In Search of the Niinja (4 page)

One night, as it was windy and raining, Moronao took advantage of the weather and sent out an
Itsu mono no shinobi
[excellent ninja] to infiltrate Hatchiman Yama and to set fire to the buildings.

Volume 24 continues with the second use of shinobi:

The Shogunate’s military governor, Tsuzuki-nyudo, led 200 armed people on a night raid, and approached Shijomibu, from the direction where
Kukkyo no shinobi
(robust ninja) were hiding. Those soldiers [ninja] in the complex did not care for life or death and went to the top of a building and after spending all their arrows committed suicide
11
(
hara kaki yaburu
).

This document of the late fourteenth century deals primarily with the Nanboku-cho, the period of war between the Northern Court of Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto and the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino. It features the tactics of the famous general, Kusunoki Masashige; only a few early copies survive. The manual viewed by the Research Team was the
Seigenin Bon
version at Tokyo University and dates to between 1520 and 1550. The
Kanda Bon
manual is the oldest but only a single chapter remains and unfortunately it contains neither of the above references.

This finding initiates some debate. Firstly, most ‘anti-ninja’ historians argue that the term shinobi was an invention of the Edo period, which is without doubt incorrect, as through this find (and others) we know the term shinobi predates the Edo period. The
Seigenin
version –viewed by the team – has the correct ideogram and as this was written in the early 1500s it shows that the ideogram shinobi is clearly recognised in the Sengoku period, putting the ninja in Japan well before the time of peace. Secondly, the fact that it comes with no explanation as to what a ‘shinobi’ is, proves that the word was in common usage and was accepted as a fact, implying that the shinobi as an entity was present in the early 1300s and possibly before.

Further shinobi-like skills are clearly displayed in other sections of the
Taiheiki
,
12
such as the following episode concerning Kasagi Castle:

Under the cover of this night’s rain and wind, let us secretly enter the castle precincts to amaze the men of the realm with a night attack!

Thereupon all drew holy pictures to wear in preparation for death, since they were resolved not to return alive. They took two lead ropes for horses, 100 feet long, knotted them at intervals of a foot, and tied a grapnel at the end, that by hanging ropes from branches and boulders they might climb over the rocks.

On that night one could see nothing, however much one looked, for it was the last night of the lunar month. Moreover it was a night of furious rain and wind, when opposing armies would not go forth to clash in battle. With swords and daggers on their backs, the 50 men began to climb the northern rampart of the castle, a rock wall 1500 feet high, where even a bird could not fly so easily. In diverse ways they went up for 750 feet, until with perplexed hearts they beheld rocks like folding screens, rising up in layers above them in a place of smooth green moss and ancient pines with dropping limbs.

Thereupon Suyama Tozo ran up lightly over the rocks, hung the lead ropes [with grapnels] onto a branch of the tree, and lowered them from above the rocks, so that the warriors passed over the difficult place easily by laying hold of them. And there was no other great precipice above. Toiling sorely, they grasped Kuzu roots in their hands and walked over the moss with their toes, until with the passing of four hours they came to the edge of the [castle] wall. And when they had rested their bodies awhile, every man of them climbed over.

Then in stealth they spied upon the castle interior by following a sentry making his rounds. They saw that 1000 warriors of Iga
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and Ise guarded the front gate on the west side of the mountain…

…Could it be that the defenders trusted the steepness of the cliffs of the north side? No warriors watched there, but only two or three soldiers of low degree, who had lit a campfire and gone to sleep on straw matting spread below the tower.

When Suyama and Komiyama had gone around the castle to see the enemy positions on four sides, they turned their footsteps toward the main hall, thinking to search out the abode of the emperor. Hearing them, a man of the Battle Office asked a question saying:

‘It is strange indeed that many men pass thus stealthily in the night, who are you?’

Quickly Suyama Yoshitsugu answered him saying:

‘We are warriors of Yamato, guarding against attackers slipping in by night, for the wind and rain are very violent and there is much noise.’

