Ninjutsu
Ninjutsuis the Japanese martial art of espionage, called in English the
“techniques of stealth” or the “arts of invisibility.” Practitioners were
trained to sneak into enemy territory to learn and report on troops, arms,
provisions, and fortifications. The techniques developed further to include
active attempts to alter the course of battles, such as arson, assassination,
intercepting and/or destroying arms and supplies, and the like. Practition-
ers were commonly known as ninja,but there were numerous alternative
terms: shinobi(spy), onmitsu(secret agent), rappa (wild wave),suppa
(transparent wave), toppa(attacking wave), kasa(grass),monomi(seer of
things), and nokizaru(monkey under the eaves).
Although earlier Japanese chronicles suggest ninjalike activities, nin-
jutsu developed primarily during the Sengoku period (late fifteenth to six-
teenth centuries) when warfare was endemic. Ninjutsu became organized
into schools (ryûha) and its techniques systematized. According to Fujita
Seiko, there were seventy-one different ryûha, but the three most well
known were the Iga-ryû, Kôga-ryû, and Kishû-ryû, others being derivative
of these.
In Tokugawa times (1600–1867), during two centuries of peace, nin-
jutsu lost most of its practical value, although some ninja were employed
by the Tokugawa bakufufor surveillance and police purposes. The practice
of ninjutsu was transformed into one form of martial arts. Due to the se-
crecy associated with their activities, ninja were often perceived as myste-
rious and elusive. During the Tokugawa period, after they had virtually
passed from the scene, ninja were being portrayed as supermen in drama,
art, and literature. Their reputed ability to disappear at will, or leap over
walls, or sneak undetected into a castle captured the imagination of people.
That image remains strong today. Ninja were already popular in the
era before World War II, in fiction and in the films of such directors as
Makino Shôzô. Then, during the 1960s, the Daiei Series of Shinobi no
mono(Ninja; Band of Assassins) films, starring Ichikawa Raizô, ignited a
355