Who were the ninja?

BEFORE READING: Much of this information has been taken from Dr. Stephen Turnbull’s work, Ninja: unmasking the myth, which utilises accredited translations of various primary and secondary sources. This is an exceptionally detailed, researched, yet concise work that aims to look purely at the history of it and what the sources have to say while presenting it in an easy to digest manner. While we have developed our own opinion of the ninja based on our research, I highly recommend all researchers and casual readers of all sorts read Dr. Turnbull’s book for themselves and develop their own interpretations.

The text used as a basis for this article and for much of our research on the ninja

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If one is looking at Japanese history, particularly that of the samurai or any concept of feudal Japan, one is inevitably going to come across the topic of ‘ninja’. These strange, mysterious, and seemingly superhuman assassins and spies ensnare our imagination through exceptional flowing acrobatics, knowledge of infiltration, their ability to appear out of nowhere in the most unlikely of places, their dirty  yet practical “un-samurai-like tactics”, their resourcefulness, and their almost magic ability to swim/jump/run/crawl faster than anyone.

This image is, however, by its very definition and original appearance, pure fantasy with exceptionally rare distant grasps at truth. We have Kabuki theatre, the Edo and Showa periods to thank for our concept of the ninja today. To look at this topic as it originally was viewed in the warring states period, we need to first look at the linguistics of the words ‘ninja’ (yes, ninja is actually two words put together: 1) nin, 2) ja), and also how these words are used in context. To do this, we will look at some of the most common misconceptions of the ninja and address them one by one for ease of reading and summarising. 

Misconception 1) “The older word for ‘ninja’ is ‘shinobi’ which is the term for a spy, assassin, or maybe bandit.”

This can be disproven by simply looking at the older kanji for those words. 

1. The word for spy =  間諜 (kanchō)

1. The word for assassin =  刺客 (shikaku)

1. The word for Bandit =悪党 (akutō), or 盗賊 (tōzoku)

None of these words sound or look anything like the term ‘ninja/忍者’. In fact, they were viewed as different terms altogether.

The other irony is that, while ‘shinobi’ is an older word that, unlike ‘ninja’, was a term used in the warring states period, the word ‘shinobi’ is a reading for only the FIRST character (nin忍). 

However, if this is the case, what does ‘ninja’ mean? As aforementioned, ‘ninja’ is comprised of two characters: nin 忍 – adverb/adjective, and ja者 – noun.

The question is, then, if ‘shinobi’ referred to ‘nin’, then what about ‘ja’? To answer this, we need to look at a change in pronunciation as well as the linguistic meaning of each word as they were used in Japan (not the earlier equivalent in China). ‘ Nin ja’ is a comparatively modern pronunciation of these two characters shown earlier: 忍者

Nin (adverb/adjective) = hidden, secret/ly, covert/ly, etc.

Ja (older noun) = a person

Therefore, 忍者 = covert/secret person

Before the Edo period, these characters were instead pronounced as ‘shinobi (忍) mono (者)’ or, more commonly 忍之者 (shinobi no mono). The translation, however, remains the same (covert/secret person). 

You may be thinking this is exceptionally vague and, yes, you are very much correct. The term on its own was used to refer to anyone who was doing something while not wanting to be seen doing it. This would mean that anyone from a spy conducting infiltration all the way through to a man sneaking food from the table would be called ‘shinobi no mono/ninja’. This immediately puts a significant hole in the popular image of the ninja. 

This misconception leads to many issues. As explained earlier, ‘Shinobi’ on its own is either an adverb or an adjective. However, because of the popular misconception nowadays that shinobi = ninja, people will read into historical texts that use the word ‘shinobi’ to describe someone and then make the conclusion that the person described in the text was, therefore, a ninja. Rather, the text is simply describing how the person did what they did (secretly/covertly). In short, it applies in the following way: A ‘shinobi no mono’ is simply someone who is hidden or being secret/covert about what they are doing. 

