The smartest ninjas don't wear black.

21 Feb 2022

When you talk about ninjas, what do you think of?

when you think of ninjas, what do you think of

ninja turtles in the sewers

cut fruit

Uchiha Itachi or Ishikawa

what ninjas are popular in pop culture-they hack gangsters in movies and cut fruit on iPhones. We seem to think it makes sense to compare them to pirates, and we naively think of them as mutant turtles living in New York sewers with kimono-clad rats.

but who are these ninjas? This is what British travel writer and historian John Mann explores in his new book, Ninja: the Shadow Warrior for a millennium. He told time magazine about the new findings of these soldiers who were covered up by legends.

written by Japanese artist Toyoshi Ogawa in 1853, it shows a ninja lurking behind a musician.

one. The smartest ninjas don't wear black

time: has there ever been a golden age for ninjas?

John Mann: the heyday of ninjas was in the 16th century. They are constantly evolving. When Japan fell into the separatist regime of warlords in the early Middle Ages, the area where ninjas lived became more and more isolated. When the warlords competed for the rest of Japan, the ninjas of IGA and Koga developed their commune system and self-defense mechanism and reached the pinnacle of ninja to some extent towards the end of the 16th century. Ninjas' skills have been admired by everyone, so their profession is to act as mercenaries in other parts of Japan. When the great warlord Nobutaka Akita unified Japan, they obviously could not be tolerated by a unified Japan. As a result, there were two major invasions of IGA and Kyoto, which ended in the late 16th century with the occupation of these two places and the end of ninjas after centuries of existence.

when did their mythical status emerge? When did they become shadow warriors in black as we know them today?

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Yes, it's a great myth. In fact, at today's ninja museums in IGA and Kyoto, they think that black may not be the best outfit to use at night-dark blue is better.

after 1600 AD, when ninjas became almost superfluous, some of them-- about two to three hundred people-- were accepted as secret police by shogunate generals. This is not enough for them to have something to do, so some people realize that in order not to lose ninja skills, it is best to record them. So it is only after they have become superfluous that their skills are recorded in three or four manuals. This is where we know how they work.

II, IGA, and Koga, where ninjas were born

this is the work of the artist Hiroyuki Kogawa, depicting IGA's Hengdu Mountain, which is inextricably linked with ninjas.

what is a ninja?

now, it is a person who uses some special martial arts. But this is not what they are. They used to be secret agents who usually worked at night, acting as spies and assassins in the medieval world of Japan.

what does the word "ninja (ninja)" mean? The word

ninja originally comes from Chinese and is the vague Japanese pronunciation of "ninja (a patient person)". And because ninjas are Japanese, there is a Japanese word that means the same thing: shinobi. The two words are interchangeable. Because the Chinese always represented a slightly higher way of speaking at that time, ninja also gained a higher status and was accepted by foreigners. Shinobi is still the Japanese word for ninjas.

they originated in a specific region of Japan, is that so?

Yes. I was surprised to find that there are special areas associated with ninjas. Traditionally, they are known as IGA and Koga-both a few hours' drive from Beijing, which is a fascinating and remote area with rolling hills and forests, valleys, streams, and rice paddies-not very developed, but very charming.

so what makes this place a fertile ground for ninja?

this is the heartland of Japan and rises at a time when Japan is divided by hatred and is ruled by warlords. This special area is not under the control of warlords and has decided to maintain the status quo. The villagers there organized themselves to form a self-defense commune, and it was against this background that ninja skills were developed.

3. Yes, some ninjas are Japanese samurai

this 1820 painting of Chundan Kawakawa depicts a Japanese samurai.

you emphasize the connection between ninjas and samurai in your book.

ninjas are generally considered anti-samurai. The samurai is fully exposed in front of the public and has a rich personality. The whole of the samurai depends on showing off in front of the public that is, bravado in the face of death and self-destruction. Ninjas are completely different: to be a spy, you have to survive and hide. Concealment is something that warriors despise, but in fact, ninjas are vital to military activities. He is usually a samurai during the day and a ninja at night.

So a ninja could be a samurai at the same time?

is theoretically possible. There is a distinction here, because samurai are usually of a very high class, while ninjas are not. But there is an overlap between the two.

IV. Ninjas sit and train under a waterfall

this work of GE Bei Zhai depicts ninjas in training

are ninjas in training the same as other secret and quasi-religious groups at that time? For example, or crusader assassins.

I don't think so, because these assassins have a strong jihadist feeling, which is deeply rooted in religion, while ninjas are not driven by religion. The similarity lies in that ninjas pursue a kind of "integrity of heart". They must have the right attitude to defend the village, their owners, and themselves. What they do is to train in the local belief system, which is a kind of "Shinto (Shinto)", called "practice way", which is a kind of mountain asceticism, which requires you to practice in the mountains and streams to hone your body and soul until you are fully fit for ninja activities.

does this include fencing and darts?

there has never been any formal martial arts training. I began to learn the art of self-defense in the family when I was a child. I have only heard that spiritual practitioners have formal training, and they are not ninjas. Not all ninjas practice Tao.

so this is more of a spiritual practice than martial arts.

both. Indeed, it's spiritual. When you are trained, it is in martial arts. Martial arts are not involved here, but it is clear that if you can survive meditating under a waterfall or walking through the forest for miles under extreme conditions, it will help you become a combat spy.

