Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique (40 page)

Antony Cummins and a museum curator, Nagayo Toshihiko, with some of the Natori-Ryu manuals.

Minami Yoshie, cofounder of the Historical Ninjutsu Research Team, and Nagayo Toshihiko examining some of the same manuals.

A New Understanding of the Samurai and the Shinobi

As the Western knight underwent such a radical change in our understanding, so this book should now have cleared away the debris from the distortion of samurai history. With the “field of battle” cleared there should be an open plain in our minds, so that we can start rebuilding a solid picture of the samurai and of the shinobi. This time building from the ground up.

A New Picture

First, insert the land, the ancient and history-filled country of Japan. Include its surrounding islands, the ancient forests and natural riverbanks (which are almost all gone today). The movement of the four seasons give a dramatic display with snow-covered mountains. Spring brings the wind-swept cherry blossom, and then intense summer burns up the ground with insects screaming at full velocity, to only die off with the arrival of the cold. The cool winds of autumn carry golden leaves into the snow of winter. Next is the placement of buildings within the landscape, some new, some under construction, but many old and in various states of decay. Some are under maintenance, while a few that are beyond the count of years, almost falling back into nature as the spread of deep green moss swallows them. Next, towns, cities, or rural hamlets nestled on plains, in valleys, or in the mountains. Vast graveyards contain stone obelisks covered in a cloud of incense and smoke. Lights burn by night, and crows keep chorus by day. All of the above are subject to the weather, the famed Japanese earthquakes, the hails of rain, deep mountain mists, a humid vision-distorting heat, and even the dreaded tsunami—which all take their toll on the landscape. Finally add to this picture the people of Japan, a people who came from mainland Asia in waves, bringing with them a culture that has had thousands of years invested in it, which is then reshaped by new movements and other people bringing Buddhism and other mainland influences.

The sun vomits through the sky in a crescendo of centuries as our picture arrives at the Sengoku Period in the 1500s. In the rest of the world the Americas had just been discovered by Europeans, Queen Elizabeth I has ascended the throne of England, and while the complexities of European history play out, a very bloodthirsty time has erupted in the once tranquil land of Japan with revolution and establishments being overthrown. To this image and time, enter the samurai! A warrior class who have been in control of the land for over five hundred years, their rule is absolute and established with rods of iron. “Recently” (in the Sengoku Period), lower samurai and those who wish to take up arms and become powerful have turned the order on its head and the once aristocratic families are being thrown from their seats of power and a new order is upon the field. These deep mountains and snow-rimmed lakes are filled with beetle-like figures in dark carapace armor, bright flags bending in the wind and furled about them as they move through our “oil painting,” moving through the seasons and the years, falling in battle while new graveyards are erected—a time of man and the assent of his power. At the top of this movement, great names rule the divided nation: Takeda, Uesugi, Hojo, Oda, Asakura, Mori, Tokugawa, all of who look back to the great names of the past for inspiration: Kusunoki, Genji, Fujiwara, Heishi and Tachibana.

Our image clarifies as we focus on a mountain castle, on one unnamed night when the moon is but a slight crack in the sky. The castle is fixed into the natural rock of the mountain and its black walls support tiny figures on patrol, each carrying a blazing torch in the light snowfall. At the base of the mountain an enemy camp is in a nighttime hush, the well-constructed bamboo barricades lead up to the temporary gateways where guards stand by, trenches and pits have been laid out, traps and defenses are in position. Moving through the gateway past the old and experienced guards, we move at ground level through the mud, the tents in rows, the braziers giving off sparks as the mercenaries huddle around fires, sat at the edges of the camp with dogs whose eyes reflect this fire as they hide in the shadows beyond them. Moving closer into the center, we pass all the different huts for all the different tasks—
one of which is empty
. The picture moves up to the main war curtains, snow drifting past a great family crest as we peer through a small hole in this material division to see that which lies beyond. A prince sits upon a stool and a few of his most trusted men are at his side, ready to defend him at all times. Before him are the occupants from an empty hut, the
shinobi no mono
of his army. His command is given by mouth directly to the ear of these specially-trained samurai with their specially-trained foot soldiers in support—they are the shinobi of Japan. They move out of the camp, moving into the snow and the dark, their faces blacked out with powder, their clothes without heraldry and armed with ladders, rope and explosives. They sling their swords on their backs to make ready for the mountain climb, off they move, to do what they do best—
infiltration
.

