More than one generation has grown up on Hollywood stories about ninja warriors. Born into a clan of assassins and raised by ruthless senseis, ninjas dedicated their existence to the ceaseless fight against the villainous samurai. Shadows in the night, ready to carry out the most disgusting order for the right price.

All this is a cheap selection of populist myths that appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the stories about these Japanese warriors are based solely on the filmmakers' desire to create a vivid, marketable image. Today we will tell you a few amazing facts from real story ninja: less romance, more truth.

The original Japanese name, which was used by the Japanese themselves, is shinobi no mono. The word "ninja" came from the Chinese reading of the same characters and became popular only in the twentieth century.

First appearance

For the first time, shinobi are described in military chronicles of 1375. The chronicler mentions a group of spies who managed to infiltrate the fortified castle and burn it to the ground.

Golden age

For two centuries - the XIV and XVI - the cause of the warriors of the night flourished. Japan was engulfed in civil wars and shinobi were very popular. But after 1600, life on the islands became much calmer, and this began the decline of shinobi no mono.

Ninja Bible

There is very little documented information about this secret organization. The shinobi themselves began to chronicle their deeds only after 1600. The most famous work peruvian unknown sensei, dates back to 1676. The book is considered the real shinobi bible and is called the Bansenshukai.

Confrontation with the samurai

Modern culture clearly depicts ninjas as fierce opponents of samurai. There is not a grain of truth in this: ninjas were a kind of mercenary special forces unit and the samurai treated them with great respect. Moreover, many samurai tried to improve their fighting skills by studying ninjutsu.

Ninjutsu

There is an opinion that ninjutsu is a kind of martial art intended for an unarmed warrior, something like high-level karate. But there was no point in shinobi fighters devoting most of their time to practicing hand-to-hand combat. Original ninjutsu techniques are 75% intended for an armed person.

Shuriken ninja

In fact, it was samurai who used shurikens. The art of throwing a steel star was taught in special schools, but ninjas preferred to use much simpler and easier-to-handle blowguns. The stereotype about shurikens appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century.

Masked warrior

And, of course, a ninja should never appear without an ominous black hood on his head - otherwise who would be afraid of him! Shinobi did indeed use masks when necessary, but they could easily attack with their faces uncovered.

Sinister Assassins

In fact, most often employers used shinobi as spies. They could also be assigned political assassinations - rather, as an exception.

Victory or death

This is a Hollywood myth. There is no evidence at all that the failure of the mission cost the shinobi their lives. What's the point of this? Professional mercenaries preferred rationality to romance: it was better to retreat and strike again than to solemnly thrust a sword into one’s throat without any positive result.

The fundamental mistake of adherents, researchers and historians of ninjutsu today is that the ancient phenomenon is considered as a type of martial art. This is completely false, because military techniques themselves constituted only a small part in the extensive training program for spies, while much more attention was paid to issues of camouflage and covert movement, methods of penetrating houses and castles, hacking methods, digging and jumping, swimming and running, the ability to remain motionless for hours in the most unimaginable position (for example, hanging on a branch), and many other skills.

In addition to pure “physics,” mental aspects were also thoroughly studied - hypnosis and self-hypnosis, the ability to memorize colossal amounts of information, methods of concentrating attention, heightening the senses, mobilizing energy, and so on. As follows from their other name - shinobi (sneakers), the practice of night werewolves was built primarily on the observance of absolute stealth, noiselessness and facelessness.

Therefore, a very beautiful story by Victor Popenko on the pages of his book "Ancient Weapons of the East" about how ninjas, proud of their profession, painted their sword blades in different bright colors for greater glory (and the color corresponded to one or another specific school), makes one imagine Standartenführer Stirlitz with a full set of Soviet orders and medals, right down to the badge of graduation from the Red Army Academy. It is impossible to agree with such fictions, if we take into account the custom of spies even to disfigure their faces if caught, in order to deprive the enemy of the possibility of any identification. At the same time, it is strange to have with you a blade on which, so to speak, “in blue and white” it is written about involvement in Kotto-ryu. If we also take into account that another indicator of the reliability of such information is the author’s statement about chrome-plating blades (in the 17th century!) to shoot bunnies into the eyes of the enemy, then you shouldn’t take all this seriously at all.

The most that ninjas could do with their weapons was to smoke them in the flame of a candle or fire to eliminate the slightest possibility of light glare, each of which could lead to detection, death and, what is incomparably more important, to the failure of the entire operation. To date, the first and so far the only reliable work on the history of espionage in Japan has been published in our country - these are two books by Alexei Gorbylev: "Path of the Invisible" and "Claws of the Invisible". Only in it will those interested in the real picture of the emergence and development of ninjutsu find answers to almost all questions.

We are interested in cunning weasels only insofar as all their incredible skill and fantastic deeds directly depended on the ability to handle a diverse arsenal of special devices, from the simplest to the very complex and ingenious.

Today, thanks to the light hand of writers and screenwriters, the general public has the impression that ninjas did nothing but kill left and right, and exclusively with the help of swords, sickles and shuriken. Meanwhile, this ominous image has about the same relation to the real practice of ninjas as the brilliant James Bond has to the activities of real British intelligence. As noted above, a true shinobi was primarily a master of stealth, infiltration and abduction, and not at all in hand-to-hand combat. Nowadays, from this point of view, an experienced burglar or pickpocket has a much greater right to identify himself with a ninja than all those members of clubs and sections who dress in black clothes, throw “stars” and swing straight swords of Taiwanese manufacture, not being able to even snatch a passerby's wallet. I do not glorify or justify theft, but the fact remains - a good ninja is first and foremost a good rogue.

A huge number of fascinating stories tell us about the tests of skill that their employers or teachers inflicted on spies. Almost all such tasks were sophisticated thefts of objects (a sword, a scroll, a pillow from under the head) from an owner who had been warned in advance and was prepared to rebuff. Even when it came to military exploits in the enemy's disposition, the clash of steel was always preceded by an unnoticed penetration into a carefully guarded territory.

One ninja - one weapon

In full accordance with the theme of the work, the selection of auxiliary means was carried out, and each item could simultaneously serve multiple purposes, and weapons in their pure form were almost never used - even the notorious Shinobi-ken with a square tsuba represented a whole arsenal, providing tasks that were very distant from each other . “The Invisible Man” simply could not afford to be hung with a pile of heavy, bulky equipment, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie “Commando,” so compactness and versatility were the first and decisive criteria in the selection of equipment. Even when the employer wanted the death of his opponent, the matter was most often done without sickles and swords. The true master of his dark craft used, as evidenced, historical documents, incredible tricks and inventions - again with the goal of invisibility and one hundred percent effectiveness of the action.

After all, the target was, as a rule, not an ordinary warrior, but a commander, a prince, that is, an always extraordinary person, experienced in all the subtleties of battles, and, moreover, carefully guarded. Such a person had developed intuition and the famous goku-i (“sixth sense”). Everyone is well aware of the textbook episode with (presumably) Yagyu Munenori and his servant (student?), when the sleeping master instantly caught the thought that flashed through him about his defenselessness, and the next second he was already standing with a sword in his hands. Therefore, it was very difficult to simply hack or stab the intended victim - most likely, he would have sensed the enemy in advance, no matter what the famous Eric Lustbader wrote about the ninja’s skill in hiding the emanations of his brain in the series about the adventures of the tanjian Nicholas Linner. In addition, one should not attribute absolute perfection in absolutely all types of martial arts to night passes. A generalist will always lose to a specialist in his favorite field, and the average samurai was certainly superior to the average spy in the technique of sword and spear. You should not focus on outstanding representatives of the profession from either side. In any business there are unique ones, and we are not talking about them.

