Ninjas remain a popular element in movies, comic books, and computer games from medieval Japan, where Ninjitsu is still practiced.
Ninjas no longer exist. The ninja profession was suppressed in Japan following the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Moreover, the ninja clans gradually disappeared and abstained from teaching apprentices because the profession had become mostly obsolete. They did, however, leave a multitude of writings.
Employed since the 15th century CE, Ninjas (aka Shinobi), due to their long covert training at special schools and their mystical anonymity, gained an arguably overblown reputation for awesome feats and weapons-playing, making them ideal characters for many contemporary comic books and computer games.
Ninjas (aka Shinobi) were the specialist killers, subversives, and covert agents in the medieval Japanese wars, and were highly trained practitioners of the martial arts, particularly that which would later be known as ninjutsu, or ninja arts. Ninjas were the Japanese spies and mercenaries trained in the covert arts of ninjutsu, fulfilling a function of espionage and subterfuge.
Ninjas Became Obsolete Centuries Ago
To the best of my knowledge, the ninja’s final application of their practical roles as spies and subterfuge was during the 1638 rebellion of the Shimbara. Very few official documents exist that refer to the roles of certain well-known ninjas, adding to their mystique.
Many notable individuals from Japanese history are associated with, or identified with, the ninja, but it is hard to prove their ninja status, and it could be the product of later imagination. The four most popular names associated with being among modern-day Japanese ultimate ninjas are Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Seiko Fujita, Masaaki Hatsumi, and Jinichi Kawakami.
The ninja’s image has been greatly influenced by Japanese popular culture in our contemporary time, with a number of misconceptions and myths surrounding them. Yes, ninjas of pop culture are different than actual ninjas (and if you want to learn about actual ninjas, take a look at Alts book), but ninjas in popular culture are so vibrant and compelling, it is easy to understand why Japan has continued to adopt the mythos.
Japan is great at creating memorable characters; alongside Godzilla and Hello Kitty, ninjas are among the very best in Japan. Jinichi Kawakami, known as the last true Japanese ninja, bemoans how Ninja skills like disappearing into a puff of smoke or blade-throwing do not really serve any practical purpose in modern life.
Ninja Clans Are Mostly Extinct
As the 21st Head of the clan Ban, the clan of clandestine secret service agents who date their history to about 500 years ago, Jinichi Kawakami, an 63-year-old engineer, is the last remaining Japanese ninja.
I guess I am called the (last ninja) because probably there is not another one that has learned all of the skills directly handed down by the masters of ninjas for the past five centuries, he says. Jinichi Kawakami, a 63-year-old engineer, said he decided against taking an apprentice in order to carry on the tradition, making him the last of the clan’s ninja of the Ban.
This 63-year-old engineer Jinichi Kawakami says ninja arts are based on surprisability, never on brute strength or open-ended force, and are all about using weaknesses to evade larger, stronger opponents, all while diverting larger ones’ attention in order to gain an advantage. In an article for Raw Story, Jinichi Kawakami points out the skill-set that he has inherited is sometimes hard to confirm or decipher, as ninjas usually communicate their secret ways through word-of-mouth instead of written documents.
Despite learning all traditional ninja skills at a young age, Jinichi Kawakami has trained as an engineer and worked in the business for years. Kawakami was named as shinobi for the Koga–one of the few clans of ninja known enough to make brief appearances on several official records–when he was six years old.
The Original Purpose of the Ninjas
Ninjutsu was then refined by groups of samurai mostly from Koka and the Iga provinces of feudal Japan (modern-day Mie and Shiga), and the ninja gained a peerless reputation for effectiveness as scouts, spies, secret agents, and killers, such that, by the mid-11th century, the word ninja was feared by anyone who heard it.
The ninja–as a trained force within a structured system–is agreed by most historians to have originated during the 15th century, in the Sengoku (a.k.a. It seems more probable that the ninja gradually evolved into a counterforce against their higher-class contemporaries, the samurai, of early feudal Japan.
Sometimes, you even hear the ninjas formed a hereditary class or caste, similar to that of the samurai. Ninjas of those two clans were clearly distinguished from commoners, or from the samurai who were hired to be spies. A distinction must be made between the ninjas of these regions and the commoners or samurai hired as spies or mercenaries.
How Ninjas Operated in the Beginning
The ninjas operated under secret methods of espionage and engaged in irregular warfare, which was considered disgraceful by the samurai. As the public constantly sought more information on the ninjas, ninjas were forced to come to the forefront. Now, with their secrets becoming public knowledge, ninjas find themselves with no shadows in which to hide.
While pieces of light armor purportedly worn by ninjas do exist, dating from a suitable period, no conclusive proof exists for their use in ninja operations. Yes, some ninjas did indeed carry swords, which were made in their home villages, but the notion that every ninja carried the standard assortment of weapons (shurikens and swords) and wore the same garb (black pajamas) is, as Alt says, ridiculous.
While it is common to see ninjas throwing a shuriken at an adversary, Genichi Kawakami insisted ninjas only give up those weapons if there was an urgent need. Jinichi Kawakami states ninjas cannot adapt to modern life, citing that poisons and other weapons are no longer usable in the modern world. When Jinichi Kawakami and the last of the real Ninjas pass away, a number of well-known ninjas will continue to live on in an hour-long exhibition of ninja tricks in Iga Museum, and via fictional characters in cartoons, movies, and computer games.