A spy spying = shinobi no mono

A lord escaping using darkness = shinobi no mono

A man secretly taking silly selfies on his friend’s phone = shinobi no mono

Misconception 2) “Samurai and ninja were nothing alike. Samurai always hated ninja because they thought the ninja lacked honour..”

Unlike what many people think, being skilled at being a ‘shinobi no mono’ (hidden/covert person) in war was simply a skill, not a rank or position in society (and almost never a profession). A ’shinobi no mono’ in war could either be a peasant, a merchant, a bandit, or even a samurai. Also, the whole “it’s dishonourable” argument is born from modern sensationalism of the samurai. To assume that the combatants of the warring states eras had the same sense of honour as the Japanese hundreds of years later, let alone our sense of honour today, is already a flawed perspective. 

Misconception 3) “Iga and Koga (predominantly the former) were ninja clans and, also, the original place of the ninja.”

The reason this belief seems to exist, other than the fact that the reputed “ninja museum” is in Iga prefecture, is because these provinces were made famous by opposing the samurai warlord, Oda Nobunaga, by using effective guerilla tactics and their knowledge of the land (their home). However, this was in the latter half of the 16th century AD, more than one hundred years before the word ‘ninja’ even seems to appear in Japanese texts.

Misconception 4)

“Ninja used shuriken (ninja stars), magic spell signs with their fingers, and very practical ninja blades called ‘ninjato’.”

So far, there is no reliable historical evidence that ‘ninjato’ existed beyond being used in films and ninja sensationalist pop-culture. Shuriken, ironically, were almost always the long spiked variety, and were used by various combatants around Japan. The other logical line of thought on which to ponder is: if these items were only used by the infamous shinobi no mono then for them to remain inconspicuous would be rather difficult. 

The magic spells made using special hand signs and vocal sounds are from buddhist mantras and are pronounced the following way: Lin, Pyō, Tō, Sha, Kai, Jin, Letsu, Zai, Zen.

However, these are, in general, buddhist mantras, and were used by all those who wished to use them in the buddhist faith (including warriors). Therefore, this is far from being a “unique magic spell used by the infamous ninja”.

Misconception 5) 

“Ninjutsu/Shinobi no jutsu, was the art that all ninja learned in order to become a ninja.” 

This is a little nuanced, in that it is both correct and incorrect. If we make this statement while looking at ninja in the way they are commonly viewed nowadays, then it would be incorrect. The original ninjutsu or, more historically accurate, shinobi no jutsu, was used in war for the following purposes: Scouting/reconnaissance, spying, infiltration, assassination, bribing, stealing, signaling at night, living behind enemy lines, and smuggling.

Misconception 6)

“Ninja were specialists.”

Once again, this point is nuanced. So long as we do not use the current view of ninja it is possible to see truth in this statement, though not in the way one may think. A good example of this point is in this text from before the warring states period:

“Takenori…summoned a warrior called Hisakiyo and said to him, ‘there are trees bent over on both banks, and their branches cover the river. You are light on your feet and like to jump over things. Cross over to the other bank and pass secretly [shinobi] through the enemy lines and set fire to the base of their palisade.” Konjaku Monogatari (11th century AD/CE, trans. Thomas D. Conlan)

The irony is that Lord Takenori summoned this warrior to him not because he saw him as a ‘ninja specialist’ but, rather, that he knew that Hisakiyo happened to be good at irregular tactics. We do not know what Hisakiyo’s background was, only that he seemed to be good at these things. However, the idea that he came from a secret school that studied the art of ‘ninjutsu’ is a claim that is almost certainly false. 

Misconception 7)

“Ninjutsu was a practiced martial art in the Sengoku period.”

Ninjutsu or, as it was known at the time, shinobi no jutsu, was only a martial art insofar as it could be used in war. However, it was not a combative art. Combative arts were learned in the systems of bujutsu, which includes topics such as kenjutsu (sword art), yawara jutsu (wrestling in armour), etc. The original shinobi no jutsu was anything in war that involved stealth or discretion of some kind.

Written by,

Nathanael Chapman

ATCL, BALA, MTeach(Sec)