The Real Ninja

I first head about the Ninja over 40 years ago. There was a book from Ohara publications that described the Ninja and their fighting arts. Ninja: the Invisible Assassins by Andrew Adams was intriguing, to say the least. The book did not show much in the way of techniques, but it certainly gave a lot of history and background. All these years later, I consider it one of the more honest Ninja books.

Like anything else involving martial arts and Far Eastern mysteries, getting to the facts means cutting through the hype. And the hype can be as much as 90% of the information.

The first popular approach to Ninja came via a man named Stephen Hayes, a student of the Korean art of Tae Kwon Do. He went to Japan to meet one of the people cited in the aforementioned book. Maasaki Hatsumi was known mostly as a martial artist specializing in traditional Japanese arts. He had authored a very good book on stick fighting. Apparently, along with learning these arts, he also learned some Ninjitsu.

Hayes was given a condensed education in Ninjitsu, which he was to bring to the West. He published a small booklet and gave Ninja seminars. Much looked like just another variation on Japanese medieval armed and unarmed fighting. Hayes went back to Japan for more study. He and his  mentor were soon offering an assortment of books on Ninjitsu. And concurrently, others added their texts on Ninjitsu. Many claimed to be from other Ninja schools. It reminded me of how some Karate schools suddenly became kung Fu schools when Bruce Lee popularized the Chinese martial arts in the early 70s.

Japanese cinema has had a love affair with the Ninja.  Many of the Samurai “Chambara” films have an incident or two involving a Ninja ambush. And if you find the old Hong Kong Kung Fu entertaining, you can be sure that the Chambara flicks are equally fun fare. Fun. Entertaining. Amusing.  But totally unrealistic. And that is fine for entertainment. Keep in mind that the Chambara (named after the sound of swords clashing) movies are not in the same category as the works of Kurosawa. Chambara is entertainment; Kurosawa is art.

According to the hype, Ninja were masterful assassins, saboteurs and spies. The hype focuses on the fighting, killing and mayhem. Reality is a very different thing.

The real Ninja were spies. Their espionage networks were not very different, structurally, from their modern counterparts. The black-suited assassins and raiders were a small part of the operation. They were the equivalent of the paramilitary components of modern spy agencies like the CIA, KGB, MI5 and French Surete. Paramilitaries are only used for special operations and under very limited circumstances.

Of course, the paramilitaries make for much better cinema, be they a raiding party of marauding Ninja or commandos attacking the enemy facility at the end of a James Bond movie.  By comparison, real paramilitary operations are not that exciting.

The real Ninja groups were organized for their main objective: gathering intelligence. Agents provocateur, saboteurs and assassins were a secondary function, at best.

The leaders of a Ninja clan, the Jonin (master Ninja) were the equivalent of modern spymasters. They controlled and coordinated all of the other elements. Every agency has its spymasters. Answering to them are various components. Codes and ciphers is charged with sending, receiving, intercepting and deciphering clandestine messages. Analysts are the largest component. Their task it to take all of the information gathered and put it into perspective. In other words, their job is to make sense of the data. They look for patterns, coincidences, anomalies and other factors. More often then not, they take small bits of information and use it to get a look at the big picture.

Field agents, the Chunin, are sent out to gather intelligence on the spot. Their work usually entails setting themselves up in a given place and developing sources. Some field agents are moles. They may spend years under cover, working their way into the institutions which they are charged with observing. Some are sleepers. These agents set themselves up and act as normal residents. They only take action when they are called upon. Most sleepers can only be activated once, as their cover is blown once they operate.

Most field agents develop spy rings known as cells. They accrue a number of sources. These may be talkative individuals who do not know their “friend” is a spy. They may be people coerced to spy. A field agent knows how to manipulate possible sources through bribery, flattery, blackmail or exploitation of human frailties. The Ninja were good at this and gave their agents guidelines to spot and entrap possible sources. While some of these guidelines were practical, others were based on superstitions such as phrenology.

Many agents do nothing but observe. They are listening posts. Observers take no action, but pass their observations up to their handlers. These would be the least skilled ninja, the Genin.

Many field agents are taught self-defense, breaking and entry, and in a pinch, how to kill. Many also learn basic sabotage. Most hope never to use these skills ,as they can expose an agent and end his operation.

Trained assassins and saboteurs take their skills to a much higher level. The Ninja used both.

Like other spy agencies, deception was a large part fo the Ninja’s process. He use ruses, distractions, disguises and other tactics to conceal himself and his activities.

The Ninja make amusing characters for action movies, but the reality is far less exciting. Ninja worked best when  their presence was not even suspected.

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The real Ninja paramilitaries preferred a dark blue costume, as it was less visible against a skyline at night. Pure black stands out. As for weapons, most Ninja swords were not much different in shape from other Samurai swords, right down to the rounded tsuba (crossguard). The odd sword used by Hayes & company might be a specialty on one group. I suspect some of Hayes’ weapons are actually drawn from a peculiar Samurai system and might mot have Ninja origins.

(As an example, the director fo the CIA is a political appointee. He serves mostly as a figurehead and point-of-contact with the government. The real spymasters are high-ranking CIA personnel whose identities are obscured from the public.)

Another way of ranking Ninja operatives was: 1) Professional Ninja, 2) Warriors with some Ninja skills, and 3) low-class persons (non-Samurai) with two or three Ninja skills.

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You can download a copy of an old Ninja manual here. As far as I can tell, it was the first American publication by someone who had studied Ninjutsu.: http://www.thortrains.net/downloads/oldninjabook.pdf

This next download is a book of questionable authority. It’s been around a long time and has some interesting tricks: http://www.thortrains.net/downloads/Secrets_of_the_Ninja.pdf

Hanzo Hattori, the Devil Ninja by Anthony Cummins is a free E-Book. It examines the history of a famous Ninja leader and gives some insight into the real Ninja of feudal Japan: https://www.pdf-archive.com/2014/03/28/hattori-hanzo-the-free-ebook-by-antony-cummins/hattori-hanzo-the-free-ebook-by-antony-cummins.pdf

Shoninki: The Secret Teachings of the Ninja by Master Natori Masazumi, translated by Anthony Cummins. This is a translation of an old Ninja scroll. It focuses on the espionage aspects of the Ninja. Fascinating stuff.

Ninja: the Invisible Assassins by Andrew Adams  This book was my introduction to the Ninja.