The Round Up

The samurai
was a highly trained professional soldier who deserves the true telling of his story. With a sense of honor that was dominated by the ethics of his time, this was a captain and officer among men, an independent combatant with his own men-at-arms, and a lord at his back. Housed in knightly abode and a lord of his own land, he was a full-time warrior with all the trappings of his office. He held the spiritual beliefs of his era. Above all this was his love and dedication to sophisticated warfare and military action. An equestrian gentleman or esquire on foot his equipment was sturdy and solid, his sword thick with quality, and his furnishings rich with his family history. However, the latter is not his true weapon: below his helm and the skin on his head, housed inside his skull—
which may one day adorn a spike
—lies years of knowledge held inside his brain; this was the weapon of the samurai, a trained mind. Skilled in Chinese classics, having knowledge of tea and ritual, understanding the art of the brush, and the pleasure of the fine arts are all balanced amidst a structure of military strategy. He loves the planning of war, the movement of the formations, the chase through the forest at night, the high-speed mounted scout run, the charge into battle, and the achievement of praise. Above all he loves to collect decapitated human heads and the power that lies in such success. Gold and silver have an appeal, land he wants more. Above all things in his mind, he wants to walk off the field of battle with a bag of heads in his hands, emerging out of a gunpowder fog. A hero to some, a murderer and rapist to others, a champion to his people, and a demon to the enemy, with homicide as a specialty and killing as a business, he is the samurai—the knight of Japan.

The shinobi
was a subsection of samurai culture. Like all warriors of his time he could have been of the samurai class or of the foot-soldier class, or even with one foot in both worlds. While being from the samurai world—even though many shinobi were of samurai status—they were also on the outside. This external position was not because of any class divide but because of the nature of their job—which was
clandestine
. Secrets have a way of alienating people and placing them on the fringe. This was evident with the shinobi. The shinobi may have been an under-cover agent in a far off territory, away from comrades, away from family and away from his life. He may have been a hidden warrior within his own or enemy army, again, outside of his own life, away from the people he knew, waiting in silence for his activation. The shinobi may also have been hired in public, placed with a group of other shinobi but this time separated by function and task, given their own quarters in battle; specifically taken away from regular tasks. A group such as this would operate in their own setting, just outside of the normal warrior. To be a shinobi took a special skill and a special personality. Those who did not match the grade were filtered out by the grim reaper in times of war and only the highest caliber shinobi achieved what was considered a hellish existence—like that at the height of the Warring States Period. With the foundation of samurai military ways in their make up, these specialists would study language, codes, explosives, infiltration, ritual magic and many other aspects in addition to the normal teachings. They were not frontline soldiers, but those who dared to go beyond enemy lines, either in open disguise or in stealth. If the business of the “pure” samurai was murder, death and the exchange of heads, then the occupation of the shinobi was in destruction, intelligence and secrets. The working shinobi was not among the princes of Japan, he was not found in the generals or in the higher echelons of the samurai world. He was found stood outside the door to the hall in which these ranks met, he was the man who was not on the path
to
high society but the man who had the key to the backdoor, an aid to princes and generals, and agent of information trafficking—he was the commando-spy of Japan.

The Boring Stuff

C
onventionally,
introductions, explanations, and aides to helpfulness are found at the start of most books. However, without question they are skipped over as the reader finds the “juicy cuts” of the book and returns after their “appetite” has been appeased. For this reason they have been moved to the back of the book, waiting in the “correct” position.

Measurement

All translations of measurement have been given in their original Japanese form; the following table has been constructed to allow you to make the correct conversions.

Numbers from one to one hundred are mainly given in the written form. Numbers above one hundred or those given in dates or recipes have been given in numerical form.

Library lists and catalog numbers

The translation of the
Giyoshu
manual is taken from multiple transcriptions including the Okayama Prefectural Library. The originals can be seen with the following catalog numbers:

Version one:

上
0002120335 – KW399.2.1

中
0002120327 – KW399.2.2

下
0002120319 – KW399.2.3

Version two:

上
0002120681 – KW399.3.1

中
0002120699 – KW399.3.2

下
0002120707 – KW399.3.3

The
Iike Gunki

This manual can be found at the Japanese National Archives.

The
Hattori Doson Ichi-Ryu no Shinobi No Ho
manual