This is completely out of place -
The guy has a long dagger!
Mukai Kyorai (1651 - 1704). Per. V. Markova
Well, now it's finally time to talk about the so-called ninja - Japanese spies and assassins, people of a truly unusual fate. Is that only about the Knights Templar there are so many all kinds of rumors, outright inventions, legends and myths, as if people have nothing to do but write all kinds of horror films about them. In addition, there is probably no person who has not heard of these very ninjas. In Japanese (and not only Japanese!) Movies, they are found almost at every turn, the "ninja sword" can be bought over the Internet, but does everyone know that 80 percent of the information about them is purely secondary in nature! The English historian Stephen Turnbull, who himself wrote many books about the military affairs of Japan in ancient times, drew attention to this. He noted that the word ninja and the synonymous word shinobi are quite common in Japanese historical chronicles. Mitsuo Kure uses the words scouts, spies, ninja. Moreover, the name "ninja" was born at the beginning of the twentieth century. Before that, in various regions of Japan, these people were called differently: ukami, dakko, kurohabaki, kyodan, nokizaru. By the 19th century, shinobi-no-mono had become a common name, translated into Russian - "the one who sneaks." It is believed that many political assassinations were carried out by ninjas. That's just that and all, information at the level of "one grandmother said", because there is no more specific information about them and why so, in general, if you think about it, it's clear.
Ninja Museum in Iga.
Among the noble warriors, which were (or should have been) the Japanese samurai, sneaky blows were not approved of, although they were resorted to very often. But how to combine nobility in thoughts and deeds with appealing to people of the lower class (and ninjas, of course, did not belong to samurai), who must do such dirty work for you, which you yourself, however, could not do? But turning to the ninja, the samurai made himself dependent on them, which was unlikely to his taste. So it is not surprising that the samurai preferred not to talk too much about the ninja, and those, in turn, did not need loud fame at all. But were they still in Japan? Yes - they were, but not quite the way they are portrayed by many novelists, as well as our modern cinema!
Exhibitions showcasing ninja weapons.
Usually ancient sources report that then and then … a very skillful shinobi crept into the right place, who set fire to the temple, or, on the contrary, that a loser ninja was hacked to death in such and such a castle, but that's all! There is, however, a very detailed description of the ninja-style murder, only a 13-year-old boy who wants to avenge his father committed it. Since he was to kill a novice monk who lived in the same monastery as himself, this boy named Kumavaka first pretended to be sick, and then, after waiting for the night with wind and rain, he proceeded to fulfill his plan.
Naturally, the guards slept that night. The victim, a certain Homma Saburo, changed the bedroom that night, but the boy still found him, but for some reason he had neither a knife nor a dagger with him. Then he decided to use Saburo's sword, but decided that if he pulled it out of its scabbard, the brilliance of his blade, on which the light from the lamp burning in the room could fall, could wake him up. That is, it suggests that in Japan, many slept in the light. But he noticed many moths clinging to the shoji sliding doors outside and rushing into the light. He opened the shoji, and many insects immediately flew into the room, dimming its light. After that, Kumawaka carefully pulled the sword out of its scabbard, finished off the hated Saburo, and again, in ninja style, fled. Since the moat was too wide and deep for him, the teenager climbed onto the bamboo growing on its edge, and began to climb the trunk, which made it bent under its weight, and he was like on a bridge on the opposite side of the moat! However, it should be emphasized that nowhere did he specially study such techniques, just as they did not study specifically for ninja and those samurai warriors who were sent by their commanders to scout the enemy during the war.
On the other hand, each Japanese feudal lord most likely had special people whose purpose was to create special spy networks in the enemy's principalities, so that their master was aware of the plans of the local princes. They organized arson, kidnapped and killed the people they needed, sowed false rumors, planted incriminating documents - that is, they did everything to bring down, deceive the enemy and sow discord in his camp. Naturally, these were people "outside of society", since to recognize their existence would mean to violate all written and unwritten laws, and that is why it so happened that they turned into a very closed and mysterious caste, whose roots again lead to Ancient China!