Ninja sword

Just as today a normal intelligence officer in a foreign country does not sneak through the dark streets with a pistol in his hand, so three hundred years ago ninjas preferred to do without a sword until the very last limit, when security or pursuit fell upon him. And usually the result of such a fight was a foregone conclusion. Some advantage was the use of unconventional, little-known fighting techniques, attacks from unexpected angles, an abundance of acrobatic elements, and so on. All this brought victory in a quick skirmish, but only if there was a factor of surprise. In those cases when the scoundrel was forced to grapple openly, using his shorter and lighter sword, the result, I repeat, was known in advance. In addition, the wonderful blades of samurai katanas and tachis most often surpassed spy weapons in their characteristics. This is easily explained, since the samurai sword was made for a long time and for centuries, often being a family treasure.

The ninja sword (in those cases when he preferred a “special product”) was just a working tool, one of many and far from the main one, which he didn’t mind throwing away if something happened. This does not mean that the blade was extremely bad. It fully provided the range of its tasks, but did not possess any outstanding properties. Of course, again, there is no need to talk about exceptions. And by the way, only movie ninjas are everywhere equipped with their straight sword, which is constantly attached to their back. In fact, there is not a single historical evidence of the existence of direct spy swords - no records, no surviving copies. Real spies most often used the most ordinary samurai blades, and wore them, as expected, on the side.

Strictly speaking, there was no clear boundary between samurai and ninja at all, since samurai were a class, and ninja were a profession, and nothing except the Bushido code prevented a poor servant from making a living in the field of espionage and contract killings. Most famous ninja clans are samurai.

Many samurai actually devoted themselves to the “yin craft,” and the famous schools of bujutsu had their roots in monastic fighting techniques, which also gave rise to excellent espionage systems. The ninjas themselves also did not reinvent the wheel, adopting in full the excellent, time-tested methods of samurai training.

Taking into account all of the above, it can be argued that in normal working conditions, our crafty people preferred quiet and incomparably more effective tools - poisoned needles, throwing objects, poisonous fumes, powders, liquids and other devilish things - to the sword and chopping. How about Vladimir Vysotsky:

He was a good fellow

Got the witch grandmother drunk

He accomplished a feat of arms -

The house burned down!

Ninja is a modern spy

Truly a spy action! It was not for nothing that the ninjas were the first to appreciate and use all the advantages of gunpowder in business, and in general they tried to stay on the crest of scientific and technological progress of those years, turning any invention to their advantage. That is why the range of their available means was extremely wide, although it was not weapons that dominated it, but means of penetration and camouflage, eavesdropping and delivering information, overcoming obstacles, and the like. All those who are interested in specific descriptions and illustrations of spy equipment can turn to numerous publications on this fertile topic - from brochures of home-grown experts to the mentioned two-volume work by A. Gorbylev.

I deliberately do not want to touch here on the frankly infernal techniques of psycho-energetic training of “invisibles”, since this is certainly in no way included in the topic of our conversation. All their favorite cinematic “fingers” and black magic fit perfectly into the familiar lines of the same Vysotsky:

They drank the potion in the turtles, ate the broths,

They danced on the coffins, blasphemers...

Ninja must improvise

It is much more remarkable that ninjas were outstanding masters of improvisation, real professors in the use of any auxiliary objects, since the changing kaleidoscope of emergency situations required lightning-fast decisions and precise actions. Whatever fell into experienced hands could be turned into a weapon, a master key, or anything else. No matter how extensive the list of wearable equipment is, it is impossible to provide for everything.

Unexpected factors could always appear, forcing us to invent and construct something new on the fly from existing or found nearby. It is difficult to imagine a spy going out on a mission empty-handed. Reconnaissance and sabotage always involve working with certain objects, the skill of handling which directly determines the success or failure of the business, and this is where ninjutsu and kobudo meet.

Ninja (hiding, lurking), another name for shinobi - scout, saboteur and assassin in feudal Japan.

Who are ninjas?

Ninja training

In accordance with the surviving chronicles, ninjas were fearless, trained people who, from an early age, trained in the most complex art of ninjutsu, which included many skills. The ninja was required to be able to obtain the necessary information, in addition, use any object as a weapon, defend against any kind of weapons (also with bare hands), suddenly appear and disappear unnoticed, master medicine, herbalism and acupuncture, improve visual memory, hearing and night vision. Shinobi could be underwater for a long time, breathing through a straw tube, climb walls and rocks, navigate unfamiliar territory, have an excellent sense of smell, etc.

Initiation took place, just like in a samurai family, at the age of 15. At this time, young men and women began to study Xian Taoism and Zen Buddhism.

Ninja, 19th century drawing, artist Hokusai

From a political point of view, ninjas were outside the feudal system; their community had its own structure. Moreover, shinobi were “hinin” - that is, they were outside the structure of Japanese society, did not have an established position in it, but could play any social role, despite the fact that even a peasant occupied a certain place. Ninja clans were scattered throughout Japan, but most of them were in the forests of Kyoto and the mountains of Iga and Koga. From time to time, samurai who lost their lands and overlord (ronin) joined ninja communities. In the 17th century, there were about 70 ninja clans. The most powerful schools were Koga-ryu and Iga-ryu. The formation of the ninja class occurred along with the formation of the samurai class, but due to the fact that the samurai had power, they became the dominant class, and the ninja formed a large-scale spy community. In addition, “nin” (another reading of “shinobi”) means “secret”; they could not act openly. The very essence of ninjutsu did not allow this. Despite this, “night demons,” as ninjas were sometimes called, struck fear into princes and samurai. At the same time, shinobi almost never killed peasants, due to the fact that the peasants could give them help. Besides, killing was not the main occupation of a ninja. Their main craft was espionage and sabotage. The role of a merchant, circus performer, or peasant made it possible to travel around Japan without suspicion.

Ninjas were finally formed by the 10th century, the golden age of shinobi falls on 1460-1600, the era of civil strife and unification of the Japanese state; They are hired by Tokugawa Ieyasu during a power struggle with warlord Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother Asai Yodogimi, which lasts for 15 years. In 1603, the first shogun Tokugawa, deciding that ninjas could be hired against him by those outraged by the outcome of the confrontation with the daimyo, pitted the two most powerful clans of shinobi, Iga and Koga, against each other. As a result, by 1604, few of the ninja organization survived; later they swore an oath to the shogun. To top it all off, as a result of the end of the civil strife, the services of the ninja are no longer needed.

Ninja Ghillie Suit

In accordance with the opinion of the Japanese historian Gorbylev, shinobi never wore a black tight-fitting suit, which is so common in cinema and manga. Ninja camouflage and nightwear were ashen, reddish brown, tan or dark gray. It was these colors that made it possible to completely merge with the darkness of the night, while a completely black suit would stand out sharply. The shinobi's camouflage clothing was baggy. During the day, ninjas wore regular clothes, which made it possible to blend in with the crowd.

The completely black costume, which is attributed to the ninja, originated from the bunraku puppet theater. The puppeteer is located right on the stage, dressed in a black suit, and the audience “does not see” him - therefore, if someone is killed by the “demon of the night” in the kabuki theater, the actor who played the killer was dressed in a puppeteer’s costume.

Video ninja

The video talks about ten interesting facts about shinobi.

History and origin of the ninja

Ninja - reconnaissance saboteur, spy, infiltrator and assassin in medieval Japan.

Ninjas appeared in Japan during the time of feudal civil strife, which lasted there for more than 700 years in a row.

Japanese feudal society was divided into a number of classes: appanage princes (Japanese - 大名, daimyo:, lit. “big name”), below were professional warriors (Japanese samurai 侍, bushi Japanese 武士), even lower - peasants, then there were clergymen, artisans, merchants, and finally, the “dirty” class (Japanese - 部落民 “burakumin”). There was no place for ninjas in this hierarchy. They were outside society and outside the law. Accordingly, other rules ruled over them - their own.


Each feudal lord had in his service specialists of a special kind who created spy networks in other principalities to obtain information about the plans of their rulers. They also carried out various sabotage activities: arson, poisoning, kidnappings, murders, spreading false rumors, planting false documents in order to confuse their enemies and sow discord between them.

