Referring to Japan, surely no one does not know about samurai and ninja, two of the famous forces that have created the characteristics of Japanese culture . So in this article, let’s discover all about ninja – the most famous assassins in Japanese history.
Contrary to the majestic and noble history of the samurai, the origins of the ninja are mostly question marks. According to recorded history, this force appeared around the 14th century at the end of the Heian period, but whether that is true is unknown because of the nature of their secret activities.
Ninja appeared around the 14th century at the end of the Heian period.
Regarding the class composition, many historians agree that shinobi originated from the common people, or masterless samurai like the ronin, even samurai who accepted to give up their status to fulfill their obligations. .
Unlike the mission of protecting and fighting in the battlefield of the samurai, the ninja is full of not very glorious tasks, such as: spying, infiltration, sabotage, assassination, ambush in numbers. The young do not forgive, the old do not love. Military historian Hanawa Hokinoichi wrote:
“They camouflage in any area of enemy territory to assess the enemy’s situation, they will seduce in their own way, enter the middle of the enemy to detect gaps and penetrate for long. enemy station for arson, assassination or covert surveillance”.
Ninja took on all the missions that weren’t so glorious.
Unlike the cumbersome seppuku ritual, when caught, the ninja will destroy both teammates and commit suicide to preserve the secret of the mission.
Basically, ninjas are trained almost as much as samurai, because some of the ninja ranks were once samurai themselves. They are proficient in all kinds of weapons and techniques such as Kenjutsu (Sword Technique), Iaijutsu (Drawing Technique), … basically they are also very good at using swords. However, unlike the samurai, the ninja’s techniques are very top-notch, but when they fight fairly, their chances are not very high.
So if they can’t fight back, what do they do? They will find a way to slit their throats by means of assassination. They are not inherently aggressive. If forced to fight in a one-on-one battle with the samurai, they have almost no chance of winning against those destruction machines. But in terms of skills in using a variety of weapons, samurai have almost no door for them.
The techniques and types of ninja weapons are very diverse.
In return, shinobi are very good at techniques such as flying techniques (similar to Parkour), stealth skills, hiding and using support tools like climbing hooks. Those are things that ordinary samurai cannot do.
Ninja tend to use light, compact but highly effective weapons such as shuriken (sword guard), shoku (hand spike), kusari-gama (chain sickle), knives… and short swords like Tantou (short sword) and wakizashi (samurai also often use this type of sword to fight, instead of katana). Or more realistically, they use a specialized sword called Ninjatou.
Due to their compact size and relative lightness, ninjas preferred the use of short swords.
Basically, these are all light weapons to facilitate movement, increase attack speed, and quickly assassinate targets. Meanwhile, samurai often used heavier, more bulky weapons such as naginata, stick, spear, kodachi,…
The proficient use of long-range assassination techniques with ring tools such as shuriken also gives the ninja a great advantage. Of course, they are very good at aiming at targets from a distance and are ready to throw shuriken at them, if they feel the time has come. They even know how to use… guns.
Tanegashima muskets.
According to research, feudal ninjas knew how to make smoke bombs to launch haze, and then guns to assassinate targets, namely Tanegashima muskets. In general, shinobi not only have more power and technique than humans, but also possess more special weapons than the samurai.