And it so happened that around the 6th century there were a lot of Buddhist monks who wandered around the country and lived on alms. Local authorities waged a serious struggle with them, accusing them of perverting Buddhist teachings and, of course, witchcraft. The monks, in the fight against their oppressors, went so far as to join the rebel groups or even the robber bands, where they acted like the monk Tuk from the novel Ivanhoe by Walter Scott. Gradually, they developed their own system of survival in extreme conditions, which included the ability to disguise and reincarnate, methods of providing medical care, preparing medicinal drugs, learned hypnosis and the technique of entering a trance, and much more, which gave them a chance to survive among the dangers that awaited them everywhere. …
One of the ways to escape was to move to Japan, but there, too, the story repeated itself. The peasants, seeing the poor people who taught them good, began to consider these vagabonds and hermits to be the only true followers of the Buddha, while the local bonzes, shining with fat, were not respected at all. Their income from this fell, and the government fell upon the wandering monks with repression, from which they hurried to hide in the mountains. This is how entire clans of militant monks ("sokhei") appeared. And it was in them, besides all other martial arts, that ninjutsu ("the art of stealth") was cultivated, which went beyond what the samurai could do and … that's how the ninja were born! That is, at first they were various schools of martial arts, and then those people who studied in them found themselves "something to their liking"! Moreover, if we generalize the statements of Japanese ninjutsu masters, we can conclude that this is just one of the ways of spiritual and physical development of a person in order to acquire the ability to control his body and … other people in order to ensure the survival of himself, his loved ones, family and tribe …
That is, initially, the schools of ninjutsu had nothing in common with military organizations, neither in the methods of training their adherents, nor in their philosophy. Significant changes in this took place in the years 1460 - 1600, when there were wars in Japan, and there was a great demand for people of similar specialties, and in total there were about 70 ninja clans across the country at that time. The most famous were the clans of Koga County and Iga Province. The Koga county was, one might say, under the rule of the "53 Koga Family" clan coalition, but the province of Iga was divided at once between three large clans: Momochi in the south, Hattori in the center and Fujibayashi in the north. In the last two areas, such important ninja schools as Koga-ryu and Iga-ryu were formed. The third major center of ninjutsu was the province of Kii. Well, the missions of the "warriors of the night" were carried out by a variety of and far from always it was contract killings. For example, ninjas made their way into villages owned by alien daimyo and counted the number of houses in order to then understand how many people the princes could call in in case of war. It's funny that before counting houses on the street, they hid two handfuls of pebbles in the left and right sleeves, and when passing next to the house, they dropped these pebbles. After that, it only remained to count how many stones the ninja had left, and the task was completed, since the shortage corresponded to the number of houses. So the ninja also knew how to count, and they counted well!
But at the same time, the ninja never served anyone, they did their job for money. That is, the warrior monks who followed this path were outside the existing system of feudal relations in Japan, although they themselves possessed a strict hierarchy. The highest leader of the organization was the Zenin. His closest assistants were called Tyunins. Then came the genin - the fighters. Over time, not only their own people, but also alien people "from the outside" and, first of all, the ronins - "samurai who lost their master", began to fall into the ranks of the genins and even the Tyunins. Women - and they became ninjas. In this case, they were called kunoichi, and they acted, relying not so much on strength as on their feminine charms.
Over time, they also developed their own philosophy (in no way inferior in content to the philosophy of ordinary, "non-militant" monastic schools) and their own, specific teaching methods. For example, it was believed that one should not defeat the enemy, but the current situation. Ninjutsu masters did not consider a duel with an enemy as an end in itself, except in the most extreme circumstances. The enemy should have been eliminated if the interests of the case demanded it, and when he interfered with the execution of plans, but no one should have been killed just like that. After all, a competent operation should not have left any incriminating traces, except for those cases when such traces were specially accentuated in order to send enemies on the wrong track. The opponent was usually perceived as an obstacle, but not an object of influence. To achieve victory meant to complete the task entrusted to you, and by no means to finish off the living obstacle that was in your way.
Everything that the ninja did was strictly rational. Why, for example, waste energy on a battle with an enemy, if you can blind him and slip away from him unnoticed? Why sneak to the sentry on the autumn rustling grass, risking being heard if you can shoot a poisonous needle from a blowpipe at him? Why engage in group combat when you can mislead your pursuers? Yes, ninjas used a fairly wide arsenal of various combat weapons. But they also made extensive use of any objects at hand. And this is also very logical: after all, strangling with a stick is much more effective than strangling him with your hands, and hitting with a stone is more effective than fighting with an empty fist.
However, medieval Japan was a police state in the worst sense of the word. On all roads, at every city and village outposts, there were samurai patrols. If the traveler seemed suspicious, he was guaranteed a thorough search. That is why the ninja had to act secretly, and not stand out in the environment of others, and avoid the slightest collisions with them. That is why they had the very minimum of equipment with them. A coil of rope ("on the farm and the rope will do!") Or a chain, a towel to wipe off sweat, a staff, a small peasant knife, a sickle, some food and medicine, a flint for making fire, that's all that the same ninja could afford. on the roads of Japan. Having all this, he could not be afraid of verification, but already at the destination, he made the necessary devices from the available means, and the weapon could always be taken from the enemy. After completing the assignment, he either hid his "equipment" or even destroyed it and again became a harmless traveler, going according to his needs!
