are samurai clans who were just specialists in the arts of the shinobi, not ninja clans who fought the samurai. This is false history. The only clans of feudal Japan were samurai clans. For example, although we can point to members of the Hattorii family being known today as Shinobi who operated out of EGA, EGA was not ruled by the Hattorii. In fact, for much of the Singukujidai, EGA was under the control of the Rokaku clan, who were certainly not a fictional ninja clan by any means.
In the document, the Gunpole Gioshi, which was written by a Sangoku period warrior, it says, "For generations, the people of Ega and Koka were hired out across the land as they acted as shinobi for many different damio." This means that samurai of Ega and Koka were hired in Japan as samurai who had performed the role of special forces or secret agent in a sense, and that they had a network which covered the whole land. Although, interestingly enough, we can also see that Eiga and Toka weren't likely to become important hubs for Shinobi practice until after the Roku clan was destroyed by Odonobunaga. This pushes forth a narrative that shinobi were actually most utilized in the latter half of the Sangokuji rather than a solid staple throughout the whole period.
What gets confusing and somewhat problematic is the term shinobi. What we do not know is how far back EGA and Koka were these areas for specialists or even if the term shinobi was not a common word in the early singu period. What we can say is that in the Tahiki chronicle men of EGA did not perform espionage skills. And in a total reverse of events, they are secretly passed by other people who climb up a mountain and infiltrate in a shinobiike style. This means that before the year 1400, there was no connection to Shinobi for both Ega and Koka. And we would need an earlier document to actually clarify this.
All right, but what then about the famous Shinobi of the Singukuchai? What about Hattorii Hanzo? Hanzo does look like he was indeed a real historical shinobi, although he was most likely either a samurai or unit leader of other shinobi who served under Tokugawa. The hard part about examining the legacy of Hattorii Hanzo is that his name is one that was carried down through generations. His father was Hattorii Hanzo and his son would later be Hattorii Hanzo. Thus, we know that the Hanzo nicknamed Devil Hanzo was the one which served Ayasu and that he was most likely a warrior of EGA who served in Mikawa, although his branch of the Hattorii family may have done so for a couple generations. The unfortunate thing is that for such a famous figure, we do not have a lot of details.
Another popular shinobi figure is Fuma Kotaro, sometimes called Kazama, who famously served the Hojo clan in Kanto. Now, does that mean that there was another hotbed of shinobi training in Kanto? It looks like no. In fact, while Cottoro was indeed a Shinobi, he was not a shinobi of EGA or Koka, but rather a notorious thief who found his way into samurai service, employing his particular set of skills to the benefit of the Hojo. This is an example of how shinobi could be used across the country. Yet, we're not all from EGA or Koka. Thieves or other individuals who possessed a key set of skills could serve a clan through one of the many jobs of espionage. We in turn may be able to entirely view these people as Shinobi, as their service would also allow them to ascend to the rank of samurai or Ashigaru.
The final shinobi I want to look at were actually a group of shinobi known as the 10 Sanodada braves. a group of shinobi who supposedly helped Sonad Yukimura during his defense of Osaka Castle. This story appears to unfortunately be completely made up. We only start hearing stories briefly about them in the mid 80 period and are not popularized until the 1900s. Most if not all of the information we have about them is a fictional story. There may be perhaps a bit of truth about someone in the story, but there is too much fiction around them to take them as credible characters without further research.
But speaking of the ado period, it is in the early decades of the ado period that we start receiving most of our credible sources on the topic of shinobi written down by samurai who had lived and fought during the singujidai or even by the generation after who were recording their clan's specialties. And it is right here we can see that shinobi or ninja are nothing like what pop culture suggests they were. But rather we can see that they were more on the lines of commandos or spies like I talked about before.
But then you may be asking and it's a very common question. How come these are the only real credible sources on shinobi in the ado period? Where did the shinobi all go during this time? And the answer for that is quite simple. The ado period was a time of peace. Thus, the role of the shinobi gradually disappeared. Without armies waging war, there was no need for scouts, spies, agents embedding themselves, chaos sewing, and so forth. The only real job that we can call some form of shinobi work during the ado period is actually just night watchmen. However, we do have many forms of documentation which show the shinobi as a role or position that existed in the ado period, such as clan listings and registers. We even have a shinobi jacket and helmet type that was used so that they can be identified in a castle area. We can confirm that men of EGA and Koka were hired all over Japan, but their numbers declined and eventually funds just ran out for them and the people of Ega and Koka were forced into farming and living off of the land.