They, ninjas, were afraid. Because they personified a different world - alien, incomprehensible and hostile for the majority of the inhabitants of Japan at that time. They were credited with communicating with spirits, werewolves, ghosts and other dark forces. The shadow warriors themselves supported these superstitions in every possible way, because they gave potential opponents a feeling of doom and thus became another weapon in their arsenal. History shows that, using the fear of evil spirits to their advantage, ninjas sometimes achieved success in completely hopeless enterprises.


These were representatives of clans that existed outside the social hierarchy and did not obey generally accepted norms. Within these clans, a special discipline gradually developed, the main goal of which was the theoretical justification the best ways unnoticed penetration into the ranks of the enemy, finding out his secrets and crushing him from the inside.

Even knowing well the symbolism of Chinese and Japanese culture, it is difficult to penetrate the mystery that hides the history of the origin, lifestyle and psychology of the ninja. Due to the almost complete absence of ancient written sources, the information that has reached us about the old ninja clans is fragmentary.


The history of the ninja dates back to the mid-6th century. At that time, China was divided into two large states, Wei and Liang, and a number of small ones. They were all at enmity with each other. This struggle undermined their strength, and at the beginning of the next century, power throughout the country passed to the new Tang dynasty. In the Tang Empire, three religious and philosophical teachings coexisted: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. Buddhism, which began to spread among the Chinese from the middle of the 1st century, gained more and more strength and became so strong that the Tang emperors made it the state religion.

The Buddhist clergy in China were divided into two main groups: those who lived in monasteries (they were the majority) and those who wandered around the country, eating alms and preaching views that differed significantly from those officially recognized.


In their wanderings, wandering monks ("lyugai") gradually penetrated further and further beyond the borders of their fatherland - to Korea, Vietnam, and from the beginning of the 17th century - to Japan. It should be noted that the Chinese authorities have always struggled with mendicant wandering monks. Accusing them of perverting the teachings of the Buddha and of witchcraft, they persecuted them in every way possible. The monks, however, actively resisted, and went so far in the fight against the authorities that they often joined rebel detachments or gangs of robbers. Gradually, in connection with this, a unique system of survival in their environment developed in their midst. extreme conditions, called “liugai men” - “the gate of the teaching of mendicant monks”. It included the art of disguise and transformation, methods of healing, preparing medicines, techniques of hypnosis and entering into trance, and much more, which helped wandering monks to overcome the dangers that awaited them everywhere.


Since the Tang Dynasty, strong ties have been established between the Buddhist circles of China and Japan. Suffice it to say that all schools and sects of Japanese Buddhism that arose in the period from the 7th to the 9th centuries borrowed their philosophy and rituals from similar Chinese schools. But once on Japanese soil, the schools of Chinese Buddhism mixed with local beliefs and therefore underwent quite significant changes. As a matter of fact, this is what makes it possible to distinguish them from Chinese prototypes.

Similar changes occurred with the sect of wandering monks "Lyugai", which was transformed into a movement of a part of Japanese monks (mostly self-proclaimed, i.e. without state certificate, the so-called "shidoso"), who opposed themselves to the official church. This movement was called "gyoja" (hermitage), and its central figure was the semi-legendary Enno Ozunu (634-703).


Growing up in a rich and noble family, at the age of fifteen he became a monk and began to study the Buddhist canon. But his penchant for mysticism prompted him to soon leave the monastery and settle in a cave on the densely forested slope of Mount Katsuraga. He lived there for more than 30 years. During this time, Ozunu, with the help of the Chinese, became familiar with the “Lyugai Men” system in detail and combined it with the Shinto cult of the mountains. The result was an original teaching, which he called “Shugendo” - “the path to gaining power.” Odzunu recognized the most important role in the practice of “gaining power” (i.e., mastering supernatural forces) in Buddhist methods of achieving “enlightened consciousness.” We are talking about breathing and meditative exercises (“kokyu”, Chinese “qigong”), ritual ascents to the peaks where mountain spirits (kami) supposedly lived, lighting sacred fires (goma) to attract divine power (ikoy), the technique of entering trance (“takisugyo”, standing under a waterfall, when the adept’s consciousness changes under the influence of ice water falling on the crown), recitation of spells (jumon).

Like the wandering lyugai monks in China, the followers of Shugendo in Japan very soon began to be persecuted by secular authorities and the official church. Ascetic hermits deprived the treasury of taxes, and monasteries of parishioners and gifts. At the same time, they enjoyed enormous authority among the people as healers and soothsayers. It got to the point that many peasants began to consider self-proclaimed monks, these vagabonds and hermits, the only true followers of the teachings of the Buddha! It is clear that the ruling circles did not want to put up with this state of affairs. Decrees were issued prohibiting vagrancy (717) and the teaching of Shugendo (718). However, the bans did not give the desired result. The number of Enno Ozunu's followers continued to increase. They took refuge in secret hermitages in the mountains, so they began to be called “yama-no-hijiri”, i.e. "mountain sages"

During the reign of Empress Koken, all real power from 765 to 770 was concentrated in the hands of the minister-monk Dokyo, and persecution of the unofficial church intensified. By a special decree, Dokyo prohibited the construction of chapels and temples in the mountains and forests, and self-proclaimed monks were ordered to be searched for and taken into custody. The repressions entailed the unification of mountain hermits, wandering monks and some peasants - adherents of "shugendo" - into closed communities, and the increasing militarization of these communities.

The rudiments of knowledge about survival, gleaned from the Chinese monks "Lyugai", were supplemented and expanded; A special layer of warrior monks (sohei) emerged, whose main task was to protect mountain communities from attacks by armed detachments sent by the authorities. A major role in improving the martial art of the “mountain sages” was played by the fact that after the defeat of Nakamaro Fujiwara’s uprising in 764, the surviving rebels, most of whom were professional warriors, fled to the mountains. There they joined the ranks of the Sohei.


At the turn of the 9th-10th centuries, the teachings of Shugendo were supplemented and deepened by the ideas of the Shingon school of Buddhism, which included meditation in the process of contemplating sacred paintings, the art of spells, ritual poses and gestures, which gave a feeling of merging with the Cosmos and gaining magical power.

Political events contributed to the transformation of "sohei" into ninjas. From the mid-10th to the mid-17th centuries, all of Japan found itself engulfed in wars between princes against each other, revolts of the aristocracy, and popular uprisings. The bloody unrest continued for more than 700 years in a row! In such a situation, the need for qualified intelligence quickly arose, which could provide a decisive advantage to any of the warring parties. It was necessary not only to be able to obtain important information, but also to deliver it to its destination in the shortest possible time. "Sohei" had the necessary qualities of this kind. Therefore, it was they who became hereditary professional intelligence officers, terrorists and saboteurs in feudal Japan. Almost every appanage prince (daimyo) tried to win over some “sohei” clan to his side in order to protect himself from the enemy. Thus, by the will of fate, the warrior monks found themselves drawn into feudal feuds and the struggle for power. In turn, this led to the fact that the system of their training began to quickly improve. The "sohei" clans began to turn one after another into "ryu" ninjutsu.


In the middle of the 13th century, about twenty schools of ninjutsu became famous, and by the 17th century there were more than seventy of them. Replenishment of the ranks of ninjas in that era came mainly from “ronins”, i.e. samurai who lost their service, and with it their salary and land. Most famous schools were the following: Gekko-ryu, Joshu-ryu, Yoshitsune-ryu, Iga-ryu, Kaiji-ryu, Koga-ryu, Koshu-ryu, Matsumoto-ryu, Nakagawa-ryu, Negoro-ryu, Rikuji-ryu, Shinshu-ryu , Togakure-ryu, Uesugi-ryu, Fuma-ryu, Haguro-ryu, Hattori-ryu.


