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NINJA HISTORY



'Ninja?' What is this 'Ninja?'

The short version of the origin of the Ninja, retold many times in books and on film, goes something like this:

The Ninja arts originated in ancient China, then traveled to Japan during the Tang Dynasty. The Japanese developed the Ninja arts to the utmost, creating deadly assassins, who can enter any place undetected and strike when least expected.

Which unfortunately seems to be complete nonsense. So we have to go back, and look into the history books, to see just what they're talking about in the passage above, and not only that to see what a more fact-based history of the Ninja might look like.

And before we do that, we need to define some terms. Just what is a ninja, anyway? The word itself derives from the Japanese Shinobi-no-mono, which is written with two kanji characters that can also be pronounced as nin-sha, if the Chinese pronunciation is used instead. The first character, nin, suggests concealment, while the second, sha, means person. Ninja: a person who hides his presence. In Japanese, the word is applied to a person who does covert, military operations.

We cannot leave the term with such a broad definition, though, else the CIA, the FBI, and the marines could all be considered ninjas. And though I'm sure there are many marines who would like to believe that they are, I'm afraid it just isn't so. When speaking of the Ninja, then, we also imply that they are a secret organization, fraternity, or clan, whose skills and knowledge have been passed down in secrecy from generation to generation.

In sum, to be considered a ninja, as we understand it through popular entertainment and modern ninjutsu masters, a ninja must:

1. practice the art of concealment
2. engage in covert military operations
3. belong to a secret fraternity of ninja
4. wear black, and lots of it.

As we shall see, the first two points have historic practitioners in Japan, though this is hardly suprising, since these are common acts in warfare around the world and hardly justify a unique ninja mystique, while the last two points have more of a mythic quality and may have very little basis in truth. Nevertheless, a careful study of the history does indeed reveal ninjas of a sort operating in Japan, at the very least during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But before we arrive there, we must first take a look at claims of an ancient heritage of ninja arts, beginning as far back as ancient China.

The Ninja History that Wasn't

When the claim is made that Ninja arts originated in China, what is really being said is that Sun Tzu's The Art of War was written there around the fifth century BC, and contains a chapter about the importance of espionage. Some of the tactics described in this book, specifically the espionage chapter, were eventually put into use by the ninja. For this reason, ninja skills are often described as Chinese in origin. On the other hand, there was nothing particularly secret about this book, and the strategems were widely known, once the book finally made it over to Japan sometime in the seventh or eighth century AD. The Chinese often referred to it, and many other books which followed it, when planning for warfare and studying tactics. The Japanese, too, came to use the book and many of its teachings, not just the espionage chapter. Samurai battles used tactics laid out in The Art of War. Yet no one claims that the Way of the Samurai originated in China. It's sort of like claiming that Mormonism began in Israel thousands of years ago. While it's true Christianity did, Mormonism did not. A school of thought may have begun in China with Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but the system created in Japan which included some of this information and was known as the Ninja arts must be said to be a unique creation of Japan.

So for those who prefer an ancient Japanese origin for the ninja, there is another myth. This story involves the legendary hero Prince Yamato and is recorded in two of the oldest written texts in Japan, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Both tell origin myths and early history of the Japanese people, and are a mix of folklore, fact, and legend. Both were written in the early eighth century AD for the imperial household. The story of Prince Yamato is usually pointed to as an illustration of how old the arts of the ninja are, the events allegedly taking place in the first century AD. But not even the firmest believers in the Prince Yamato story can call him a ninja for it, rather he is a 'proto-ninja.' The story which interests ninja historians concerns Prince Yamato's mission to subdue the Komaso. He arrives in the Land of Kumaso, and the story continues as follows (as translated by W.G. Aston):

Now the Kumaso had a leader named Torishi-kaya, also called the Brave of Kahakami, who assembled all his relations in order to give them a banquet. Hereupon Prince Yamato let down his hair, and disguising himself as a young girl, secretly waited until the banquet should be given. Then with a sword girded on him underneath his inner garment, he entered the banqueting muro of the Brave of Kahakami and remained among the women. The Brave of Kahakami, enchanted with the beauty of the young girl, forthwith took her by the hand, and made her sit by him. He also offered her the cup, and made her drink, and thus amused himself with her. By and by the night grew late, and the company fewer. Also the Brave of Kahakami became intoxicated. Hereupon Prince Yamato drew the sword which he had in his inner garments, and stabbed the Brave of Kahakami in the breast.

After which, before dying, the Brave imparted on Prince Yamato the name Yamato-Takeru, or "Yamato the Courageous." But what does this have to do with ninjas, you may ask? Unfortunately, in the historic literature, there are no references of any ninja disguising themselves as a woman, at least that I have been able to verify. It is considered a "ninja-like" tactic, but perhaps the best that can be said of this example is that this is the sort of assassination the ninja would like to have been known for. Sadly, no records indicate they ever were.

