trying to pierce the gloom, for the feeling of tension and uneasiness seems to be produced by your awareness of something—or somebody—lurking down there.
Your warrior-trained nerves are as tight as a drawn bowstring, and you try desperately to catch the slightest suggestion of unusual movement or sound. There is nothing to be seen or heard, yet the feeling of very tense uneasiness continues, and begins to grow.
You walk along the rampart to a new position, hoping to lose the strange emotion that accompanies you in the lonely night. Then suddenly it tells you the most shameful thing a warrior can learn about himself. You are afraid! Your tenseness, your uneasiness, they are but manifestations of fear— pure and simple fear. For the first time in your life you are afraid!
Your mind flashes back to the many times in the past when you faced an enemy. Why were those times so different from now? Facing an enemy who can be seen, his next action anticipated, and your trained reflexes triggered into an appropriate response by his slightest suki (opening), is one thing. But here tonight there is no visible enemy, and that is an entirely different matter.
Now it is suddenly clear to you—the reason for your fear— your shameful fear. Tonight the fierce commandant of the guard, whom it is said will someday be replaced by you, a brave and loyal warrior, had warned all sentries about the increased activities of the dreaded masters of the art of invisibility—the ninja, as these spies and assassins were called—who were operating in the hire of your lord's most hated enemy.
All sentries had been cautioned to be especially watchful so that these infiltrators could not bring their unseen and unheard methods of death down upon anyone in the castle.
To the very best of your memory you cannot recall ever having seen a ninja—very few people ever had—but you know that they exist. Just last winter you participated in special training exercises designed to cope with these insidious killers, who had made their martial art of shinobi or ninjutsu, as it was more popularly called, the most dreaded skill a man could possess.
Ninjutsu encompassed a variety of specialized fighting and espionage skills that made the ninja one of the world's deadliest agents of death and destruction. Indeed, you recall hearing of the clever and terrifying exploits of famous ninja ever since you were a young boy.
How well you remember the look of terror on the faces of those persons relating the stories. They told of having seen ninja walk across the surface of water, of them remaining under water for a full day without surfacing, and of how they could walk and run with such stealth that they could approach people without being detected.
Ninja were also reported to have scaled walls that defied ordinary human endeavor. And they could run faster and farther, as well as leap higher, than any normal human being could. It was said that a ninja could even disappear before the very eyes of a pursuer, should he choose to do so. All of these things and many more, even more sensational, were said to be within the capabilities of a ninja.
The townsfolk always made the ninja out as supernatural beings. To a warrior, however, they were flesh and blood, and you never really believed all that you had heard about them— or if you did, you felt sure that your sword would show the ninja to be less supernatural than told.
Fear? What was fear but a foolish state of ignorance about something, and the blind acceptance of ignorance was a replacement for reason. But why had this feeling of fear suddenly enveloped you this night? Was it really your ignorance about the ninja that fed the fear?
Here in the darkness of the night, your tour of duty only beginning, you would have ample time to go over what you knew about the ninja and find some explanation to prove to yourself that they were no more than human beings.
Yes! That was the way to rid yourself of this shameful fear that now embarrassed you. Already your confidence is returning...
CHAPTER 1
History and Organization
Some of the basic ideas behind the development of ninjutsu came to Japan from China, but like much else in Japanese culture which stems from foreign sources of influence, ninjutsu quickly became Japanized. In Chinese military classics such as the Sonshi (Sun-Tzu in Chinese) can be found descriptions of methods of espionage. The Sun-Tzu was known in Japan as early as the sixth century A.D.
In the seventh century a considerable number of persons wanted for various reasons by the Imperial Court had taken refuge in the mountainous wilds near Kyoto. They were greatly outnumbered by the government warriors sent out to disperse them, and therefore it became necessary for them to develop clever tactics and strategy to guarantee their survival.
The yamabushi (mountain ascetics) were one such group that had invoked the wrath of the aristocratic court by founding a religion the court believed to be contrary to its best interests.
Prince Regent Shotoku, serving his country in the early years of the seventh century, proved to be a wise and benevolent ruler. But he is generally regarded as the first Japanese ruler to use spies. He used them to determine the facts in civil cases and to improve his means for judgment in deciding these cases. He also used them to investigate and gather intelligence about a particular enemy or potential enemies, to harass them, and to dilute their military prowess.
Ninja masters were believed to be able to fly on eagles, as depicted here. Ninja did use giant kites to fly over enemy positions.
By the time of the rise to power of the professional Samurai warrior class and the Shogunate form of government in the 12th century, all successful military commanders employed specialists in ninjutsu. They had also made the Sonshi (the Chinese military classic) their standard text.
THE NINJA FAMILIES
Ninja were born and trained in families devoted to the study and practice of ninjutsu as their profession. Each ninja family was dedicated to a specific tradition (ryu) that characterized its particular brand of espionage and assassination methods. Some seventy different ninjutsu traditions were developed, the most famous of which were those of Iga and Koga provinces on the main island of Honshu.
The ninja clans were found scattered throughout the country, however, their distribution in part due to the fractionization of the older and more organized traditions.
Because individual ninja became attached to and supported different political causes it was possible for father to operate against son, and brother against brother, each in the hire of some very influential land baron who required the services of military spies. But no one ninjutsu organization ever became powerful enough to withstand the onslaught of the combined forces of the Shogun's government.
Secrecy was the foundation upon which all successful ninja depended. Rigid security measures began at the very root of all ninja organizations, that is, within the head family in charge of each particular tradition of ninjutsu. Ninja, when not actually dispatched on missions, resided at base training camps, the locations of which were secret to all but those who belonged to the tradition. A ninja base training camp was always located in a remote mountainous area, in some of the most inaccessible places imaginable.
In order that secrecy surrounding their tradition could be maintained, each tradition established three classes of ninja. At the top level stood the jonin, a high-ranked administrator or boss. He was assisted by the chunin, a small group of middle-ranking ninja whose duties included that of being go-betweens or connecting links between the jonin and the lowest level of ninja, the genin.
It
