Japanese Ninja

- March 12, 2019

CULTURE

AND

ENTERTAINMENT

THE STORY ABOUT

NINJA

SHINOBI (忍び)

This time I will write a story about Ninja or Shinobi.

When I was a kid, the ninja was a character I really liked. In the eyes of a child at that time, ninjas always look very cool. They like ninja character from the clothes used, weapons equipment and how ninja kill the enemy. Sugoi!!

THE STORY :

A ninja (忍者) or Shinobi (忍び) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare. The ninja or shinobi was supposed to be a secretive, stealthy agent who fought only when absolutely necessary, their names and deeds have made much less of a mark on the historical record than those of the samurai, though it's known that their largest clans were based in the Iga and Koga domains.

Though shinobi appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries). Maybe they have existed as early as the 12th century.

In the sengoku era, Iga Province and the area around Kōga village are where we know the origin of ninjas.

Japanese Ancient History

Location of Iga province

THE FAMOUS NINJA

FUJIBAYASHI NAGATO
A leader of the Iga ninjas during the 16th century, with his followers often serving the daimyo of Oomi domain in his battles against Oda Nobunaga.

MOMOCHI SANDAYU
The leader of the Iga ninjas in the second half of the sixteenth century, and most believe he died during Oda Nobunaga's invasion of Iga.

KUMAKAWAMARU
A youth whose exiled father was ordered to death by the monk Homma Saburō. Kumakawa took his revenge by sneaking into Homma's room while he was asleep, and assassinating him with his own sword.

YAGYU MUNETOSHI
A renowned swordsman of the Shinkage-ryū school. Muneyoshi's grandson, Jubei Muneyoshi, told tales of his grandfather's status as a ninja.

ISHIKAWA GOEMON
In folk tales Ishikawa Goemon is a Japanese Robin Hood, but he likely was a real historical figure and a thief from a samurai family that served the Miyoshi clan of Iga and supposedly trained as a ninja under Momochi Sandayu.

HATTORI HANZO
A samurai serving under Tokugawa Ieyasu. His ancestry in Iga province, along with ninjutsu manuals published by his descendants have led some sources to define him as a ninja. This depiction is also common in popular culture.

Hattori Hanzō

(Ancient History)

FUMA KOTARO
An army leader and Ninja jonin (ninja leader) of the Hojo clan based in Sagami Province. Although he was not from Iga or Koga, he practiced many ninja-style tactics in his battles and his special forces troops used guerrilla warfare and espionage to fight against the Takeda clan.

MOCHIZUKE CHIYOME
The wife of Mochizuke Moritoki. Chiyome created a school for girls, which taught skills required of geisha, as well as espionage skills. Chiyome herself was from the Koga clan, however, so she had ninja roots.

KATO DANZO
A famed 16th-century ninja master during the Sengoku period who was also known as "Flying Katō".

TATEOKA DOSHUN
An intermediate-ranking Iga ninja during the Sengoku period.

JINICHI KAWAKAMI
Jinichi Kawakami of Iga is called the last ninja, although he readily admitted that "Ninjas proper no longer exist".

Ninja Tool and Equipments

ROLES
The ninja were stealth soldiers and mercenaries hired mostly by daimyōs. Their primary roles were those of espionage and sabotage, although assassinations were also attributed to ninja.
Psychological warfare In battle, the ninja could also be used to cause confusion amongst the enemy. A degree of psychological warfare in the capturing of enemy banners.

THE ERA OF MODERNIZATION

In the era of modernization, as it is now, the ninja culture was developed even further, such as movies, toys and also characters in video games.

Film About Ninja

Toys in the form of ninja characters

Hattori Hanzo (Samurai Warriors 4)

Video Game Figure

* KUNOICHI *

くノ一

A kunoichi (くノ一) is a female ninja or practitioner of ninjutsu (ninpo). The names of characters that resemble the three strokes in the kanji character for "woman" (女 onna) in the following stroke order:
"く" is a hiragana character pronounced "ku"
"ノ" is a katakana character pronounced "no"
"一" is a kanji character pronounced "ichi"

If it's not wrong, the writing will be like this :

女 (Onna)

becomes

くノ一 (Kunoichi)

HISTORY OF USE : The eighth volume of the ninja handbook Bansenshukai written in the late 17th century describes Kunoichi-no-jutsu (くノ一の術). This can be translated as "a technique to use a female and was employed for infiltration purposes.
The meaning "Female Ninja" might be a purely modern use, that possibly first appeared in the novel Ninpō Hakkenden (忍法八犬伝) written by Futaro Yamada in 1964 and became popularized in the following years.

GALLERY