Despite the thousand-year history of the settlement of the Japanese islands, the unification of people into tribes there took place only in the second century BC. To protect the population during the civil war, a clan of shoguns was historically formed, the official mention of the "conquering barbarians" generals appeared in the 11th century AD. In the endless feudal skirmishes, the Japanese shoguns could rely on more than just regular troops. Their assistants were ninja - spies and saboteurs who stand apart in Japanese history.
The path of the invisible
Actually, the word "ninja" itself appeared in Japanese only at the beginning of the 20th century. This is how the Chinese read Japanese hieroglyphs, which in the original sound like "shinobi no mono". They literally mean "hiding" or "creeping" - this is how spies have been called in Japan since the XIV century. The first mentions of ninjas date back to the X century, and their heyday falls on the XV-XVII centuries. What did the mysterious "creepers" do?
A description of their functions is given by a medieval work on samurai clans: “Their service is to secretly infiltrate foreign provinces and find out the state of affairs in the enemy camp or, mixing with the enemy, to find out his weaknesses. They start up fire and kill people for a fee … There are no such tasks that would not be entrusted to them."
The social role of the unusual shinobi in the highly regulated Japanese society was truly unique. A samurai, a Buddhist warrior monk sohei, a mountain hermit, or a robber or a thief could have taken the path of the "warrior of the shadow". They were united only by a specific occupation (espionage, undercover work, sabotage activities) and excellent possession of the skills necessary for these occupations. Many ninja clans were scattered throughout Japan (there were about 70 of them by the 17th century), but the Iga and Koka clans were considered the most authoritative, which formed their own schools of training for future "shadow warriors" in the 15th-17th centuries. What did the mysterious "creepers" do? The secrets of ninjutsu were passed down in scrolls from master to student. If the master did not find a worthy heir, he simply destroyed the scroll. That is why almost no written sources have survived to this day about the life and training of the "stealing".
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Experts in a thousand sciences
Every child born in the Shinobi clan received "vocational training" from birth. The cradle with a tiny baby was rocked with all its might so that it hit the wall and the future ninja learned to unconsciously group when hit. Barely an unusual child grew up a little, they put him on the ground and rolled heavy wooden balls on him: the child had to either evade the threat, or learn to put blocks with his hands and feet. From half-naked, the kids began to learn to swim, and, not yet being able to walk, they already perfectly kept on the water and dived.
Climbing trees and various jumps up and down the branches were another obligatory part of the preparation. Doing this from early childhood, subsequently the shinobi easily climbed steep walls, and also made jumps from a height of up to ten meters. The endurance and strength of the hands was developed with the simplest exercise: children were forced to cling to a thick branch of a tree and hang on it for some time, from several minutes to many hours. This training later allowed the scout to hang as much as he wanted on the outer wall of the castle, waiting for the right moment to get inside.
The ability to run quickly and over long distances was equally important. For any child over seven years old, it was normal to run 10-12 kilometers, and an adult ninja, if necessary, easily made a march up to 100 kilometers per day. The indicator of speed during training was a straw hat pressed to the runner's chest at the start. Until the end of the "race" it had to be held in this position by only one oncoming air flow.
Along with other training, the ninja diligently perfected the ability to control their bodies. As a result, they achieved, for example, the ability to freely stretch their joints, which made it possible to free themselves from any fetters, penetrate into any narrowest opening and accommodate the body in small spaces if it was necessary to hide from pursuit.
The most secret of the ninjutsu sciences is the art of delayed death. It was enough for Shinobi to lightly touch a certain point on a person's body, so that after a while he suddenly died. The lethal effect was achieved in this case by the release of energy to a certain point on the enemy's body, which disrupted the biological processes of his body and led to death.
On the enemy not with a bare heel
In the arsenal of ninjas, in addition to their own talents, there were thousands of unusual devices for all cases of espionage life: from weapons to explosives, from costumes for transformation to poisons and antidotes. Shinobi were also trained in weapons from early childhood. By the 15th anniversary, which was considered the beginning of adulthood for them, everyone had to master at least 20 types of weapons well. and three of them are to be mastered perfectly.