That is why, for the ninja, various staves were very important, and by no means swords and daggers. True, there is confusion about their size. So, to avoid it, let's take as a basis the average height of a Japanese man at the beginning of the 17th century, which was about 150 cm. Today the Japanese have become much taller thanks to food rich in animal proteins, and at that time this was not at all the case. The length of the staff did not exceed human height (plus the height of wooden sandals - "geta"), but most often corresponded to the distance from the ground to the shoulder. That is, it fluctuated within the range of 140-160 cm. But besides the wooden pole, it could also be the staff of a Buddhist monk, and then its effectiveness as a weapon, thanks to the metal parts on it, usually increased. Often, two sickles were used simultaneously: "o-gama", a sickle with a long handle (up to 120 cm) was used to parry and deflect enemy strikes, and a small sickle, "nata-gama" (blade 15-30 cm, handle 20- 45 cm) hit the enemy.
Kusarikama - a sickle with a chain, was used by both samurai and ninja.
Ninjas were also very "advanced" (as they say today) in terms of the use of various novelties in the field of weapons. So, they very actively used firearms - in particular, they tried to shoot Oda Nabunaga with muskets, and also used explosive shells of several types. Among them were "bombs" in a soft, cloth shell, filled with gunpowder and human excrement, the explosions of which sowed panic and distracted attention, and real "grenades" in the form of metal balls, with gunpowder and musket bullets inside. They were set on fire with a wick soaked in saltpeter, and their explosion inside the building could lead to serious consequences, be it destruction, as well as injury and death of people. They used metal thorns scattered in the grass and in dark corridors, smeared with manure or poison, throwing arrows blown out of air tubes - in a word, a variety of devices that allow you to effectively and quickly kill your neighbor.
Furi-zue or tigiriki - "swinging stick". In practice, this is a large, marching brush with a handle in the form of a furi-zue monk's staff was similar to a metal or bamboo stick about 1 meter 50 cm long with a chain with a brush-weight hidden inside. This is an excellent combo weapon that can stab and slash.
Ninja hand-to-hand combat consisted of punches and kicks in the most vulnerable parts of the body, as well as various evasions from enemy grabs, falls, rolls and even jumps. Moreover, whatever the ninja did at the same time, was a surprise to the enemy!
It's funny, but the black ninja dress, so beloved by filmmakers, does not in any way belong to them, although it is described in the novels and we see these clothes in the movies. “At night all cats are gray” - people have noticed since time immemorial. Therefore, the night clothes of the ninja were ash, yellowish brown or dark gray in colors and shades, since the black suit was noticeable in the dark against the background of lighter objects. At the same time, it had baggy outlines, deforming the outlines of the figure. Well, during the day, the ninja put on the clothes of peasants, artisans, monks, which allowed them to blend in with the crowd.
The ninja is a drawing by the famous Hokusai.
Yes, but where did the black suit attributed to the ninja come from then? And this is the attire of the masters-puppeteers in the Japanese bunraku puppet theater. The puppeteer, dressed in all black, was right on the stage during the performance, and the audience “did not see” him. And when in the play of a different theater - the kabuki wanted to show the murder allegedly committed by the ninja, the killer was dressed in this black puppeteer costume - thus emphasizing that no one had seen him!
What else was included in the ninja's equipment were six very important items (rokugu), although he did not always have them all with him. These are amigasa (a hat woven from straw), kaginawa ("cat"), sekihitsu (pencil for writing) or yadate (inkwell with a pencil case for a brush), yakuhin (a small bag of medicine), tsukedake or uchidake (container for embers), and sanjaku tenugui (towel), because the climate in Japan is stuffy and humid.
The most interesting thing is that the development of the ninja class proceeded almost in parallel with the formation of the samurai class, although in Japanese culture they are always opposed to each other and that's why. If the samurai considered it immoral to kill from an ambush, then the ninja did it for him. If the samurai considered it indecent for himself to secretly enter the house of the enemy, then he again hired a ninja for this. Well, in the end it turned out that white, as it should be, remained white, and black - black. The samurai's honor remained unsullied, and the enemy lay on the tatami with a blade in his chest. That is, they could not do without each other, because the samurai provided the ninja with income, but for the samurai it would be completely impossible to admit the existence of their dependence on the ninja.
The author thanks the company "Antikvariat Japan" (Antikvariat-Japan.ru) for the information and photos provided.