Although it is in the mido period that we begin to see the transformation of Shinobi into the more popular image of the ninja we recognize them as today. During the middle of the ado period, we start to see images of a masked thief and a connection to the shuriken. We see the shinobi as a thief in a peaceful town and not a military agent. And little by little, the lowclass blackclad figure of the ninja starts to take shape. And it is not until the first half of the 20th century that the word ninja starts to become popular.
What really helps spread an interest in ninja in the west is when in 1967 the James Bond film You Only Live Twice comes out and portrays ninja largely in the stereotypical way we know them as today. After which the word ninja really bursts into the world and it joins the English language. With this new rise in interest of the idea of ninja in the west, Japan completely reimagined them, creating a figure that never actually existed in history. The ado period romances gave birth to a figure which seemed to capture the hearts of not only people in Japan but abroad as well as the popular image of a mysterious dark shadowy figure is a spell that also worked well in the west.
To this day all over the world the ninja has become an icon of Japan and the Japanese are not ready to put it to bed for historical truth as it is a major draw for tourists from both Japan and the rest of the world. This would not only be driven by films and TV shows, but also video games that created a highly romanticized depiction of Japan's shadowy warriors with examples such as Tinchu and Ninja Gaden. However, video games and films are perhaps not even the worst offenders. The idea of the stereotypical ninja would be championed by people who wanted to push the narrative that there was a form of ninjacentric fighting style. Basically, ninja techniques as a form of martial art. That is not to say that these imagined forms of martial arts are not practical. They definitely can be. But there is no link between njutsu as a fighting style and the role of ninja or rather shinobi in feudal Japan. The idea of a specialized form of hand-to-hand combat which was only known to the ninja is not found in history and it seems to only be apparent in the second half of the 20th century. As we can see, it didn't become prominent until as late as the 1970s.
Unfortunately, the idea of a special ninja fighting style appears to be a modern fantasy and invention coming from old forms of jiu-jitsu which were adapted to suit the popular ninja image. And it is why so many of these practitioners of ninja style martial arts have come out in defense of their practices. Some even trying to falsely say that their ninja fighting styles do have a connection to history largely due to the fact that they don't want their idea of what they consider to be njutsu to be torn down. They don't want to live in a world where the imaginary ninja is in fact imaginary. This has caused both debates, controversy, and even internet flame wars. Many people in the past and today have put their trust and their money in some Japanese people with their hope of learning these ancient ninja ways and unfortunately they have given quite a lot which means that many of them are not letting go or facing the glaring historical truth about the shinobi.
It is largely for this reason that the historical scrolls are now being published in English and a better understanding is starting to form with the Japanese surprisingly being late to this development only starting serious academic research on the subject in 2013. Today, ninja are one of the largest symbols of Japan. A figure which can be seen literally everywhere from games to TV to comics to martial arts. Ninja can be found in cafes, museums, children's play areas, temples, toys, and many other forms of modern entertainment. The ninja are not slowing down in their popularity.
Of course, it is important for us to recognize that this common image we see of a ninja is not a real ninja. In fact, many people would go so far as to say that the ninja never existed. You may have even gotten that idea from everything we've just gone over in this video. But I cannot stress enough that the ninja or more accurately the shinobi did exist. It is just our idea about them has been misled for almost all of our entire lives. It is just the reality of them we are yet discovering.
In the next video Anthony and I make about ninja, we'll be taking a look at the Bansenukai, the book of ninja, and getting more into the practices of the shinobi along with what equipment they may have used. On top of that, in time, we also wish to cover two other famous ninja manuals, the Shinobi Hedane and Shoninki. I will also be putting all the videos I make with Anthony into their own separate ninja playlist. You could even go have a look at the wiki page for the Bonsen Shukai or get a copy of the book of ninja so that you can follow along with us. In this series of videos, we'll be looking at many of the ninja documentations and going much deeper so that you can get a better understanding of where the ninja fits into the history of the samurai.
Please go down to the description of this video and check out Anony's great YouTube channel or his Instagram account along with some of his fantastic books that are linked there as well. Thank you all so much for watching and remember to keep an eye out for the next video Anthony and I make on the topic of ninja. [Music]