Rules Every Ninja Has To Follow

The legend of Japan's black-clad, skulking shinobi no mono, better known as the ninja, is famous in popular culture. But the historical truth of the ninja, as pointed out by the World History Encyclopedia, has been subject to exaggeration if not outright hyperbole. Common tropes include ninjas performing superhuman feats, vanishing in puffs of smoke, and wielding dark magic to destroy their targets. Much of what is known of ninjas comes through oral tradition or accounts written after their heyday in the 15th and 16th centuries. These stories through ever more fanciful retellings constructed the legend of this master class of assassins, spies, and saboteurs. Even the traditional black-hooded uniform that is instantly thought of when one hears the word ninja is an imaginative fabrication of 19th century art.

Still, ninjas were not imaginary. They were medieval Japan's equivalent of special forces much like the SEALS or Green Berets. Ninjas used cutting edge technology and were completely goal oriented. To achieve the kind of success that made ninjas into legend, they had to follow certain rules and requirements of their trade.

Most people who know anything about the ninja know about their secrecy. The Bansenshukai, which is a purported training manual for ninjas from the 17th century, advises that commanders who hire ninjas must keep their identities secret. It further advises not to put anything in writing related to ninja activity but to pass down information "orally and in detail." It is because of this rule that much of what is known about ninjas is clouded. Even how successful ninjas were on their missions is not known. 

Stephen Turnbull in his book, Ninja, points out that while many deaths may have ultimately been caused by the work of ninjas it is impossible to quantify. But this mystery also gave the ninjas an advantage. The rumor of even the potential use of ninjas manufactured fear and fostered myths of their skills. It also aroused hatred among the Japanese for several reasons. Ninjas were typically recruited from the lower classes, and their methods were seen as what Turnbull describes as underhanded. This went against the grain of upper class samurai, who were inculcated with honor and the spirit of the Bushido code.

This was certainly true. All ninjas had to be secretive. That secrecy extended also to their private lives — very few people knew if somebody was a ninja or not. This again gave rise to myths about their abilities with some supposing they used magic. While the ninja did not use magic, their training must have been considerable, indeed.

Ninjas from their training had to learn patience and endurance. Joel Levy in Ninja: the Shadow Warrior relates how a reading of the kanji characters for ninja or shinobi can mean not only "a person trained in the art of stealth" but that nin and shinobi may also mean "to endure." From this comes the modern art of "ninjutsu," which is essentially the art of the ninjas. 

Yet training in these arts was more than furtive stealth. It included almost anything a ninja needed to know on an assignment. Ninjas were spies, scouts, and covert operators. This could potentially put the ninja into almost any imaginable situation. The ninja therefore had to know how to practically use knowledge of meteorology, psychology, wilderness skills, tactics, and strategy in a given situation. Levy writes how many ninjutsu teachers emphasized the "to endure" part of ninja training since it implied stoicism and a willingness to endure everything thrown at you to achieve your goal. That is the key difference between a ninja and a warrior like a samurai. The samurai cared about how he achieved his goals, while a ninja used any means to attain his or her objectives. One legend related by Blackbelt Magazine describes how a ninja on an assassination mission snuck into a castle through a sewer. He managed to kill his target, a samurai lord, by stabbing up through a waste hole while the samurai was relieving himself.

The Shoninki training manual also details six essential items a ninja had to carry at all times. Antony Cummins' translation lists the amigasa, which was a wide-brimmed straw hat; the kaginawa, which was a grappling hook; the sekihitsu was a stone pencil; kusuri, which was field medicine; the sanjaku tenugui, which was a 3-foot cloth; and the uchitake was a fire-starting tool.

The amigasa is a straw hat that covers the face but at the same time allows you to see. Therefore, to the ninja mind it was a perfect means of going around from place to place, especially when in the guise of a monk who often wore such hats. The kaginawa let a ninja not only climb but also tie people up and jam sliding doors, as well as other uses. The sekihitsu was used to make markings or take notes. The kusuri, or medicine, was called "worm-killer" since it was thought that worms caused stomach ailments. There is no verifiable specific formula, so it seems to be a combination of different medicines. The cloth could be used in a variety of situations, such as a makeshift rope or protection from the heat and cold. The uchitake, the fire-starting tool, was obviously useful in survival situations.

Because ninjas could be called upon to do a variety of dangerous tasks, they needed to know a wide swath of combat methods. According to Mercenaries, ninjas were trained from childhood in fighting with and without weapons. Physical training included running, swimming, unarmed combat, and riding. Ninjas also needed to be expert archers. They typically used smaller bows than their samurai counterparts. All of this training was similar to samurai training except ninjas were also trained to specialize in certain weapons that are forever associated with ninjahood — shurikens and katanas.

According to John O'Bryan's A History of Weapons, the shuriken means "sword hidden in the hand." These weapons were derived from various throwing weapons, with the most well-known being the hira, or throwing star. O'Bryan makes a point that these weapons were never meant to be kill weapons but only used as distractors. According to Blackbelt Magazine, ninjas would repeatedly throw shurikens at trees and other targets for practice until it became natural.

The primary weapon of the ninja was the katana. Ninjas wore the katana over their shoulder as opposed to their hip so it didn't get in the way while scaling walls. Ninjas also could use katanas to help climbing by inserting the sword tip into wall crevices.

As assassins, ninjas were required to be familiar with the use of poisons. According to Black Belt Magazine, ninjas used poisons that made their victims look like they died of natural causes. Ninja lore holds that there were a variety of poisoning methods. Some poisons were purported to be activated by sweat. A ninja could place the poison on a person's skin, and after a sweat broke out in the heat of battle the victim would drop dead. This fed the idea that the victim died of a secret strike. Other means of poisoning included affixing poison under the fingernails or on the fingernails. After a ninja raked a target, the poison would then activate. Ninja, the Invisible Assassins describes how ninjas used poison darts launched through blowguns, as well as pump-style water gun that sprayed blinding poison into a victim's eyes.

Whether some of these devices were outlandish fantasies of ninja ingenuity or truth is uncertain. However, it is clear that ninjas did use poisons in some form. However, the actual formulae for poisons were passed on orally. Just how effective they were is largely unknown since there is no statistical record showing "death by ninja-poisoning." Ninjutsu practitioners today have difficulty in practicing some of these more nefarious methods. Smithsonian Magazine reported of an older ninjutsu master who lamented, "We can't try out murder or poisons. Even if we can follow the instructions to make a poison, we can't try it out."

Ninjas above all must be flexible. One recent book, Ninja Attack!, states, as quoted by Wired, that ninjas would do "whatever it takes to get the job done." Ninjas were the equivalent of today's special forces. If ninjas were active today, it is unlikely that you'd see them walking around with traditional weapons like shurikens and more likely to see them using GPS and sniper rifles. Ninjas in their day used the latest weapons and equipment in medieval Japan. There is no reason to think that they would do otherwise today. Wired quotes that ninja "...techniques span a wide variety of disciplines, from natural sciences such as biology, chemistry and meteorology to psychology."

Based on this, martial arts like ninjutsu, which preserve traditional methods, remain firmly fixed in time. The art and science of the shinobi has moved on and is represented by elite military forces today such as the SEALS and Delta Force. Yet one cannot help but think that those black-hooded outfits are really cool.