By 1615, shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu completed the unification of the country. The regime he established of brutal central power and isolation of the rest of the world lasted no less than 250 years, until the bourgeois Meiji Revolution of 1868. The feudal strife that had soaked Japan in blood for 700 years in a row finally stopped. During the Tokugawa era, ninja began to be considered not just renegades, but non-humans - “quinin” (literally this means “non-human”). From now on, any of them who fell into the hands of the authorities should have been executed with a cruel, shameful death, no longer for specific acts, but simply for the fact that by their existence they violated the generally accepted order.

When a lasting peace was established, finding themselves “unemployed,” the majority of ninja clans gradually switched to crafts and trade. Finding no practical use for their pets, and also due to widespread severe persecution, ninjutsu schools gradually fell into complete decline.



Ninja clans and schools

In total, there were several dozen ninja clans throughout Japan, but the most famous were the clans of Koga County and Iga Province. Koga County was controlled by a coalition of clans called the 53 Koga Families. Iga Province was divided between 3 major clans: Momochi in the south, Hattori in the center and Fujibayashi in the north. The most important ninja schools were formed in these two areas: Koga-ryu and Iga-ryu.



Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu (Japanese 忍術 Ninjutsu, “the art of stealth”) is a Japanese martial art.

Summarizing the statements of Japanese masters, we can define the essence of classical ninjutsu as follows: this is the path of spiritual and physical improvement of a person in order to gain the ability to secretly control events in order to survive his family, his family and his clan.

This is the art of winning no matter what. Do not hope for success, but be confident in it, being in joy, without experiencing either fear or anger - such is the spirit of true ninjutsu!



Preparing for hand-to-hand combat

There are two main ways to prepare for hand-to-hand combat, which are fundamentally different. The first of them is based on the selection of a certain set of technical techniques that best correspond to the capabilities this person. Then mastery of these techniques is brought to the level of mastery. Situations that arise in battle are then adjusted to suit the chosen techniques. This is a way of formalizing technology, reducing it to certain templates. Its concentrated expression is a set of standard technical actions, known as “kata”, “taolu”.

And there is a second method, based on spontaneous movements of the body that automatically reacts to any emerging situation. This is a way of improvisation. It is based on the idea that any pre-worked techniques (templates) deprive a person of the freedom of action that is so necessary in a real, not a game, fight. The ninja relied on the second of these methods, which they called “elemental combat.” They meant that the specificity of improvisations in each specific case is determined by the interconnection and mutual transitions of the five natural elements - earth, water, fire, wind and emptiness.

The first of these methods is the most common. This is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that even in the schools of modern ninjutsu, elemental combat most often means the same sets of specific techniques, only performed in a certain manner. However, this is a profanation that has nothing to do with the true battle of the elements. It is based on special mental states that dictate technical actions without any participation of consciousness. You don’t need to play in the element, but be the element. Moreover, the transformation must become so convincing that even the enemy involuntarily believes in the image being imposed on him.

The platforms for launching certain programs of action in battle are the proper starting positions. The “key” for launching specific programs (i.e. specific tactics) are mental images symbolizing the primary elements of the ring:

  • Fire (visualization - yellow triangle; quality - aggressiveness and indomitability; direction - West)
  • Water (visualization - orange circle; quality - pliability and fluidity; direction - East)
  • Earth (visualization - red square; quality - constancy, hardness, stability; direction - South)
  • Emptiness (visualization - blue dot; quality - creativity, extension; direction - Center)
  • Wind (visualization - green semicircle; quality - lightness and mobility; direction - North)
  • The Fight of Fire ensured success in a fight with an insufficiently experienced or cowardly opponent. He was suppressed by pressure, a cascade of straightforward head-on attacks.

An enemy acting in a similar manner was forced to fight with Water. It was characterized by withdrawals back and to the sides, followed by counterattacks that resembled waves, over and over again rolling onto the cliffs of the impregnable shore and eroding it.

For example, one of the possible ways of fighting on Earth is a mighty avalanche (ninja) caused by a random small pebble (enemy). The first in this case demonstrates absolute confidence in himself and in his abilities. The enemy will be crushed, crushed, demolished by a powerful counterattack, no matter how he tries to resist his inevitable death.

One of the aspects of Void combat was “keeping a distance”, caused by the need to be at any moment of the battle where the enemy will not reach you, or will reach you with minimal damage. The enemy's attack "fails" into nowhere, exposing him to a counter attack. Choosing the correct distance is impossible without a good eye, the so-called “sense of the enemy” and the ability to move.

The Wind fight was suitable for fights with a skilled and strong opponent. It was dominated by deceptive movements, sudden disappearances from the field of view (for example, a sharp sag down, jumping, somersaulting) and circular movements with blows, throws, and painful effects on the joints. The image of a typhoon, pulling into itself and breaking everything in its path, fits well with the Battle of Wind.

An important condition for mastering aspects of elemental combat is the tendency to imaginative thinking. In addition, it is stupid to practice combat of the elements if the body is “squeezed”, if the person is not completely healthy. The naturalness of movements ensures relaxedness, freedom, confidence, and the absence of excessive tension in the psyche and muscles.



Hand to hand combat

Defeat the situation, not the enemy. Direct combat with the enemy was not at all the intention of the skilled agent. The enemy was eliminated if the interests of the case required it, and also when he clearly interfered with the plans of the ninja. A competently carried out operation should not have left behind any incriminating traces, except in cases where attention was specifically focused on such traces in order to sow the desired thoughts and moods in the minds of enemies. The opponent was most often perceived only as an animated obstacle, but not as an object of action. To win is to complete the assigned task, and not to finish off a living obstacle that has arisen along the way.


Rationality. All actions of the spy were subordinated to one goal and had to be strictly rational. Why waste energy fighting an enemy when you can simply blind him and escape? Why sneak up on a sentry through the rustling grass, risking every second, if you can silently shoot him with a poisonous needle from a blowpipe? Why get involved in a group fight when it’s easier to misdirect your pursuers? It was considered very advisable to use special weapons and devices that made it possible to neutralize the enemy even before he came into direct contact with the spy.

In addition to special tools and devices, ninjas widely used any objects that came to hand. The ability to use improvised means greatly facilitates the implementation of many techniques: for example, strangulation with a stick is much faster and more effective than strangulation with hands, and a blow with a stone is more powerful than a blow with an empty fist.

In combat conditions, all the capabilities of a well-trained body were realized - from striking to escaping from a restraining grip through an acrobatic trick. Each action taken should immediately follow from the previous one. It is absolutely unacceptable to be captured if you have not yet decided what you will do in the future. Techniques are performed only to the extent that they correspond to the desired result. No more, no less.

Surprise. Since the fighter usually faced professionals who were fluent in weapons, victory had to be achieved by unconventional tactics, mixed with surprise and putting the enemy in an unusual combat situation. The most common stunning actions were surprise and suddenness of the attack, closely related to invisibility or lulling the enemy's vigilance with his appearance and behavior; unpredictable changes (“breaking”) of the distance; instant shutdowns (blinding, deafening) or deception (false noise) of the senses; using standard weapons in an unusual manner and using weapons unfamiliar to the enemy (for example, spiked gloves).


Linking the fighting style to the characteristics of the enemy. In the event of a direct confrontation, the scout was confronted by a wide variety of opponents, each of whom had his own level of skill, personal life attitudes, and his own strengths and weaknesses. The enemy's capabilities and vulnerabilities could be assessed based on many factors.

By appearance, involuntary movements and face it was determined which points of the fighter were most vulnerable, but by his physique it was assumed in which fighting techniques the enemy was undoubtedly dangerous, and by his manner of movement his place in the system of primary elements (elements) was recognized, on the basis of which his fight option.

The transition to one or another type of “elemental combat” had to occur reflexively, as a reaction to a subconscious assessment of the enemy and external conditions (for example, a fight in a narrow space was not suitable for the wind style, and a meeting with a timid fighter clearly corresponded to the fire style). The creation of the necessary reflexes was facilitated by the strict discipline of the training fight, reinforced in a sleepy state, and the rejection of any constraining rules.