Moving forward in history about four hundred years, a ninja-like night raid does show up in the Heike Monogatari, which documents the battles between the Taira and Minamoto clans for command of the nation in 1182. A couple samurai warriors secretly sneak into the enemy's camp. But even though by this time Sun Tzu's The Art of War has been lying around for hundreds of years, apparently they didn't read it, since the first thing they do is shout a challenge to announce their arrival, and are promptly killed for their trouble. Clearly, no one had figured out that whole ninja thing yet.

So, when exactly do ninjas show up in the historical record? Do they ever? They do. And it seems the earliest reference to a band of ninja occurs in the Taiheiki, written around 1360 and referring to an event which took place in 1338. And unfortunately, it's an unmitigated disaster -- the ninjas are discovered before the raid is even carried out and they are slaughtered to a man. Not an auspicious beginning! From that point, references to ninja activity increase in the histories and romances written at the time, with ninja activity finally coming into its own during the age of Sengoku, when all of Japan was plunged into war, a state of affairs which lasted throughout the sixteenth century, with the most ninja activity seemingly occuring around the Iga and Koga provinces. What they did, and how they did it, is what concerns us in the next section.

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THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF NINJUTSU

About the Ninjutsu art itself, the public knows very little, even in Japan. It is mentioned for the first time somewhere around the year 520. During the ruling of various Shogun (warlord), Japan was often divided to dozens of provinces governed by military commanders Daimyo. Fights for power and dominance often took place among these commanders.

Their armies confronted openly and in these fights a lot of warriors – Samurai (Bushi) fought and died. For a Samurai it was an honour to die in an open combat for his master, because it was in accordance with their code of honour – Bushido – The Way of the warriors. However, for some special needs during the war, Daimyo also used Ninja warriors because they were not bound by the Bushido code, like the Samurai and were specially trained and perfected in all kinds and ways of combat in all conditions.

The missions that the Ninja performed consisted of espionage and information gathering, various diversions and sabotages, killings of enemy comanders, etc. For a Ninja it was important to complete the mission, at any cost – that was their code.
During the Kamakura period of Japanese history many people, because of their own safety, moved to the mountains of Iga and Koga region leaving the Bushi order, to inhabit them as Jizamuraji, the warriors living like farmers. Because of that they were under the constant pressure of the Shogun army which tried to destroy them. To protect themselves they had to develop and perfect their warrior skills with minimum equipment and means, because wepons were forbiden to anyone who wasn't Bushi class, and worked for the Shogun.

Somewhere between 794. - 1192, Ninjutsu started to develop into the art as we know it today. For the development of Ninjutsu several Chinese warriors, teachers and priests who travelled through the wilderness of Japan, also take credit. Gamon, Garyu, Kain, Unryu and generals of the T'ang dynasty Cho Gyoko, Ikai i Chan Busho brought with themselves the knowledge that has been acumulated for centuries in their native land. Military strategy (Sun Tzu), religion, philosophy, folklore, the cultural concepts, medicine, mystike, colected in Imperial China from India, Tibet and southern Asia, found their place in the development of Ninjutsu. The determining factor for development of Ninjutsu was combining fighting technics with the technics of stelth movement and disappearing, and the meeting with the powerful, war oriented and organized clan called Yamabushi. Yamabushi, mountain warrior priests, were a clan hunted by the Imperial army, and they practiced Shugendo.

Ninjutsu martial art was a well guarded secret that has been passed on inside the family or the clan, from father to son, or the best student, and if the teacher didn't have a succesor the school died. The strongest and the most famous Ninja families were spread through Iga and Koga (today Mie and Shiga) districts of Japan.
Between 1854. and 1859. some of the Iga Ninjas cooperated with the Imperial army and joined the unit of Court patrols. They were the source of the great distruction of Shinsen Gumi (the Shinsen group) who were ninja bodyguards in the Tokugawa Shogunate.

In 1863. many of the ninja joined the Tenchigumi, a group of Ninja extremists. Leaders of the group were Yoshimura i Fujimoto Tesseki. They tried to organize a rebellion against Tokugawa Shogun, but their number was no match to the number of the Shoguns Samurai, and many of them were killed. 10 years later, in the reestablished war, the Ninja joined both armies so that they could be seen in many battles even against the Emperor. During the battle in Toba, the units of Fushimi Ninja efectivly showed their skills on the battle field.
In the 19. century the Ninjas of Koga and Iga were limited only to police and bodyguard work, nothing else. Many of the Ryu that survived the masacre 300 years earlier, vanished into nothingness as a result of peace brought by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1601.

In the battle of Tenchigumi, a member of Koppojutsu Ryu (Gikan Ryu) was hurt while fighting against the Emperor. He resigned to a nearby temple, where another Ninja, a member of Kukishinden Ryu (chapter 7), found him. His name was Ishitani Matsutaro.

Apart of Ishitani, only one other Ninja continued to teach and keep Ninjutsu alive. It was Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu, the Soke of Togakure Ryu, who later on transfered all his knowledge to the 33. Soke Toshitsugu Takamatsu, the teacher of Masaaki Hatsumi.