This is a rewrite and edit of a post I've made earlier in my Career. In this thread, I will point out why ninjas could not have and never could have existed and why it's all a big sham:
Throughout the history of Japan there has never been mention of Ninjas prior to the Tokugawa era. They came alive through fabricated storytelling. Ninja Ryu's date all the way back to about right after WWII when some Japanese got the brilliant idea of selling America this folklore about people with extraordinary abilities that shrouded themselves in mystics and energy and the color black. Like with the majority of Japanese Story telling, mysticism, colors and exaggeration are staple components.
First off, a Bushi would have done whatever it is that the Ninja were supposed to to: that is, some daimyo isn't going to employ some crazy hobo who lives in the mountains and wears black pajamas to sneak around the enemy camp. He's going to send one of his better Samurai to do it. Not surprisingly we find "Ninjutsu" elements in the authentic Bujutsu schools in Japan (Katori Shinto Ryu, for example). Espionage and assassination were not seperate arts the Bushi practiced. Secondly, ninjutsu, like the tradional Japanese Bujutsu, would be a weapons art. Ninja, if they existed, would have to fight samurai, who were ALWAYS armed with multiple weapons. The story weaving and elaborate tales of unarmed arts in Japan occurred during the Tokugawa (an era of peace, complete with hippies) period, not during the period of warfare that had preceded it. According to the "accounts" the Ninja would have been destroyed (for the most part, enough to no longer be effective) anyway.
So tell me how unarmed Ninja techniques that were "Ninja" specific could have been real. If there were a real authentic Ninjutsu art that was all unique "Ninjitsu" techniques, it'd look more like Kali than bad karate/judo (which is what is resembles for the most part today.). Third, the guys that lived in the mountains and fought the Samurai back in the good ol' days of Japan were known as the Yamabushi ("Mountain warriors" it what it'll roughly translate out to, but ironically a majority of them lived in monasteries on the plains.) This is where the ninja mythology comes from. They were basically like the Shaolin Monks, a bunch of Buddhists who had nothing better to do all day than to train all day long and make candles and blessings. Yamabushi actually did fight the samurai on a regular basis. They were, however, eventually mostly killed off to the point of being completely useless. To my knowledge, no yamabushi ryu have been passed down to the present. Again, these would have been ARMED arts (Go ahead and go wrestle a fully armored motherfucker carrying 2 swords, a few daggers, a couple of spears and riding a fully armored horse and tell me how well you do wearing a cotton robe armed with a long stick). They did NOT run around in black pajamas. If they conducted covert type ops, it was not the focus of their studies. There isn't any big secret to being stealthy. You run around at night and don't make a lot of noise. <---- Free Lesson.
Anyway, the fact is, no serious historian of the Japanese martial arts has been able to find a piss of evidence that any sort of real authentic Ninjutsu school existed before said events in history.
"Oh, but they must have burned all the evidence of their existence or ate their scrolls so nobody would be able to learn shit!" Nope. There were guys employed by warlords in Japan and guys employed by monasteries who's sole jobs were to write down all history and events as a neutral party. They used pretty much the same weapons and fought in pretty much the same ways. There was no secret society of mystical assassins in Japan or Korea or anywhere else. It never happened. So give up the 8-year old game of hide-and-seek in the middle of the night wearing Tabi and PJ's.
Beyond the mere historical facts, there is this to consider as well, ninjitsu is totally untested. By this I mean that even granting it historical legitimacy (which I never will), it, like most all the other Japanese arts, would have de-evolved as it were during the Tokugawa period. Since no one fought for real anymore, the arts became antiquated. Kano discovered this with Jujitsu (and the Gracie's did separately across the ocean in their quaint little Brazilian homeland). The old Jujitsu styles (developed largely during peacetime and removed from combat for hundreds of years) contained many techniques that wouldn't work against real, resisting opponents who, OH MY GOD, fought back. And of course ninjitsu, having never gone through the testing phase that Judo, BJJ, MT, Boxing, and others have gone through, is largely devoid of real world applicability or legitimacy. It didn't come fresh from the battlefields like Kali or some styles of Silat.
All else aside and Ninjas truly did exist in the ways of how Ashida Kim and other idiots understand it, no one has used ninjitsu to kill anyone for about 500 years. Kali was probably used to kill someone today, and will be again tomorrow. Its a living art still used in real combat. Ninjitsu isn't. Get over it.