Naturalness of movement (shizen) ensures relaxedness, freedom, confidence in battle, and the absence of excessive stress on the psyche and muscles. To make basic techniques natural, a person needs to turn them into something as familiar as, for example, moving a hand with a piece of bread to your mouth. This requires a huge number of repetitions of the techniques being learned. No meditation will help here.

Learn to correctly distribute weight and apply force, while moving at different angles forward, backward, to the side, moving in a circle, rotating in one place.

Perform strikes, throws, knocking movements, dodges in various positions, repelling various types of attacks, playing out some situations in the forest, on the roof, in a narrow corridor, etc. Here you can learn something only together with your partner.

The principle of “body and weapon are one.” This statement has a slightly different meaning than another well-known thesis - “weapons are an extension of the body.” In ninjutsu, the emphasis is on the fact that the body itself is a weapon, while any mechanical device (weapon) serves only as an auxiliary means to enhance the damaging effects of body movement. When working with any weapon, the state of consciousness, basic principles, the nature of movements and slopes, vectors of force application, energy consumption - everything remains unchanged.

Use of the setting. Thanks to getting used to the theory of the five elements, the ninja became a natural part of environment, and therefore could use it as his own body. This included, for example, periodic disappearances during battle on the ground, and taking advantage of the features of the combat area (altitude difference, type of surface), and using details of the situation as a barrier between oneself and the enemy. By relying on weather conditions, it was possible to expose the enemy to the blinding sun, adjust the decisive technique to the moment the moon went behind the cloud, and lure the enemy onto a slippery surface in the rain.

Anonymity. In any of his actions, the ninja was obliged to remain unrecognized. Identifying him could put contactees at risk and decipher past and future actions of the clan. In combat conditions, such anonymity was ensured by working in invisibility and a specific hood mask, leaving only the eyes open. When improvising, you can use a scarf or some kind of stretchable fabric tube (stocking, piece of sweater) for this. While making identification difficult, the mask also eliminates the unmasking reflection of the facial skin and muffles the sound of breathing.


Getting used to weapons. Just as a samurai, armed with a sword, draws it from its sheath, tests the sharpness of the blade, weighs it in his hand, makes several swings in the air, and then begins to chop vines and straw targets, so a ninja must get used to any technique he learns, make it his own .

Mastering, for example, a punch, he first chooses the most convenient way for himself to form a fist, tries different trajectories of striking with it. The main goal is to achieve natural, relaxed movements.

Ninjas acted secretly, and therefore tried not to stand out among others and avoided collisions with them in every possible way. There were outposts on all the roads of medieval Japan, at all city and village gates. Suspicious travelers were subjected to thorough searches. Therefore, the ninja had a minimum of equipment with him.

A piece of rope or chain, a towel, a staff, a short peasant knife, maybe a sickle, some food and medicine, a flint for making fire, that's all. With such a load, he could move freely without fear of inspections. Having reached their destination, the ninja made the devices he needed from improvised materials, and took the weapon (if necessary) from the enemy. Having completed the task, he destroyed or hid his tools and again took on the appearance of a harmless traveler.

Ninjas most often used agricultural tools and everyday items as weapons. This principle allowed them not to arouse unnecessary suspicion, not to carry unnecessary things with them, and not to complicate their lives with the problems of making blades, handles and other technically complex products.

That is why one of the most important types of their weapons (if not the most important) was a wooden stick. There is confusion regarding the size of these poles. To avoid it, let's take as a basis the fact that the average height of a Japanese man in the Middle Ages was approximately 150 cm (the Japanese today have become taller thanks to food rich in animal proteins). The length of the staff did not exceed the length of a person's height (plus the height of wooden sandals - "geta"), but most often equaled the distance from the ground to the shoulder. In other words, it fluctuated between 140-160 cm.

In battle, the staff was usually held with both hands. The technique of working with it was something between the use of a spear (yari) and a halberd (naginata). It included jabbing (face, throat, heart, solar plexus, groin) and swinging blows, cutting (on the joints of the arms and legs), blocking enemy weapons, strangulation, and combined shackles. They used the staff for support in jumping kicks, for raking and throwing sand or dirt into the enemy's face.

The scythe and sickle (in Japanese "kama" or "gama") are the classic weapons of peasants who participated in wars and rebellions. There are many varieties of sickles and scythes, differing from each other in the long wooden handle, the length and degree of curvature of the blade, and the way it is attached to the shaft. In principle, the longer the handle and blade and the straighter they are, the greater the effectiveness of the kama as a weapon, but the more difficult it is to hide this weapon under clothing. Most often, two sickles were used simultaneously: “o-gama”, with a sickle on a long handle (up to 120 cm) they parried and deflected enemy attacks, and with a small sickle, “nata-gama” (blade 15-30 cm, handle 20-45 cm .) hit the enemy.

The main targets when attacking with a sickle are the hands holding the weapon, elbow and knee bends, neck and head, back and sides. IN modern conditions, when there are no more samurai armed with swords and spears, the sickle is even more effective in close combat than before. They are very comfortable intercepting kicks and successfully resisting any opponent armed with a melee weapon (pole, chain, club, dagger, etc.). You can even throw it at a target. A well-trained fighter armed with two sickles can only be stopped with a shot from a pistol or machine gun.

It is very difficult to work freely with one sickle, much less with two. If you have poor command of the technique, it is easier to injure yourself with them than the enemy. It takes a lot of time (several years of daily hard training) before the sickles feel like a natural extension of your hands. Therefore, for training you should use only training weapons, with dull wooden “blades” that completely exclude cuts and punctures. The most suitable handle length for a training “nata-gama” is from the wrist to the elbow, and “o-gama” is from the wrist to the armpit.

Purely technical hand-to-hand combat of ninjas (taijutsu) included concentrated strikes with limbs on the most vulnerable places of the human body (daken-taijutsu), bone-crushing grips, throws, painful effects (ju-taijutsu). The hand-to-hand combat technique also included various dodges (kawashi), falls (ukemi), somersaults with rolls (kaiten), wheels (daisharin) and jumps (tobi).

Ninja Ghillie Suit

According to Japanese historian Gorbylev, ninjas never used the black tight suit popular in films and novels. Ninja night costumes had shades of reddish brown, ashen, tan or dark gray. According to Gorbylev, it was these shades that made it possible to completely merge with the darkness of the night, while an absolutely black suit stands out sharply in these conditions. The ninja suit had a baggy outline. During the day, ninjas wore casual clothing to blend in with the crowd.

One of the real ninja armors. Museum exhibit

Ninja Equipment

Ninja equipment included 6 compulsory subjects(rokugu): amigasa (woven hat), kaginawa (cat), sekihitsu (slate) or yadate (ink bottle with brush case), yakuhin (medicine), tsukedake or uchidake (container for carrying embers), sanjaku-tenugui (towel) ).

Curious facts about Japanese ninja warriors

Our knowledge of the ancient Japanese ninja warriors is based mainly only on literary works, films and comics, which contain a lot of conflicting information. Read below for some real ninja facts that will leave you amazed.


Shinobi no mono

According to surviving documents, the correct name is "sinobi no mono". The word "ninja" is a Chinese interpretation of a Japanese ideogram that became popular in the 20th century.


Shinobi-no-mono (ninja) in Japanese

First mention of ninja

For the first time, the ninja became known from the military chronicle “Taiheiki,” written in 1375. It said that ninjas entered an enemy city at night and set buildings on fire.

Golden age of the ninja

Ninjas flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries, when Japan was torn apart by internecine wars. After 1600, peace reigned in Japan, after which the decline of the ninja began.

"Bansenshukai"

There are very few records of ninjas during the era of wars, but after the onset of peace, they began to keep records of their skills. The most famous manual on ninjutsu is the so-called “Ninja Bible” or “Bansenshukai”, which was written in 1676. There are about 400 - 500 manuals on ninjutsu, many of which are still kept secret.


