Hi, it’s Senku again !
We’ve entered the rainy season here in Japan.
Tomorrow I’m going to go to practice Yabusame (horse riding archery) for the first time in four months.The farm is close to Mt.Fuji, so I hope we can see it but unfortunately according to the weather forecast, it should rain :'(
How’s your situation ? Did you manage to go back to a normal life ?

Today I’m going to talk about the existence of Ninja.
What do you think a Ninja is ? A super hero dressed in black, proficient at throwing stars and using magic or sorcery?
This image is a fictional creation stemming from Kabuki (traditional Japanese performing art), novels, movies, comics.

So firstly , we should distinguish between a real Ninja and a fictional one.
I use “Shinobi（忍び）” for real Ninja, and use “Ninja（忍者）” for fictional one.

The term, “Shinobi” can be found in the “Japanese–Portuguese Dictionary” published in the early 17th century. It explains that “Shinobi” is a spy who enters enemy castles and bases in secret, often at night during battles, in order to collect information. It also mentions 2 examples of the occurrences of the word Shinobi : “doing shinobi” and “shinobi have sneaked in.”
From these explanation we can learn about the Shinobi’s mission. Also from the appearance of the word Shinobi in the dictionary we can deduce that they existed during the Sengoku Period(1467-1603).

The first appearance of the word Shinobi in historical records can be seen in the episode of “Burning of Hachiman Shrine（八幡宮炎上の事）” in the 20 chapter in Taiheiki（太平記）, written in the late 14th century. There is a record about events that happened in 1338 : Shinobi sneaked into the enemy’s territory and set a fire to Iwashimizu Shrine（石清水八幡宮） on the top of Mt. Otokoyama（男山） which contributed to the Asikaga（足利） troop’s victory. From this sources we can learn there were already group of people called Shinobi during the 14th century.

Apart from these mentions, many historical records can be found about Shinobi. Their existence is therefore hard to deny.

So, what were Shinobi’s duties ?
While their duties varied depending on the time period, their most important activity was to collect information. During the Sengoku Period(the highest levels of Shinobi activity), they were hired by warlords of various domains, and entered the enemies’ territories, setting fires, vandalizing, ambushing and attacking in the dark, in addition to espionage.

But in general, they tried not to confront or fight enemies.Their main goal was to survive and deliver information to their masters. They avoided confrontation as much as possible, since if they chose to fight, there was a chance of losing their life and therefore failing to deliver the information.They needed to survive no matter what hardships they faced.

That’s it for the meaning of Shinobi (the real Ninja) , their existence and their duties.

Most of the above description are referenced from Professor Yuji Yamada’s lectures and books.
Thank you Professor Yamada !
He is a specialist of medieval Japanese cultural history. He works at Mie University. He is an authority on Shinobi studies and has written many books about them .Unfortunately most of his books are written in Japanese, except for ”An introduction to Ninja” which is written in English ,so you can read it !

I’ll talk about Ninja(the fictional Ninja) in my next blog.
See you soon !　Senku（院生　仙空記）