V. Ninja Family.

Japanese IGA ninjas performed in Hong Kong in 2007.

is there a ninja pedigree and a generation of ninja families?

Yes, you come from such a family, you may be a landowner or work in a field, attached to a particular industry. Loyalty will fix you in the same area and your family. It's very feudal.

is a ninja a more strategic identity than a deterministic identity?

when you look back at history, the whole thing becomes very blurred. Sun Tzu, a great Chinese military theorist, talked about the need for the art and tricks needed to win the war. It comes from the belief that ninjas have quietly infiltrated Japanese life. There is already evidence in ancient legends about the type of cunning secret assassin.

VI, there is likely to be a ninja team from the movie Thunder Valley.

ninjas seem to have sprung up quickly in the native democratic community. Is there anything about ninjas that is subversive?

I don't want to say "subversive". If you can imagine that self-defense communities need locations for evacuation in the event of an attack there are still dozens or even hundreds of places where they can gather. These sites are mounds, similar to the Celtic strongholds in southwest England. The research on them is not ideal, and archaeologists still have a lot of work to do. The ninjas in IGA and Koga are quite unique. They never had castles, and castles are typical in many parts of Japan today, attracting tourists and being restored. The location of ninjas has not been rebuilt, and they are usually hidden in the woods. So there's still a lot of work to be done about ninjas and how they work.

are these fortresses guarded by ninja troops?

Nobody knows. There is no record of collective action in the manual written by ninjas. They are always regarded as individuals. They must work as a team, but there is no record of it.

7. James Bond distorts the history of ninjas forever

Danbo Tetsuro plays the leader of Japan's secret organization, Tiger Tanaka, in Thunder Valley.

how did ninja legends spread around the world?

the legend of ninjas developed in Japan in the 19th century and then spread to the West, but it was after World War II. I want to condemn James Bond. The Bond movie Thunder Valley popularizes the concept of ninjas among people who are not interested in martial arts. It's really strange, really: the idea of ninjas has spread, but the image in the movie doesn't represent ninjas at all, it's commandos. Still, it makes the word popular in the West. Of course, there is a complete martial arts community, which is separated from the tradition and develops independently.

there are pictures of men in dark robes climbing over the walls of the castle in the 19th century.

Yes, some pictures work. Some legends that have been unremittingly cultivated only spread after the ninja's heyday, because it is more out of touch with reality than ever before. When I started when I wrote this book, I felt like I was involved in all kinds of nonsense about ninjas, and people still believe it. But I am very happy to realize that ninjas have a historical core. This is what my book is about. Although ninja is regarded as a kind of martial arts, we really can't tell the truth from the false.

can you say a little more about this nonsense?

if you take a look at ninja websites and books, some articles are about invisibility or how to disappear, which has been made up since 1945 to create and maintain a ninja community in which people themselves are still debating what is true ninja ism and which one is true. There are still some masters who claim to have scrolls dating back to the Middle Ages, which give authenticity to the descendants. But no one has seen these scrolls, and it doesn't prove anything.

8, the incredible true story about the last ninja

Hiro Onoda, a former intelligence officer of the Japanese emperor's army, has been hiding in the Philippine jungle for 30 years.

what do you think is our biggest misunderstanding about ninjas?

I used to think of them as assassins or people who are going to be killers, but to my surprise, they have a spiritual level, and spiritual practice is an important part of spiritual practice. Even now, ninja experts will tell you that mental integrity is the main element of their spiritual practice.

do ninjas have special weapons?

among the many weapons on display at the Ninja Museum, first of all, there are frighteningly large quantities of equipment suitable for agriculture, and secondly, they are all fake. These are all made by ninjas after they have been idle for a long time.

what is the legend of a ninja as a warlock?

there is a folk tradition of magical beliefs. If you write specific things on a small piece of paper, specific words, and put them in the right place in the room, then magical things will happen. But these are all recorded in the manual after the event.

you wrote about a Japanese spy during World War II, Hirohito Onoda, who had been hiding in the jungles of the Philippines for 30 years. In your opinion, he is the last ninja?

I was curious about him and how he survived there, which made me understand that there is a tradition in Japan that is the opposite of xenophobic militarism, which we associate with Japan in World War II. There is a spy school that teaches extraordinary liberalism, generosity, and non-xenophobia. This idea that Japan wants to bring freedom to the rest of Asia-of course, after Pearl Harbor, went in the opposite direction. But this different tradition was preserved by the Nakano spy school and Hirohito Onoda, who is still alive. Other people may have different opinions, but I still want to say that he is the last ninja.