Are You a Ninja?

Ninja don't believe in the Periodic Table, they only recognize the element of surprise.

"Hey! Hey!  Are you a ninja yet!?"

I stopped, with a bit of an internal sigh, knowing before I even looked the kind of person I would find when I turned to greet the person shouting.  I was strolling across the parking lot into the To Shin Do school I'm currently attending, already wearing my gi.  Signs in front of the school and posters in the window proclaim the school as the place to learn "Authentic Ninja Arts" and things of that nature, accompanied by the ubiquitous images of samurai and ninja in dramatic poses.  The heckler had most likely drawn upon his stunning powers of deduction and figured out that was where I was headed.

Turning to look at him I found exactly what I expected.  Seated in his car, windows down, was a twenty-something fellow who wouldn't have looked out of place at a frat party doing something grossly irresponsible.  Next to him sat a young lady, visibly trying to restrain herself from smirking at her companions obvious excess of wit.

"How much longer until you're a real ninja?" the heckler asked again from his car.

Now, there were several ways I could have handled this.  The obvious being to tell the guy off, or to lose my temper, although that would have not only been severely out of character

for me as a person, but also out of character as a martial artist. Another option would have been to just ignore him and head on into the school as though I hadn't even heard him.  However, I've always felt that when it comes to people who are heckling or making fun of another person, be it for personal insecurity reasons, subconscious dominance issues or just the need to impress a companion, just ignoring them can empower them as much as lashing out or becoming argumentative.

Instead, I replied to his question.

"I'm never going to be a ninja," I told him, "because there's no such thing as ninja anymore."

"But you're going to ninja school!" he argued, smirk still firmly in place, "don't they teach you to be a ninja?"

"If a person studies archery does that mean they're going to be William Tell, or Robin Hood?  If they study fencing, does that make them Zorro or a Musketeer?  If I study Krav Maga does that automatically enroll me in the Israeli Defense Forces?"

"Um....  no..." his smirk faltering as much as his voice when he answered.

"On top of that," I continued, "ninja were just spies, and since I have no plans on infiltrating military bases or stealing goverment secrets after class tonight, I'm pretty sure I don't qualify as a ninja.  Seeing as how there aren't any feudal lords left either, I'm fairly sure that no one is a ninja, and that ninja don't exist any more than knights do.  Learning to joust or swordfight wouldn't make you a Knight of the Round Table, and learning the fighting systems of the ninja doesn't make you one."

While I would have been happy to continue the discussion, his only response was to plant a finger firmly on the window button of his car and, with the soft whump of the rolled up windows sealing with the car door, I got the impression that the conversation was over.  By the look on the gentleman's face, I got the hint that I am apparently a tremendous killjoy.

This highlights a general problem though, especially prevalent I think around ninjutsu schools, but also found around other martial arts.  It's a general issue of ignorance combining with a wide proliferation of disinformation regarding many martial arts.  I think it is most prevalent surrounding ninjutsu largely because ninjutsu seems to be the art with the most disinformation surrounding it.  For that reason, ninjutsu is the art I'm going to focus on here.

Now, to start off, I want to make it clear that Martial University holds all martial arts as created equal.  We don't think any one art is best, and we will neither denigrate nor praise any art more or less than any other art.  It should be noted that this standard may not apply to individuals or "arts" that have a significant body of evidence about them suggesting them to be fraudulent (Ashida Kim comes to mind).  That being said, anyone who genuinely has their students' best interest in mind will be treated as fairly as possible.

So what is it about ninjutsu in general that tends to get people into either heckling, or arguing?  A brief perusal of other martial arts sites and forums will show that it's not just the general public but also martial artists themselves who get drawn into the arguing or the insulting when it comes to ninjutsu, and that's not even counting the Bujinkan vs. To Shin Do vs. [insert ninjutsu school here] arguments.

A common argument for why there is such a general negative impression toward ninjutsu is that it is used too commonly in advertising as a gimmick, either by legitimate schools or by unqualified scam artists.  You see it everywhere, "Learn to be a ninja!"  "Learn deadly ninja fighting secrets!" even the school I attend has signs out front advertising lessons in "authentic ninjutsu."

Is that really such a problem though?  Personally, I see nothing wrong with schools that genuinely teach ninjutsu (or more accurately, budo taijutsu) to advertise what it is they teach.  I'm certainly personally against the use of things like that in advertising scams, however that will always be a problem.  Anyone who was around in the 70s may remember the explosion of advertisements kung fu stars like Bruce Lee spawned.  Everywhere you looked you saw things like "Learn the Chinese Death Touch Secrets for only $9.99" or "Become a Shaolin Master in 5 Easy Lessons! Order Now!"  As kung fu passed the torch to ninjutsu in the early 90s, the scam artists followed.  Judging by what seems most popular now, I would wager before long we'll be seeing things like "Secrets of MMA Masters DVD set! Only 3 payments of $29.99!" and things of that nature.  Legitimate schools have every right to advertise in any way that most benefits them.  People have to remember that running a martial arts school is still a business.