Samurai Army Special Forces

Today, popular media often portrays samurai and ninja as sworn enemies. In fact, ninjas were something like modern-day special forces in the samurai army. Many samurai trained in ninjutsu. Since ninjas were mercenaries, they also worked for samurai. For anyone who paid money. Samurai and ninja were at enmity only when their interests did not coincide, for example, when the ninja had to kill a person who was guarded by the samurai.

Ninja "quinine"

Popular media also portrays ninjas as being from the peasant class. In truth, ninjas could come from any class, samurai or otherwise. Moreover, they were “quinine”, that is, they were outside the structure of society. Over time (after peace) ninjas were considered lower in status, however they still held a higher social position than most peasants.

Ninjutsu is a specialized form of hand-to-hand combat.

It is generally accepted that ninjutsu is a form of hand-to-hand combat, a system of martial arts that is still taught throughout the world. However, the idea of ​​the specialized form of hand-to-hand combat practiced by today's ninja was invented by a Japanese man in the 1950s and 1960s. This new fighting system was brought to America during the boom in ninja popularity in the 1980s and became one of the most popular misconceptions about ninjas.

Shurikens or shakens

Throwing stars (shuriken or shaken) do not have the slightest historical connection with ninjas. Throwing stars were a secret weapon used in many samurai schools. They only began to be associated with ninjas in the 20th century thanks to comic books and animated films.


Masks and headbands

Ninjas are never shown without masks, but there is no mention of ninjas wearing masks. In fact, they often had to cover their faces with long sleeves when an enemy was nearby. When working in groups, they wore white headbands so they could see each other in the moonlight. Wearing a mask in normal times would attract more attention.

Ninjas blended into the crowd

A popular ninja look always includes a black bodysuit. In fact, in such a suit they would look just as appropriate as, for example, on the streets of modern Moscow. They wore traditional Japanese clothes.

Clothing for camouflage

Today, people believe that ninjas wore black clothes to help them hide in the dark. In Shoninki ( The real way Ninja), written in 1681, stated that ninjas should wear blue to blend in with the crowd, as this color was popular at the time. During night operations, they wore black clothes (on a moonless night) or white clothes (on a full moon).

Ninjas did not use straight swords

The now famous "ninja-to" or straight-bladed, square-hilted ninja swords did exist in medieval Japan, as square handguards were made back then, but they only began to be attributed to ninjas in the 20th century. “Medieval special forces” used ordinary swords so as not to stand out ahead of time.

"Kudzi"

Ninjas are known for their spells, which they supposedly performed using hand gestures. This art was called "kuji" and it has nothing to do with ninja. Kuji originated in India and was later adopted by China and Japan. It is a series of gestures designed to ward off evil in certain situations or to ward off the evil eye.


Land mines, hand grenades, explosives, poisonous gas

The image of a ninja using a smoke bomb is quite universal and common in the modern world. Although medieval warriors did not have smoke bombs, they had hundreds of fire-related recipes: land mines, hand grenades, waterproof torches, varieties of Greek fire, fire arrows, explosives and poisonous gas.

Yin Ninja and Yang Ninja

This is half true. There were two groups of ninja: those who could be seen (yang ninja) and those whose identity always remained a secret (yin ninja).

Ninja - black magicians

In addition to the image of the ninja assassin, in old Japanese films one could often find the image of the ninja master, a warrior-mage who defeated enemies with cunning. Interestingly, ninja skills did contain a certain amount of ritual magic, from magical hairpins that supposedly provided invisibility to sacrificing dogs to gain the help of the gods. However, standard samurai skills also contained an element of magic. This was common for that time.

The Art of Covert Operations

To be more precise, they were indeed often hired to kill a victim, but most ninja were trained in the arts of covert operations, propaganda, espionage, making and using explosives, etc.

"Kill Bill"

Hattori Hanzo became famous thanks to the film Kill Bill. In fact, he was a famous historical figure - Hattori Hanzo was a real samurai and trained ninjas. He became a famous general who received the nickname "Devil Hanzo". It was he who, at the head of a group of ninjas, contributed to Tokugawa becoming the shogun of Japan.

Hobbyists and Enthusiasts

The first major boom in modern ninja popularity came in Japan in the early 1900s, when very little was known about these medieval spy-assassins. In the 1910s - 1970s, many books were written by amateurs and enthusiasts, which were simply replete with errors and falsifications. These errors were then translated into English during the ninja boom in popularity in the 1980s.

Encrypted Ninja Scrolls

It is alleged that the ninja manuscripts were encrypted so that no outsider could read them. This misunderstanding arose due to the Japanese way of writing scrolls. Many Japanese scrolls simply listed lists of skill names without properly deciphering them. Although their true meanings have been lost, the texts have never been deciphered.

The myth of ninja suicide when refusing a mission

This is a Hollywood myth. There is no evidence that mission abandonment resulted in suicide. In fact, some manuals teach that it is better to abandon a mission than to rush things and cause problems.

Sleeping agents

It is believed that ninjas were much more powerful than ordinary warriors, but only certain ninjas who were trained in a special style of warfare were so. Many ninjas simply lived life in secret ordinary people in enemy provinces, carried out normal daily activities or traveled to spread rumors. Recommended abilities for a ninja were: disease resistance, high intelligence, fast speech and stupid appearance(because people usually ignore those who look stupid).

Neither clan nor clan

There are a number of people in Japan who claim to be masters of ninja schools that trace their lineage back to the times of the samurai. This issue is very controversial, since there is not a single proven fact that ninja families or clans have survived to this day.However, there is no evidence that ninja clans do not exist. Ninjas do not like to advertise themselves.


Ninja weapons and equipment

In films and books about ninjas, these legendary spies from feudal Japan always use unusual weapons and ingenious devices that help them perform difficult tasks and arouse interest and amazement among their contemporaries. In most cases, the equipment on display is by no means a work of fiction. Shurikens, kunai, arare, sai and much more - all this was truly included in the arsenal of the shinobi.


Real samples of ninja weapons and equipment. Museum exhibit

Before going “on duty,” unique equipment was selected for each member of the squad (or single warrior), depending on the goals of the mission (murder, kidnapping, sabotage, espionage, theft, intimidation, and so on), his role in the operation and the expected external conditions. After all, it was physically impossible to carry around a full arsenal of ninjas, consisting of several dozen weapons, all the time.

It is important to note that the features of shinobi weapons and equipment are determined by the specifics of their activities. Firstly, they almost always acted secretly, under the cover of darkness or at dusk, avoiding direct and open clashes. Therefore, they had no need for bulky, heavy and noisy weapons (like armor). Secondly, the ranks of shinobi included women and even teenagers (the ninja’s initiation rite took place very early), which also shifted priority in favor of light and compact weapons.

Thirdly, ninjas often disguised themselves as peasants, tramps, merchants, monks or artists. Therefore, their equipment had to be such that, if something happened, it could be hidden under clothes or passed off as agricultural (or any other) equipment.

Well, now let’s move on to a direct examination of the most interesting and unusual types of weapons and equipment of the night warriors.


1. Ninja or gatana

A straight short sword, also known as a ninja-to. Its blade was often specially darkened so as not to give glare, and the sheath was slightly larger than the size of the blade, since the free part of it was used as a case for various useful little things: poisons, master keys, documents, and so on. By the way, shinobi often had to flee, during which they abandoned the most burdensome equipment, and primarily the sword. Therefore, unlike samurai katanas, tachi and wakizashi, gatana was made from cheaper steel using simplified technology.


2. Amigasa

A secret weapon in the form of a wide-brimmed straw hat, into the frame of which a sharp ring-shaped blade was woven. Sometimes the blade was continuous, and sometimes it consisted of disparate elements woven in random order around the perimeter of the hat. In the second case, it was much more difficult to recognize the weapon in the hat. Such weapons could be used both in close combat and thrown at the enemy from a medium distance.



