DAILY LIFE OF NINJAS

The two most famous locations for shinobi were Iga and Koga regions of central Japan. The two provinces shared a common border and they prospered until Oda Nobunaga’s attack in 1581. But what about the daily grind for a shinobi you might ask? What was a typical day like—get up, sharpen your throwing stars, kiss the wife and kids, assassinate a few people and come home to a hot meal? Well, no not quite.

THE NINJA VILLAGE

The average shinobi village had a ridged hierarchical structure. At the top were the Jounin, who depending on their wealth could live like a minor daimyo or an upper-class village headman. Some of the most famous jounin were Hattori Hanzo, said to be one of the handsomest men of his day, Momochi Sandayu, and Fujibayshi Nagato no kami, who some suspect to be Sandayu.

Either way, these were the big guys, who sent other people out on assignments. The next rung on the shinobi social ladder were the chunin, who were the executive officers and leaders. They were also in charge of hiring mercenary shinobi for temporary duty assignments. On the final rung were the genin, not to be confused with gaijin. The first one is your work-a-day shinobi, and the other is a foreigner.

The houses that the shinobi lived in were small, typical Japanese style houses. The shinobi jounin’s house may have had special “ninja upgrades” to make it difficult to attack him in his home, such as “disappearing” staircases and secret room with double entrances. One leads to the stairs, the other to a horrible death on spikes embedded into the floor.

The children went through the rigorous training I mention in the last ninja post, but they also had to farm to feed the village, care for life stock and the other daily activities of a typical Japanese village.



NEXT: NINJAS IN POPULAR CULTURE or YOU CAN’T SEE ME, I’M A NINJA!