The real problem, in my opinion, is the huge disparity in the historical fact of ninja and the popular conception of ninja.  The popular conception of the ninja, wearing that iconic black uniform, scaling stone walls with grappling hooks to assassinate some unsuspecting Daimyo with a poison dart or some expert swordsmanship, and then disappearing in the flash of a smokebomb plucked from his Batman-esque utility belt is pretty much entirely myth.  Could that have happened at some point?  More or less I must admit I cannot deny that it's plausible, but you have to think about what the ninja really were historically.  Hopefully, this will ehlp clear up some ninja misinformation.

Ninja were essentially the CIA agents of feudal Japan.  It was their job to gather intelligence, steal important tactical items when necessary and yes, on occasion, perform an assassination.  Now, comparing the contemporary popular image of ninja with their historical counterparts is not unlike comparing James Bond to a real life MI5 operative, or a CIA agent.  No one seriously believes that a CIA agent, dressed in a dashing suit, is going to slip through some air ducts into the secret lair of a catchy named terrorist organization and then, with a great blazing of gunfire proceed to single-handedly fend off legions of terrorists/henchman (oftentimes more heavily armed), foil their terrible plot, destroy the entire base and then escape unscathed to enjoy a nice martini.  So why do they seem to believe ninja did essentially the same thing in ancient Japan?

First of all, except in very special instances, a ninja would have never worn that iconic black outfit and mask everyone is so used to seeing.  For certain missions it may have been practical, but it's unlikely.  Think about it, if you need to get into a castle unnoticed, which is more practical: dressing in your snazzy black stealth suit and scaling a guarded wall in the dead of night, or strolling through the open front gate in broad daylight looking just like one of the hundreds of farmers, merchants or landowners going about their daily routine.  Why go through all the trouble of a nighttime infiltration, trying your best to stay invisible, when dressing like an old beggar and walking with a limp will make everyone ignore you entirely?

Secondly, there are tons of rumors circulating around about the use of swords among ninja, and their particular design.  A common one is the notion that the swords ninjas used, frequently called ninja-tou (忍者刀) or ninja-ken (忍者剣), were specially made straight swords with a uniformly square tsuba.  The explanation I frequently hear for why they used swords so different from katana, wakizashi or other common swords was that ninja were often too poor to afford the kinds of swords used by upper-class samurai.  Having little money, the ninja had to settle for cheaper swords that didn't have the standard curve found in the blades of most Japanese swords.

It is true that samurai were often relatively wealthy land owners who had pledged themselves to a particular lord and were not regular, conscripted military.  Oftentimes, they were solely responsible for procuring their own weapons and armor, much in the same way that European knights were.  However, this was not necessarily the case with ninja.  While there may have been independently contracted or 'mercenary' ninja (something that is historically debatable) a majority were directly part of a feudal lord's military in the way that intelligence agents are today.  No feudal lord would have sent a ninja out to gather intelligence or to carry out an assassination without offering them as much equipment as was necessary for completion of that mission.  It would make no sense to send an individual out on an extremely vital operation, but tell them if they needed supplies they had to pay for them out of pocket.

Another common argument is that only samurai were allowed to carry swords, so the ninja couldn't buy a normal sword and had to have swords made in secret or make them themselves, hence the different shape.  While it is true that samurai were the only ones legally allowed to carry both a full length katana and a wakizashi together, commoners (chounin) were legally allowed to carry wakizashi nearly as long as a full length katana.  That suggests that there would be no reason to use a straight sword like the one which has become the modern idea of what a ninja sword looked like.  In fact, and if you can prove me wrong here I'm happy to hear it, in all of my research I cannot find a single historical source suggesting that ninja would have used a sword of that type.

More likely than not, were a ninja to use a sword, it would have been something more similar to a wakizashi.  Katana, being more suited to battlefield combat, could potentially be extremely cumbersome when engaging in close-quarter combat indoors.  Additionally, a weapon that large would be ill-fitted to intelligence, assassination and infiltration missions.  Would you ever expect to see a CIA agent with an M16?  Likely not.  A more plausible alternative, put forth by Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, head of the Bujinkan, is that the most commonly used ninja sword was a wakizashi with a katana-length handle worn in a katana-length saya.  This would decieve individuals into thinking that the sword was a katana, and they would expect the draw of the sword to be slower.

I think this is plausible, however if the ninja were attempting to enter somewhere unnoticed, it would be significantly more likely they would assume a disguise rather than don that black uniform we all know so well.  In disguise, it would be extremely unlikely for them to use a katana length saya, or pretend they were wearing a katana as, as referenced above, chounin were restricted to wearing (albeit sometimes rather long) wakizashi.  In cases such as that, which likely were a majority of operations, a wakizashi saya would be more practical.

