Welcome to Gaia! :: Samurai or Ninja....?

Samurai would devour the ninja.

Erm. I'm pretty sure samurai and ninja are basically the same thing when it comes to the different techniques. Samurai learnt a great deal of the same areas of ninjitsu, by which I mean, they had basic training of the same sort of weapons and skills. (I think there's 16 areas of ninjitsu? I imagine most of them would of been covered by the samurai.)

The really big differences between samurai and ninja was that samurai practiced bushido, and where considered to be honorable and protected lords. However, though, they were also paid/fed for their services, much like ninja. Ninja however, were mercenary who worked for whoever paid.

Personally, I'd say it'd sound cooler to be a samurai. However, the only real difference I can find is that the samurai just refused to be more practical and sneaky as the ninja. They were seen as honorable, but, I really feel the ninja were probably more effective since they had more of an espionage attitude towards the whole war business.

Samurai for gracefully surprised

Ninja, because I reject the restrictions of bushido in the context of a battle to the death.

Many samurai couldn't fight. It was just a government rank.

Many "ninja" were also samurai. It's just a name for feudal japanese spies.

Those ninja who were not samurai, fought like samurai. Your body works the same no matter what your title is.

Most samurai martial schools had an espionage or "ninja" component.

Same thing, guys. I hope that was simple enough.

Samurai = Kenjutsu(sword), Naginata jutsu(spear), Kyudo(longbow), Iaido(drawing of the sword), Aikido(hand-to-hand mixed with different weapons) and whatnot. The Samurai enjoys a lifelong training in several martial arts that no "common" man could ever dream of, so they were usually inaccesible to ninja. Samurai belong to a rather high placed caste in society.

All of the above martial ars are Budo related.

Ninja used a a variety of other martial arts, such as Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, and a whole bunch of other arts that they deemed necessary in the line of combat or for espionage. This includes blowdarts, creating small bombs, creating poisons, espionage techniques like breathing underwater, etc..

I always find it strange that people want to pit two different characters to each other, but take these things into account:

A Samurai in wargear and a Ninja in his gear, would seldomly face each other in the line of battle. Ninja aren't soldiers. They're spies and assassins in the first place. If a ninja were to take out a Daimyo (landlord, usually a respected samurai), they would infiltrate as one of their own (not in a flashy, mysterious black outfit) and perform the hit after getting the samurai drunk or subdued or whatever.
Should it occur that a samurai was able to get into gear or just draw his sword, then it would be safe to assume that his skills and techniques are better and purer than that of the ninja. Then again, the ninja would probably take advantage of using long ranged weapons, such as kunai(small knives, fit as throwing knivves) or fukiya (blowdart), etc.
It all depends on skill of either side.

Sure, the samurai would probably fight with honor and courage. But ninja would fight with whatever it takes to eliminate his target.

Also, just somehting I'd like to throw into the discussion: It is speculated that there were indeed mercenary assassins in feudal Japan. And that there were secrect school, hidden in the mountains that trained shinobi. However, there is infact little, actual documented proof of ninja. Now most people counter this argument with the logic that there is little documented because they are ninja ("History is written by the victorious" wink . Then again, the rumors spread about ninja were heard after WWII, when the Japanese were suffering defeat for waking the US giant after kicking their shins in Pearl Harbor. In order to add to the patriotic feeling, legends and myths about mysterious, nearly supernatural shinobi were spread. A lot of what we know now, might just be fairy-tale.

So where lies the truth?

***EDIT***

Ninja were NOT samurai and samurai WAS indeed a "government" rank that came WITH INTENSIVE training. As stated in the last paragraph, there might have been schools, established by landlords or even the emperor to do the dirty work, which makes them samurai in a way. However, they do NOT conform to the classic title of Samurai. Only to the literal meaning of the word which is "to serve[the emperor]".

Also, thanks Ares xd
Now I have another thread to spend way too much time in, talking about little asian guys in funny suits and pointy things.

Ninjas. They make an appearance in Speed Racer