Shinobi 忍者

This is most peoples' idea of a ninja. A man dressed in black, scaling castle walls, silent as the night.

And they are partly right. This image is proably closer to what a real ninja looked like.

Many Ninja or Shinobi as they are properly called belonged to the lower classes and were despised by the samurai nobles for their low birth and secretive and underhanded methods.

ORIGINS

Many of the shinobi originated in the Iga and Koga areas of central Japan. Shinobi really got their start during the Sengoku Jidai—or Warring States Era. This was a time of great civil war in Japan and the spying skills that the shinobi brought to the various factions was often exploited. It should be noted that there were two kinds of shinobi—the experts who trained and passed their skill on to their descendants like those of Iga and Koga, and the ones who were little more than brigands or ordinary samurai who were hired for temporary secret operations.

The famous Iga and Koga shinobi were active between 1485-1581. They were hired by rival lords or daimyo for spying operations and assignations. Oda Nobunaga attacked them in 1581 and the survivors scattered into other provinces, including Mikawa where they found refuge with Nobunaga’s enemy, Ieyasu Tokugawa. Tokugawa became the shogun in 1603 and the Iga and Koga shinobi fell under the auspices of the new shogunate.

TRAINING

A boy of a noble samurai family will begin training early in his childhood to be a warrior. They learn to ride, swim, use a sword, spear, and bow. Before the closing of Japan in the early 1600’s, they learned to use a gun as well. A child born into a shinobi tribe, boy or girl also began martial arts training. Besides learning the same skills as a samurai child, they also learn to make explosives, blend poisons, and fieldcraft and survival techniques. They may also need to learn to read, write, and pull off a convincing disguise or alternate personality.

NEXT: THE DAILY LIFE OF A NINJA