‘To be sure’ said the voice and there was no other question [from him].

Thereafter they ascended calmly to the main hall without seeking concealment, shouting aloud ‘All positions be on the alert!’ When they beheld the hall, they saw that it was indeed the imperial abode, where candles burned in many places and a bell rang faintly. There were three or four men in high crowned caps and robes serving in an anteroom.

‘Which warrior-guards are you?’ they asked.

And the warriors [who had just crept into the castle] lined up close together in the winding corridor, giving the names of such and such a person and from this and that province.

When Suyama and his men beheld everything, even to the imperial abode, they made their hearts strong, bowed down in front of the god of the mountain, climbed the peak above the main hall, lighted a fire in a deserted compound, and raised a battle cry together.

This fourteenth-century episode rings out with skills that can be seen in the major ninja manuals of the seventeenth century, such as the
Bansenshukai, Shinobi Hiden
and
Shoninki
. Using two apparently ‘specialised’ men to lead them on their night raid, they climb impossible cliffs or ‘difficult areas’ as ninja manuals state, then scale the castle wall and get into the main compound. Here they turn stealthy infiltration (
In-nin
) to open disguise (
Yo-nin
), using classic tricks such as claiming to be searching for enemies and giving false background stories, leaving them to wander freely around the castle, until they reach the required area, set it ablaze and attack. Of course, this is a classic stealthy night raid and should not be confused with a ‘pure’ shinobi infiltration. In the night raid, it is often the case that a shinobi will lead the warriors, as did the two figures in the story. A shinobi raid is by a group of trained infiltrators who creep in in a similar fashion and set fires, but remain hidden. Either way, the above extract shows classic ninja skills that are indisputably in the 1300s.

Two further points can be taken. Firstly, the men of Iga (a place famous for ninja) who were guarding the gate showed no signs of understanding these tactics and in fact were guarding the one place that a shinobi would not come from. This, combined with other references to the men of Iga in the
Taiheiki,
shows that the warriors of Iga province are not trained in shinobi ways at this point and it is not until the late 1400s, about 150 years after this attack, that the men of Iga and Koka are famed for their skills in such attacks. This shows that stealth and infiltration techniques were not born in Iga but were perfected there. Secondly, the translation claims that the warriors had ‘swords and daggers on their backs’, one of the earliest references of a ‘ninja’ style use of the samurai sword on an infiltrator’s back whilst climbing.

This period, between the time before the
Taiheiki
and the solid incarnation of the ninja in the Sengoku period, could be what most shinobi in their writings consider ‘Ancient Times’ one that the ninja authors of the early Edo period were reflecting back on. However, in this blind period before the Sengoku period, and before the example given above, there is one reference that that will spark the imagination of all ninja researchers.

In 1232 the
Goseibai Shikimoku Shokai
document or the ‘Formulary of Adjudications’ was written by the Kamakura Shogunate to help provide a fair basis of law and a regulated judicial system. It was aimed primarily at the samurai class and outlined the punishments for selected crimes. One of the 51 articles, Article 33, has a fascinating section which allows us to delve into the possible early years of the ninja in Japan:

The punishments administered to those who steal by force and by infiltration, including arsonists are well established [in our country]. Therefore, those thieves (Tozuku) should be decapitated and arsonists should be treated in the same way, this is done to exterminate this type of crime.

Article 33 of the
Goseibai Shikimoku Shokai
document from the 1300s.

The most vital point is that the word for shinobi does not appear in this text and the ideograms used are descriptions of crimes and are not used as titles to describe a task or a function. However, that being said, when put into context it gives an insight into shinobi-like activity in the early thirteenth century. Article 33, as translated above, mentions two forms of theft: ‘forced’ theft, such as street robbery and banditry and theft by ‘infiltration’ or ‘sneaking in’. The two forms are expressed in a complex way and need to be teased out of the text, but to a Japanese reader they are clear. The full term is
and can be broken down as follows: