warriors, as well as other rogues, thieves, warlords, and samurai. When you run with company like this, you’ll need to keep your wits about you and keep an open mind. This book may not teach you how to sprint along a rooftop in your pajamas, pluck arrows out of air in midflight, or walk on water, but then again, true power comes in the form of knowledge. Use it wisely . . . because the ninja are about to attack!
Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt
Tokyo 2012
ABOUT THIS BOOK
We have arranged this new edition of the book chronologically, the better to see the ebb and flow of ninja history. Each profile is also tagged with a heading to help you understand just who you’re dealing with.
“Ninja’s Ninja” are the shadow warriors other shadow warriors looked up to. They are among the very few names known from the hundreds and even thousands of ninja that operated over the last millennium.
“Ninja Gone Bad” are exactly what the name implies: ninja who used their skills for personal gain rather than in the service of a client or master. As you will learn, however, quite often the distinction was a hazy one.
“Ninja Magic” covers so-called mystical ninja, masters of magic and illusion who harnessed sleight of hand and other tricks to confuse or dazzle their opponents.
“Ninja Rivals” weren’t ninja at all, but many operated in and around the same times as the ninja did, and very likely crossed paths with them. More than a few had a direct influence on the ninja themselves.
“Ninja Masters” are military leaders who relied on the skills of the ninja, in one way or another, for you can’t understand the ninja unless you understand the individuals who employed them. Which brings us to . . .
“The Ninja Destroyer.” A category of one, the savage Oda Nobunaga, who crushed the ninja clans in the late sixteenth century.
Last but certainly not least, The Illustrated Ninja sections are a handy guide to the tools and tactics that made a ninja a ninja. Intended as a counterpoint to the portraits painted by the individual dossiers, these pages provide a “macro” view of the ninja life: maps; timelines; details about ninja dress, weapons, and techniques; a walk through a stereotypical ninja house; and even a ninja-related tour of modern-day Tokyo. Stay alert—you’ll encounter these entries lying in wait here and there as you proceed through the book.
MILESTONES
A rough guide to Ninja history
The Ninja Nation
This map portrays many of the events described in the pages of this book, from En no Ozunu’s travels in times of antiquity all the way through American warships arriving in Edo harbor in 1853. This covers a massive swath of history, and therefore it is intended as a stylized composite rather than to represent any one moment in time. It is not only out of proportion to what we know to be Japan today, but sharp-eyed readers will notice that the illustration omits the island of Hokkaido and the archipelago of Okinawa. This is because it is based on a centuries-old chart created in an era before these territories were officially incorporated into the nation.
NINJA
(Plural: “ninja.” No “s,” please.)
The colloquial name for groups and individuals who carried out intelligence-gathering, assassinations, and other espionage-related work for Japanese warlords, mainly between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries, with their peak being in the mid-to-late sixteenth century. In Japanese, the word is written with the kanji characters nin 忍, meaning “clandestine,” and ja 者, meaning “person.” The use of the term “ninja” to refer to these individuals is relatively recent; historically, they were more commonly called by a wide variety of regional colloquialisms including (but by no means limited to):
Hayamichi no mono (The Short-cutters)
Iga-mono (One from Iga)
Kamari (Those Who Hide)
Koga-mono (One from Koga)
Kusa (The Grasses)
Ninjutsu-tsukai (A practitioner of ninjutsu)
Nokizaru (Roof-monkeys)
Onmitsu (The secret service)
Rappa (in the Kanto region)
Shinobi
Shinobi no mono
Suppa (in the Kai region)
Ukami (The Silent Watchers)
Yama-kuguri (“Mountain-runners”)
NOTE: Although the kanji characters are identical, the name of the region that the Koga ninja hail from is actually pronounced “Koka.” For ease of understanding, we use Koga to refer to both throughout the book.
NINJA ANCESTORS (~1500)
Name
The Ninja “Family tree” begins here.
PRINCE SHOTOKU
NINJA
