In Search of the Niinja (8 page)

The train station in Koka, showing the correct spelling and pronunciation.

The
Shoninki
states:

Later, the people from Koka, next to
28
Iga, followed this path of ninjutsu having made the oath of
Ichigun Ichimi
, the friendship oath of ‘one district and one band’, joining the people together. They went out far and wide to various provinces to utilise their skills. Thus, being universally recognised as the premier shinobi, they exchanged a firm written form of oath, which says ‘If I come to where you are, you should show me everything of your province, and if you come to where I am, I will show you everything about my province.’

Yoshie Minami, the Historical Ninjutsu Research Team’s translator, feels that there is a subtle hint of disapproval buried in the text focussing on Iga and Koka’s mercenary behaviour as opposed to loyal service; however, it is considered that the author Natori acknowledges that these men were at the ‘top of their game’. Confirming this, the
Gunpo Jiyoshu
manual clearly identifies the position of the men of Iga and Koka:

It is common knowledge that there used to be people who were good at this path [of ninjutsu] in Iga and Koka in ancient times. Their skills have been handed to their descendants and that means they still exist. Thus, the people in charge of this job are called
Iga
or
Koka shu
[people of Iga or Koka] and are hired in every clan across Japan.

The
Omiyochishiryaku
(1734) document written by Samukawa Tatsukiyo, a retainer of Zeze domain in Omi, states the following about the men of Iga and Koka.

Shinobi no mono
… are named using the words Iga or Koka and are those people who infiltrate the enemy castle freely and obtain enemy secrets by listening or watching, and then bring this information back to their allies. In China they are called
Saisaku
and among military tacticians they are also called
Kagi
or
Monogiki
. During the Eiroku period (1558-70) there was a great and peerless performer [of ninjutsu] whose name was Tobi Kato (Flying Kato).

The document refers to the famous event when the Iga and Koka retainers found their way through a battle camp into the heart of the enemy Shogun’s quarters (as previously described).

The reason why the ninja from Iga and Koka are spread all over the country is their outstanding achievement when the Ashikaga Shogun [Yoshihisa] was positioned at Magari [in 1487]. All of the armies of Japan immediately got to know of this deed and their fame flourished. At the above event of Magari no Jin [the warrior] Kawai Aki-no-kami and his retainers who were from Iga achieved this outstanding performance of the shinobi [arts], and they were called as
Iga-no-mono
from generation to generation after that. This is the origin of the name of
Iga-no-mono
.

The term
Iga no mono
has become more popular in recent years than
Koka no mono
. However, from a researcher’s perspective, the study of the distribution of
Iga no mono
across Japan is difficult to track. According to the research of Associate Professor Isoda, the Sokoushi record states that in the summer of 1615, at the famous siege of Osaka Castle, the province of Iga
29
employed ninja, hiring a total of 50 shinobi. The following year they only retained 40 men.

A further record of the warriors of Iga being used as ninja comes from the
Igaji no Shirube
, which is a record of the Iga ninja who served the Shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. It states that in 1584 when the Shogun attacked and besieged a castle, too many ‘
Iga no mono
’ were shot whilst scaling the castle walls and that in total 75 were killed. As a result of this loss of ninja, Lord Ieyasu gave the order to have them equipped with ‘iron shields’, supposedly to cover them as they scaled the battlements.

So the basic components used by the ninja were most likely a Chinese
30
import that influenced Japanese military skills, producing what is considered the art of
ninjutsu. This was then perfected to a high level in the regions of Koka and Iga, where the independent samurai clans would hire out their retainers (with the skills of ninjutsu) to all the provinces of Japan. The method of transaction or means of contract is unknown. However, it is likely that most
Iga no mono
or ninja were hired for around 25
31
Koku,
32
which would place them at the lower end of the samurai class.

How did these men become the elite of the professional commandos of the medieval Japanese world, second to none across the entire nation? The answer can only be theoretical as documentation is lacking. Geographically, the areas are isolated within mountain rings, partly divided from external powers (but not from cultural influence). This semi-secluded area held a collection of samurai families who were at war with each other and as ninjutsu researcher Steven Nojiri points out, the area of Iga and Koka was a ‘hell-hole of violence’. This judgement is supported by the historical pacts of both Iga and Koka,
33
which declare a peace in these regions to unify against external aggressors. The
Bansenshukai
is loaded with historical descriptions of where the ninja practitioners of Iga fight with other warriors of Iga by using the arts of ninjutsu. Even in the
Tensho Iga no Ran
war, which saw the crushing of Iga by the Oda family, the Iga samurai (
jizamurai
) clans divided and argued in the end, despite the threat of annihilation. Therefore, on the whole, the image of the freedom-loving and equality-driven ‘ninja families’ of Iga and Koka is a modern myth. This independent state was a microcosm of Japanese feudal life, with its own wars, dictators and ‘rivers of blood’, and out of this were born the best ninja in all the land.