Beyond all that, all I have to say is that Ninjas are so sweet they make me want to kick my mom.
Throughout the history of Japan there has never been mention of Ninjas prior to the Tokugawa era. They came alive through fabricated storytelling. Ninja Ryu's date all the way back to about right after WWII when some Japanese got the brilliant idea of selling America this folklore about people with extraordinary abilities that shrouded themselves in mystics and energy and the color black. Like with the majority of Japanese Story telling, mysticism, colors and exaggeration are staple components.
First off, a Bushi would have done whatever it is that the Ninja were supposed to to: that is, some daimyo isn't going to employ some crazy hobo who lives in the mountains and wears black pajamas to sneak around the enemy camp. He's going to send one of his better Samurai to do it. Not surprisingly we find "Ninjutsu" elements in the authentic Bujutsu schools in Japan (Katori Shinto Ryu, for example). Espionage and assassination were not seperate arts the Bushi practiced. Secondly, ninjutsu, like the tradional Japanese Bujutsu, would be a weapons art. Ninja, if they existed, would have to fight samurai, who were ALWAYS armed with multiple weapons. The story weaving and elaborate tales of unarmed arts in Japan occurred during the Tokugawa (an era of peace, complete with hippies) period, not during the period of warfare that had preceded it. According to the "accounts" the Ninja would have been destroyed (for the most part, enough to no longer be effective) anyway.
So tell me how unarmed Ninja techniques that were "Ninja" specific could have been real. If there were a real authentic Ninjutsu art that was all unique "Ninjitsu" techniques, it'd look more like Kali than bad karate/judo (which is what is resembles for the most part today.). Third, the guys that lived in the mountains and fought the Samurai back in the good ol' days of Japan were known as the Yamabushi ("Mountain warriors" it what it'll roughly translate out to, but ironically a majority of them lived in monasteries on the plains.) This is where the ninja mythology comes from. They were basically like the Shaolin Monks, a bunch of Buddhists who had nothing better to do all day than to train all day long and make candles and blessings. Yamabushi actually did fight the samurai on a regular basis. They were, however, eventually mostly killed off to the point of being completely useless. To my knowledge, no yamabushi ryu have been passed down to the present. Again, these would have been ARMED arts (Go ahead and go wrestle a fully armored motherfucker carrying 2 swords, a few daggers, a couple of spears and riding a fully armored horse and tell me how well you do wearing a cotton robe armed with a long stick). They did NOT run around in black pajamas. If they conducted covert type ops, it was not the focus of their studies. There isn't any big secret to being stealthy. You run around at night and don't make a lot of noise. <---- Free Lesson.
Anyway, the fact is, no serious historian of the Japanese martial arts has been able to find a piss of evidence that any sort of real authentic Ninjutsu school existed before said events in history.
"Oh, but they must have burned all the evidence of their existence or ate their scrolls so nobody would be able to learn shit!" Nope. There were guys employed by warlords in Japan and guys employed by monasteries who's sole jobs were to write down all history and events as a neutral party. They used pretty much the same weapons and fought in pretty much the same ways. There was no secret society of mystical assassins in Japan or Korea or anywhere else. It never happened. So give up the 8-year old game of hide-and-seek in the middle of the night wearing Tabi and PJ's.
Beyond the mere historical facts, there is this to consider as well, ninjitsu is totally untested. By this I mean that even granting it historical legitimacy (which I never will), it, like most all the other Japanese arts, would have de-evolved as it were during the Tokugawa period. Since no one fought for real anymore, the arts became antiquated. Kano discovered this with Jujitsu (and the Gracie's did separately across the ocean in their quaint little Brazilian homeland). The old Jujitsu styles (developed largely during peacetime and removed from combat for hundreds of years) contained many techniques that wouldn't work against real, resisting opponents who, OH MY GOD, fought back. And of course ninjitsu, having never gone through the testing phase that Judo, BJJ, MT, Boxing, and others have gone through, is largely devoid of real world applicability or legitimacy. It didn't come fresh from the battlefields like Kali or some styles of Silat.
All else aside and Ninjas truly did exist in the ways of how Ashida Kim and other idiots understand it, no one has used ninjitsu to kill anyone for about 500 years. Kali was probably used to kill someone today, and will be again tomorrow. Its a living art still used in real combat. Ninjitsu isn't. Get over it.
Beyond all that, all I have to say is that Ninjas are so sweet they make me want to kick my mom.
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