Another common idea seems to be that the ninja and the samurai were somehow natural enemies.  The samurai with their noble budou code and the ninja with their shady, surreptitious assassinations must have always been at odds, right?  Historically speaking, probably not.  In fact, the likelihood of a ninja ever fighting a fully armored samurai were fairly low.  Samurai were, first and foremost, battle troops.  Ninja on the other hand, unless serving an additional duty, would never be found on the battlefield.  The same is true today, would you send a CIA agent out to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with a squad of Marines?  The two are suited to very different purposes.  Just as a ninja would almost never be found on a battlefield, a samurai would never be found in full dress as a standing guard.  If discovered, a ninja would have faced the general troops (ashigaru).  The one potential exception would be if a ninja was tasked with the assassination of a particular samurai, however it would likely be carried out at a time when the samurai was not in full armor.

This is reflected in the self-defense systems taught at schools such as the one I am currently attending.  While both a modern interpretation intended for practical self-defense purposes as well as a classical version are taught, both have a focus on incapacitation and escape.  This is congruent with the historical functions of ninja, in that escape is more important once intelligence has been gathered than a pitched battle, especially considering an intelligence agent is often outnumbered.  Some of the ninjutsu arts are geared toward battlefield combat, however this is primarily due to the fact that many ninjutsu arts are an amalgamation of several different historical schools coming from various backgrounds, some of them being samurai schools which would lean more heavily to pitched warfare.

I'd also like to address the name, "ninjutsu".  The "jutsu" (術) in there roughly means "technique, skill or methods."  This would ostensibly include all the methods employed by the ninja for their various tasks, including things like infiltration, proper use of disguises, acting, bomb making, interrogation etc.  Now, although I have heard some rumors of higher ranking individuals in the Bujinkan being taught those skills, I highly doubt the average school is going to be teaching you the finer points of high explosive fabrication.  More likely than not, what they are teaching is a form of taijutsu (体術) which translates, more or less, as "body art, technique, skill or method."  This is as general a term as it sounds, and in Japan is often used to refer to gymnastics as well as various martial arts.

The school may also teach some related jutsu or sub-jutsu (my own word there for lack of a better one) which incorporate weapons, such as kenjutsu or naginatajutsu, or further specify an area of focus, such as koppojutsu or taihenjutsu.  So why, if a vast majority of schools are teaching essentially only the taijutsu aspect of ninjutsu and not things like hensoujutsu, kayakujutsu or itonjutsu, do they advertise as teaching "authentic ninjutsu"?

This comes back to the business aspect.  A majority of students at martial arts schools are (and have been ever since the first Karate Kid movie came out) either younger kids, or the parents of younger kids.  This isn't to say that they don't take martial arts as seriously as anyone else, nor that there is anything wrong with those demographics being the primary makeup of most schools.  However, that fact is important when developing school image and deciding how you're going to market your school.

Which is more likely, pragmatically speaking, to get a kid or a parent excited about, or interested in joining your school - a long discussion on the forms of taijutsu, koppojutsu, kenjutsu and yarijutsu you teach and the difference between the classical forms and the modern self-defense forms, or by saying you teach classical ninjutsu and modern self-defense based on authentic ninjutsu.  You definitely get a better response form most kids saying "I'm going to teach you to fight like a ninja," than you do saying "I'm going to tech you taijutsu."

In the grand scheme of things, this is fine.  While I think it has the potential to attract the wrong kind of students, in my experience those students never last.  Most of the time, individuals who come who want to be Naruto, or live out their ninja fantasies just don't last very long in an actual school.  This is the same across all martial arts, whether the person wants to be Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or the next Daniel-san, once they realize it actually requires all that hard work and dedication stuff they either shape up or drop out and go back to pretending.

Lastly, I would like to at least put forth my personal vote of confidence that To Shin Do and Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu (at least that which is taught at the school I attend) can be used to defend oneself.  This is hardly the first art I have studied (Jeet Kune Do under Inosanto being my first) and will certainly not be my last, and it is my personal opinion that it has merit.  It may be my JKD roots talking here, but I've found a lot in the art that I like and would find useful, and a lot in the art that I've found personally impractical.  However, what I find practical may be impractical for others, and what I find impractical may be practical for some, it's all somewhat relative.  Additionally, opinions will differ based on an artists preconceptions or ideals (ask a die hard Krav Maga student their opinion on Taijiquan, or a 3rd dan Aikidoka their thoughts on Krav Maga) so this is just my personal opinion.  I just wanted to note that, personally, if I found the school to be a lot of silly ninja dress-up, or things like the spinning-ultra-backflip-death-kick-of-super-awesomeness, then I wouldn't be a student there.

Alright, so this may have turned into something of a rant, but hopefully it has been at least a little enlightening as to the problems disinformation can spawn, as well as a bit of good info on ninjutsu and ninja in general.

If you have anything to add to the discussion, know something I missed historically speaking, want to offer your own opinion or story or just think ninjutsu is the dumbest thing in the world, let us know with a comment!

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