3. Shuko and Ashiko

Devices for climbing walls and trees in the form of pads with spikes, which were worn on the feet and palms. Also, if necessary, ashiko could be used as a weapon, causing terrible lacerations, like those from the claws of wild animals.



4. Kama

A sickle-shaped weapon with a short blade and an elongated handle, often used in pairs.



5. Makibishi

Metal spikes against infantry or cavalry, which the ninja scattered in case of pursuit. They had a variety of shapes and sizes: from twisted nails and pointed pyramids to balls spiked like hedgehogs.



6. Kusarigama

A very cunning weapon that has several different techniques of use. It consists of a sickle (kama) and a chain attached to the handle with a weight at the end. With a chain it was possible to confuse the enemy, knock the weapon out of his hands, and then strike him with a sickle. You could also throw the sickle itself at the enemy, and then pull the weapon towards you with a flail.



7. Kakute

A ring with one or more spikes pointing inward, which allowed it to be worn as jewelry. In open battle, the kakute could turn its spikes outward, like brass knuckles. Sometimes ninjas wore several of these rings at once. Poison was often applied to the thorns.



8. Shurikens

Perhaps the most popular shinobi weapon in modern culture, regularly appearing in films and games about ninjas. They are plates sharpened along the edges for throwing, which can be various forms and sizes.



9. Sai

A stabbing weapon like a stiletto, the specific guard (pointed and with curved edges) of which makes the sai look like a trident.



10. Kaginawa

A crampon consisting of a rope with a double or triple (sometimes more) hook at the end. Designed for climbing walls and overcoming other high obstacles.



11. Fukibari

A miniature blowpipe or “throwing mouthpiece”, which more accurately characterizes its miniature dimensions - no more than 5 cm in length. This made it possible to hide it in the mouth, and, if necessary, to hit the target with a poisoned needle (hari) from a distance of 5-7 meters. There were also larger blowpipe - fukiya-zutsu, the length of which was up to 30 centimeters, and the distance of the dart was several times greater than that of a miniature fukibari.


12. Tessen

A folding battle fan consisting of iron plates or knitting needles pointed at the top edge. Due to its impressive weight, it could be used as a weapon (bludgeon) even when folded.



13. Some people

Five thimbles sharpened like claws at the end, turning a shinobi's hand into a paw wild beast. Neko-te allowed him to deliver lashing blows to the face and unprotected areas of the enemy’s body, leaving behind terrible and often fatal lacerations.



14. Shobo

A metal or wooden stick, sharpened at both ends and equipped with a finger ring in the middle. It was clamped in a fist and made it possible to deliver jabbing blows with sharp ends aimed at the vital organs of the enemy.

There were incredible legends about ninjas in medieval Japan. They said that a ninja warrior is capable of flying, breathing under water, becoming invisible, and in general these are not people, but creatures of demons.

The entire life of any medieval ninja was surrounded by legends. In fact, all fantastic stories about ninjas were born in the superstitious minds of uneducated medieval Japanese. Ninjas, in turn, maintained their supernatural reputation in every possible way, which gave them a huge advantage in battle.

The history of the appearance of ninjas in Japan

The first mentions of an art similar to ninjutsu can be found in ancient Indian treatises. It was from there, together with Buddhism, that this art was brought by the Yamabushi hermit monks. Mountain monks were a rather specific caste. They mastered weapons perfectly and were unsurpassed healers and sages. It was from them that young ninjas were trained, to whom the yamabushi passed on some of their fantastic knowledge for that time.

The history of ninjas begins around the 6th century, but the last professional ninja clans were destroyed in the 17th century. More than a thousand years of ninja history has left an indelible mark on Japanese history, although the secrets of the ninja (a small part of them) were revealed only at the end of the 20th century, by the last patriarch of ninjutsu, Masaaki Hatsumi.

Ninja clans were widely scattered throughout Japan, most often masquerading as an ordinary peasant village. Even neighboring villages did not know about ninjas, since they were outcasts, and every person in medieval Japan considered it his duty to destroy these “demons.” That is why all ninjas on missions used masks, and in a hopeless situation they were obliged to disfigure their faces beyond recognition so as not to betray the clan.

The harsh education of a ninja from birth

Despite the abundance of films about ninjas, where a stern hero learns all the intricacies over several years and crushes his enemies like straw, the best ninjas were those who were born into the clan.

A ninja master had to study throughout his life, so before becoming a ninja, children went through a rigorous school of training that began at birth. All children born into the clan were automatically considered ninjas. The cradle with the newborn was hung near the wall and constantly rocked so that it would hit it. The child subconsciously tried to group, and such a skill was fixed in him at the level of instinct.

Children under eight years of age were taught to endure any pain. Some stories about ninjas say that children were suspended by their hands from great heights, teaching them to overcome feelings of fear and developing endurance. After the age of eight, children began to be trained as real ninja warriors, until this age they had to be able to do the following:

  1. To endure any pain and take any blows without a groan;
  2. Read, write and know the secret alphabet, which was different in each ninja clan;
  3. Imitate the sounds of any animals and birds, which was often used to give signals;
  4. It's great to climb trees (some were even forced to live there for weeks);
  5. It is good to throw stones and any objects;
  6. To endure any bad weather without complaint (for which they were forced to sit in cold water for hours);
  7. It’s great to see in the dark (this was achieved through many days of training in dark caves and a special diet containing a large number of vitamin "A");
  8. Swim in water like a fish and be able to hold your breath for a long time under water. In addition, the ninja had to be able to conduct underwater combat both with weapons and with bare hands;
  9. Turning your joints in any direction (which had a significant effect with age, although ninjas rarely lived to old age).

In addition, children used military weapons as toys, and used any available objects as ninja weapons. By the age of eight, the child had such strength, endurance and flexibility that he could easily outshine any modern professional athlete. Trees, stones and rocks were used as sports equipment.

Training an adult warrior or how to become a ninja

Starting from the age of 15, young ninjas (whose fighting qualities already exceeded the training of a medieval warrior many times over) went to the mountains to learn the ancient art of monks - yamabushi. They served as the prototype for bearded elders in films about ninjas. Although from the history of the Yamabushi one can understand that they were real warriors who brutally dealt with their enemies.

Here, students studied basic psychological training skills, learned how to make medicines, poisons, and learned secret techniques of non-contact combat.

Ninjas knew the secret of disguise perfectly. Even very attentive warriors could not recognize the best actors. Today the ninja was a fat merchant, and tomorrow he was an exhausted beggar. Moreover, it was the role of a beggar tramp that required the ninja to completely get used to the role. The combat ninja looked like an old man dying of hunger. The best masters of transformation took poisons that made the body look weak and the face covered with wrinkles.

In general, the quality of transforming into a powerless person was quite widely used by medieval spies. In battle, the ninja often pretended to be overwhelmed by his opponent's superior fighting skills and fought with an air of doom. The enemy would lose his guard and begin to casually swing his weapon, after which he would receive a lightning strike from the “demoralized” ninja.

If the enemy did not succumb to such tricks, the ninja could pretend to be mortally wounded and fall to the ground in convulsions, spitting out blood. The enemy approached and immediately received a fatal blow.

Physical capabilities of ninjas and their “supernatural” abilities

The average ninja could cover about a hundred kilometers a day, now this seems incredible, since even the best modern athlete is not capable of such feats. With their bare hands they broke bones and knocked down doors, and their dexterity was simply incredible. The ninja, who often used huge claws as weapons, spent part of his life on a tree, and during operations he wore a specific ninja mask, which turned him into a terrible demon. A rare resident of medieval Japan dared to engage in combat with a demon that silently appeared behind him.

