Ninja

Ninja is legendary Japanese spy or assassin who utilisizes espionage and infiltration to spy or assasinate the enemy. Unlike samurais, ninjas avoided direct confrontation. Unlike often told, Ninja isn't fiction but they really existed in Japan before and within Meiji era. It should be urban legend though, that Japanese police or government has secret ninja organization for hostage rescue operations.

But the origin of ninja, isn't clear. It's said that the roots of the ninjas might go around 6th century. In 15th century ninjas flourished as spies who served under feudal lords and executed tasks from them. Such as to assassinations or reconnaissance in enemy territory. Although (beautiful!) female ninjas are often seen in popular fiction, there is no proof either way if women ninjas existed or not.

There are mainly two groups of ninja, koga ninja originated from Shiga prefecture and Iga ninja from Mie. The ninjutsu, special skills which ninja utilized, varied within these two main groups.

The ninjutsu has 18 special espionage and martial arts techniques:

1. Seishin-teki kyōyō (spiritual refinement)
2. Taijutsu (unarmed combat)
3. Kyudo (archery)
4. Ninja ken (sword fighting)
5. Bōjutsu (stick and staff fighting)
6. Shurikenjutsu (throwing blades)
7. Sōjutsu (spear fighting)
8. Naginatajutsu (naginata fighting)
9. Kusarigamajutsu (chain weapons)
10. Kayakujutsu (fire and explosives)
11. Hensōjutsu (disguise and impersonation)
12. Shinobi-iri (Stealth and Infiltration methods)
13. Bajutsu (Horsemanship)
14. Sui-ren (Training in Water)
15. Bōryaku (Military Strategy)
16. Chōhō (Espionage)
17. Intonjutsu (Escaping and Concealment)
18. Tenmon (Meteorology)
19. Chi-mon (Geography)

The ninjutsu is still alive and there are many practitioners. The most famous ninjutsu teacher is Masaaki Hatsumi, who's the founder of Bujinkan Dojo martial arts organization. The basic concept of ninjutsu is to avoid detection and conflict by all costs, and remain hidden from the enemy. If detected, ninja must either escape or engage in battle in most efficient and silent way, often using martial arts similar to judo or aikido.

It is also known that ninjas were good in archery, and using special sword or ordinary tools as a weapon. Their special weapon is the famous shuriken, a kind of star shaped blade.

There are many ninja movies in Japan. I see these a bit like Japanese equivalent of kung-fu movies from China. Ninja movies often suggest that ninjas have supernatural powers, such as ability to jump or fall from amazing heights without ankle injury.What kung-fu masters often seem to lack, is the ninjas seem to have ability to move without a sound. Whether this is fact or fiction is left for you to decide. It could be that the ninjas were simply so trained for quiet movement that they accomplished the impossible, to move almost without a sound.

The ninja is popular stereotype in American movies also. It was hilarious in James Bond "You Only Live Twice" how it seriously claimed that Japanese secret service uses ninjas. (Ofcourse, who knows if they do, that's why its called secret service!) The movie itself wasn't bad though and portrayed Japan in nice way and featured beautiful Akiko Wakabayashi, one of the most beautiful Japanese stars ever seen in Hollywood screen.

Practitioners of ninjutsu say its the art of enduring - enduring all of life's hardships. Perhaps that's the best image we can draw of ninjas in the modern world.

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