Perceptions of the ninjas

Hello bloggers, welcome again to All About Ninjas. Well, first I want to thank the three people that commented on the blog last week. Moreover, let me say you Danyel that yes, I am going to talk a little bit about shurikens but not this time because I am following a little order (Shurikens will enter as “ninjutsu’s techniques”). Just be patient and you will have more information about them soon. Also, I think that today I will develop the perceptions of the ninjas when they started to develop in Japan and nowadays.

Well, primarily, in Iga, when the ninjas started to develop, the daimyos had many conflicts that ended in guerrillas. To solve this problem, the daimyos bought the services of the ninjas in order to commit murder, espionage or infiltration. On the other hand, the samurais, or Bushida, banned the use of ninja’s techniques and that started to create the perception that the ninjas were murders. Despite this, they were true warriors that had to work secretly because ninjutsu was considered illegal and dishonest by the samurais (Pilar Guiroy). Probably, this type of things started to create misconceptions of the ninjas and that is why they are not so recognized.

Nowadays, ninjas are known from tv series, mangas, movies, video games, etc. Despite their presentation in our culture, they are continuously linked with black clothes, murders and shurikens. This is a misconception because in our days, we have different schools or dojos that can teach ninjutsu, showing us that ninjas have a completely new world of martial arts that we can learn (without even having to commit murder or wearing black clothes). Well, that is all for today, keep commenting, hope that you liked it and… see you next week.

Bibliography

Guiroy, Pilar. Ninjas y su periodo histórico. 2004. 25 August 2011 .

The origins of the ninjas

First, I will define for you the term “ninja” and I will inform you a little bit more about its origins. Basically, ninjas are people who use ninjutsu. The word ninjutsu comes from Japanese and means the art of sneak away. Ninjutsu is an art of warfare (nowadays is considered a martial art) that started 4000 years B.C. in the Indian culture. Despite this, many scholars propose that ninjas and the ninjutsu art started between 500-300 B.C with the 13th chapter of a Chinese book called “The art of war” written by Sun Tzu. This book contained information about spies and their methods of espionage that was taken and transformed into a philosophy called “ninpo”. Later on, this art was passed to the Korean peninsula and finally, in the 6th century, it arrived to Japan. There, a man called Shotoku Taishi learned these techniques and therefore he is considered the root of the ninjas. Moreover, Shotoku mixed the espionage techniques with a Japanese practice called shugendo (this practice consists in mountain training), but since Japan’s geography is hilly and narrow, ninjutsu became a unique art from Japan. Moreover, the yamabushi (monks that lived in the mountains) and different Japanese warriors, learned the ninjutsu art in the Heian period (794-1185 A.C.) because the Omyodo (an art of divination and astrology with Chinese origins) was introduced to Japan. Finally, ninjutsu established and developed when the Hattori clan took control of the Iga region (nowadays the Mie Prefecture) and opened the Iga’s school of ninjutsu.

Source from where I subtracted and modified the information:

Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum. What is a ninja? 2011. 18 August 2011 .