The magical abilities of the ninja are explained quite simply:

  1. The ability to become invisible is associated with the use of smoke bombs. The explosion of such a grenade was accompanied by a sheaf of sparks and a bright flash, which distracted attention, and a smoke veil, using which the ninja disappeared unnoticed;
  2. The ninja could escape even without a smoke bomb if there was water nearby. Having dived there unnoticed, a warrior could breathe for hours through a reed tube or a hollow sword sheath;
  3. Ninjas knew how to run on water only because they prepared each operation in advance. Special flat stones were placed under the water, the location of which the ninja remembered and then easily jumped on them, creating the illusion of walking on water;
  4. Legends said that no shackles could hold a werewolf-ninja, as he would still break free. This technology for releasing ropes was known not only to ninjas. It lies in the fact that when tying you need to tense the muscles as much as possible, then after they relax the bonds will not be too tight. The ninja's flexibility helped him in his release;
  5. Ninjas owe their ability to walk on walls and ceilings to training in the forest, when they jumped on trees and the use of special brackets with which they could secure themselves on the ceiling. A trained ninja could hang motionless on the ceiling for days, waiting for a victim.

The ability to endure pain greatly helped the ninja when falling into a bear trap. If time allowed, he could calmly free his leg and, having stopped the bleeding, escape. With a lack of time, the ninja cut off their leg and, jumping on the surviving one, tried to escape.

Ninja Clothing and Disguise

We all know that ninjas wore a black suit, and the “good” ninja wore a white suit. In fact, this myth was very far from reality. Most often, ninjas disguised themselves as traders, travelers or beggars, because a person in black clothes will be visible everywhere, since the completely black color is very rare in nature. The famous ninja night uniform was dark brown or dark blue. For battle there was a red uniform that hid wounds and blood. The suit had many pockets for various devices and hidden weapons.

The costume was always accompanied by a ninja mask, which was made from a two-meter piece of fabric. It was impregnated with a special composition that could serve to stop bleeding and disinfect wounds. In addition, drinking water could be filtered through the mask and used as a rope.

Specialization of various ninja clans

Despite the fact that all ninjas are considered unsurpassed warriors, each clan specialized in its own “trick”:

  1. The Fuma clan was excellent at carrying out sabotage and terrorist operations. They can also be called a medieval analogue Marine Corps. They swam beautifully and pierced the bottoms of enemy ships underwater;
  2. The Gekku clan knew very well the technique of hitting points on the enemy's body, using fingers that were trained so that they acted like steel rods;
  3. The ninja of the Koppo clan was fluent in fighting techniques, which is now called koppo-jutsu (one of the styles of hand-to-hand combat in the art of ninpo);
  4. The Hattori clan was excellent at yari-jutsu (the art of fighting with spears);
  5. The Koga clan's ninja specialized in the use of explosives;
  6. And the Iga clan was famous for its inventors. They invented many specific ninja weapons.

All ninjas had skills that allowed them to sneak into a room, kill the enemy and escape unnoticed. However, specific clan secrets were kept very jealously.

Secrets of the Jumon language

The Jumon language consists of 9 spell syllables, by pronouncing which ninjas could change their state and achieve supernatural results. This language included 9 spells and the corresponding number of finger figures.

Modern science has been able to prove that the jumon language could influence the brain. This is what explained the supernatural abilities of the ninja. Previously it was considered dark magic.

The Yamabushi monks taught the ninja that each finger is connected to energy channels and by putting them in various combinations, one can achieve the use of the body's hidden reserves.

In addition, each clan had its own secret language. This was necessary for the transfer of secret information. The language changed frequently as codes became known to rival clans.

Ninja weapons and houses

Despite the fact that the ninja's house was no different from the peasant's, inside it was full of various surprises. There were:

  • Labyrinths;
  • Underground floors, of which there could be several;
  • Secret passages, doors and passages;
  • Various traps and traps.

In addition, a primitive hang glider was often kept in the attic, which created the illusion that ninjas were turning into birds.

If the ninja's house was full of traps, then it is easy to imagine the huge number of different weapons that the ninja used. All weapons could be divided into four large groups:

  1. Melee weapon. This group included both ordinary weapons of warriors and peasants, and specific models of ninja weapons. For example, a sword-cane is a seemingly ordinary staff that would be appropriate for any peasant or passerby;
  2. Throwing weapons. This group includes various shurikens, bows, blowpipes and firearms. In addition, there were hidden weapons that were disguised as items of clothing. For example, a peasant hat might have a hidden blade under the brim. The spring released the blade and the throw of the hat easily cut the opponent's throat;
  3. Agricultural implements in in capable hands ninjas defeated enemies no worse than swords and spears. The main advantage of using it was the element of surprise, since the peasants of medieval Japan were quite peace-loving (all their energy was spent on getting food and hard work). The peasant's sickle often turned out to be a kusarikama - a combat sickle with a weight on a long chain;
  4. Poisons in medieval Japan were used by everyone, from peasants to feudal lords, but ninjas turned out to be real experts in this matter. Often they bought poisons from them. The secrets of their preparation were kept secret; each clan knew how to prepare its own versions of the poison. In addition to fast-acting ones, there were poisons that slowly and quietly killed their victims. The most powerful poisons were those prepared from the entrails of animals.

It was the poisons that gave shurikens their deadly properties. One scratch was enough for the victim to die in agony. In addition, ninjas often used poisonous steel thorns, which they threw at the feet of their pursuers or scattered in front of their homes.

Female ninja kunoichi are sophisticated killers

The use of girls as ninjas was widely practiced by ninja clans. The girls could distract the guards, then the ninja warrior could easily enter the home of his victim. In addition, the ninja girls themselves were skilled killers. Even when they were forced to undress before being brought to the master, a knitting needle in the hair or a ring with a poisonous spike was enough to destroy the victim.

Most often, in everyday life, female ninjas were geishas who used great respect in medieval Japanese society. Fake geishas knew all the intricacies of this craft and were included in all noble houses. They knew how to carry on small talk on any topic, played musical instruments and danced. In addition, they knew a lot about cooking and masterfully used cosmetics.

After completing training at a geisha school, kunoichi were trained in ninja techniques (if they were born into a ninja clan, then they were already professional killers). The training of ninja girls focused on the use of various improvised means and the use of poisons.

Many great commanders and rulers of medieval Japan died in the sweet embrace of kunoichi. It was not for nothing that the old and experienced samurai taught young warriors that if they want to be safe from a woman from the ninja clan, they should be faithful to their wife.

Ninja legends

Ninjas who have earned the title of legend existed throughout the entire era of the ninja:

  1. The first ninja legend was Otomo no Saijin, who disguised himself in different guises and served as a spy for his master, Prince Shotoku Taishi. Some believe that he was a metsuke (policeman), but his surveillance methods allow him to be considered one of the first ninjas;
  2. Takoya, who lived in the 7th century, was closer to the term "ninja". His specialty was terrorist attacks. Having penetrated the enemy's location, he started a fire, immediately after which the emperor's troops struck the enemy;
  3. Unifune Jinnai, a very short ninja, became famous for being able to enter the feudal lord's palace through the sewer, and waited in the cesspool for the owner of the castle for several days. Whenever anyone went there, he dived headlong into the sewage. Having waited for the owner of the castle, he killed him with a spear and disappeared through the sewer.

There are ancient chronicles dating back to the 9th century that tell how the first traditional ninja clan was born. It was founded by a certain Daitsuke, with the help of the Yamabushi mountain monks. It was there that a new type of spy warrior was created, who knew how to win at any cost and were deprived of the traditional honor of the samurai. To win, ninja warriors did not hesitate to use a whole arsenal of “ungentlemanly” blows, spitting with poisoned needles and similar “dirty” techniques.

The main thing for the ninja was victory, which gave the clan the opportunity to live and develop. Sacrificing one's life for the clan was considered a matter of honor. Many ninja warriors, whose names have not been preserved, gave their lives for the good of their family.

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I am interested in martial arts with weapons and historical fencing. I write about weapons and military equipment because it is interesting and familiar to me. I often learn a lot of new things and want to share these facts with people who are interested in military issues.