The Prowlers rarely invented new weapons - they preferred to use whatever was at hand. For example, using a tool similar to a shuriken (throwing melee weapon), they pulled nails out of wood, and therefore many ninja successfully pretended to be carpenters. Shurikens were appreciated for their small size and ease of use - even a child could throw such a weapon. In addition, some of them had a psychological effect, emitting a characteristic whistle in flight.
Shuko claws were wooden plates with metal spikes, originally used to move on ice. The ninja attached them to their arms as aids for climbing trees. Shuko also had combat functions - to reflect a glancing blow of a sword or to scratch an enemy (for this purpose, the claws were smeared with paralyzing poison).
If necessary, the shinobi actively used a variety of incendiary mixtures, explosives and firearms. And of course, they all studied "martial arts": fencing with a sword, spear and pole, various types of wrestling without weapons.
The famous story of the killing of daimyo Uesugi Kenshin is a perfect illustration of what trained shinobi were capable of. Once his political rival named Oda. Nobunaga sent a ninja assassin to him, but he could not fulfill his mission and was killed by the prince's servants. After an unsuccessful assassination attempt, the guards blocked all approaches to Uesugi Castle, except for the sewer. The younger brother of the slain spy took advantage of this to complete the task entrusted to the clan. The ninja successfully passed the narrow sewers and entered the restroom in the inner chambers of the feudal lord. And when he visited the latrine and sat down to relieve himself, the shinobi was already waiting for him there, standing up to his neck you know what. He pierced Uesugi with a spear from below and sank to the bottom, breathing through the tube. No one dived into the lavatory in search of the killer, and after waiting a while,he left the castle the way he entered it.
Deadly flowers
In those cases where men could not cope with espionage operations, “deadly flowers” of kunoichi - women from the Shinobi clans - appeared on the scene. To achieve their goals, the kunoichi used their own weapons: artistry, knowledge of psychology and female intuition. The main thing in their training was the ability to skillfully manipulate men, turning their weaknesses to their advantage. Often a potential victim was simply seduced for further information or murder. Therefore, the best disguises for kunoichi were the profession of a geisha, prostitute or masseuse. The girls were taught genius, dancing, playing musical instruments, and the tea ceremony. Each of them knew how to achieve maximum attractiveness for a man and turn him into her slave.
True, the kunoichi owned weapons no worse, but it was purely female. The sophisticated outfits of the seducers hid the supply of shurikens, the lush hairstyles concealed their favorite weapon - the sharpened kanzashi hairpins. Sometimes kanzashi were smeared with poison, so that even a small scratch from them would become fatal. A harmless lady's fan of kunoichi also contained a surprise: a poisonous powder was poured between the double paper walls, which at the right time the girls sprayed towards the victim. The one who was supposed to be killed by the kunoichi, sometimes accepted death from an ordinary sheet of paper, which cut his throat no worse than a sharp knife. Even the kiss of the beauty was fraught with danger: if the man had to be killed, the girl tore out his tongue with her teeth, and after a few seconds the painful shock and blood loss cut off the life of the pre-planned victim.
Ninja in the modern world
The last time an attempt to use ninjutsu skills was made was in the 20th century. Japanese archives contain documents about the Rikigun Nakano Gakko, a secret school for training military intelligence officers during World War II. Some of the subjects in the school's schedule were sabotage and combat skills from the use of shinobi. In the period from 1940 to 1945, about 2300 people graduated from the espionage school. However, no evidence of their further activity was found.
Surprisingly, today ninjas and their professional art have been studied very little in the West. Just half a century ago, in 1964, the first article devoted to the "warriors of the shadow" appeared in the American press. One short article was enough to start a ninja boom in the United States. The pictorial image of the "prowling" sold well, and the increased demand instantly gave birth to a vast supply. The film industry made films about ninjas, adventure novels and comics were written about them, shops were filled with their unusual uniforms and equipment, and video salons were filled with workshops on their military equipment.
However, no matter how great the interest in ninja of ordinary people was, among scientists the situation is completely different. Almost everything that is published about them outside of Japan is popular writing not supported by reliable sources. The history of spy clans, mysterious assassins, secret treatises is still waiting for its Western explorer.