The
Iga-ji no Shirube
document.

Is the word ‘ninja’ a name for a warrior or is it the title of a profession? Terms like ‘he is a ninja’ or ‘he is a samurai’ proliferate in the martial arts and history communities. As it will be explained in greater detail later on, a ‘samurai’ is a social status whilst ‘ninja’ should be considered as a profession. This conclusion is arrived at owing to the fact that anyone from any social class can be a ninja, yet not everyone can be a samurai. So a shinobi is a man (rarely a woman) who is employed to engage in espionage, guerrilla tactics or arson and can be from any social class but predominantly from the military class at varying levels.

The following quote is from the
Onmitsuhiji Shinobi-daii
ninja manual. It clearly displays the shinobi working above rank and file samurai and taking the position of leaders, as their skill dictates in this situation: ‘The shinobi from Sotogane have a method of firing arrows at battle-camp huts to establish the situation [inside of the hut] and thus take the lead over fighting samurai
.’

It can be said that ninja was the title of a profession and skill set, as a lawyer is a lawyer and a butcher a butcher. Some ninja were from the lower levels of the samurai elite and some were from the
Ashigaru,
or foot soldier divisions. When the word ninja arises, we must see it as a job title and less as a name for a class of people.

Notes

8
      A Chinese military scholar who is thought to have arrived in Japan.

9
      This is the recording of an oral tradition which is over 1000 years old and cannot be considered historically correct without validation.

10
    Whilst the term ‘China’ is used throughout the book, it must be remembered that influences on Japan came from much of mainland Asia.

11
    The Historical Ninjutsu Research Team believes that volume one of the
Shinobi Hiden
postdates the other volumes and was written 20 years before the
Bansenshukai
.

12
    It is interesting to note that this implies they were samurai. This contradicts the information given in
The
Ninja
– Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan
, where it is stated that ninja do not commit suicide, which as can be seen is incorrect.

13
    Translation by the late H.C McCullough, Tuttle Press.

14
    At this point, the men of Iga, who are later famed for their ninja skills, are unaware of the stealthy tactics, showing that the origin of the ninja may not lie in Iga as commonly held.

15
    The reading of ‘
shinobi
’ is confirmed in the
Gunpo Jiyoshu
manual c.1612.

16    This aspect of criminal or military use is discussed in depth later on.

17
    It must be noted that this is an Edo period document.

18
    Written before 1612, this is technically an Edo period manual, however its early date and the history of the author suggests Sengoku period information. It was probably written within the first few years of peace.

19
    The transcription of the
Taiheiki
war chronicle discussed previously is from the mid-sixteenth century and places the shinobi at the height of the Sengoku period.

20
    The text can not be accurately dated, it was published in the mid 1600s; however, the author is a Sengoku period warrior. The current theory is that it was either written in his lifetime or that his family wrote it from his notes at the turn of the 1600s and it was published in block print later on.

21
    Presumably, the shinobi takes the alcohol with him or pays for it, being liberal with his coin.

22
    Translated into English in the author’s work
The Secret Traditions of the Shinobi
.

23
    Masashige had two sons who took control. The first son Masatsura soon dies, when it was transferred to his brother Masanori.

24
    There is no evidence to show if any of these lines came directly from the Kusunoki family or if they are simply using the name to promote the reputation of the school in question.

25
    Translated by Sawyer as ‘Roving Officers’.

26
    Remembering that no contemporary records exist, this information comes from later sources.

27
    His death is not fully understood, reports of old wounds or snipers abound.

28
    The original text actually says ‘within’, which is geographically incorrect. His meaning here is that both shinobi of Iga
and
Koka are considered premier.

29
    Iga is hiring its own men, as before the invasion of Oda Nobunaga, Iga was independent. However, this campaign is in 1615, when Iga was annexed and under the rule of the Tokugawa regime and thus obliged to supply troops for the first time in its history to meet the army requirements of an ‘overlord’.

30
    Evidence for this is provided in a later chapter.

31
    This is based on the payment level of Hattori Hanzo’s father, Natori Masatake and the following grandmasters of the
Natori-ryu
and the work of Associate Professor Isoda. It may change with subsequent findings.

32
    A unit of pay based on a rice exchange economy. Twenty-five Koku is considered pay for a low level samurai, but above an
Ashigaru
foot soldier. A samurai of 10,000 Koku was a warlord.

33
    Both of which are translated in full later.

Concerning Kagi and Monogiki – Guards [against the ninja] are called Kagi or Monogiki, they are called this because [Kagu] is to ‘feel’ or ‘smell’ the presence and Chi of people, whilst Monogiki is to listen to the sounds around. These people circulate around your position as a precaution against the enemy’s shinobi no mono.

Heiho Nukigaki Hippu No Sho Gunshi No Maki
, 1689

W
hat makes the word ‘ninja’ so popular today? It is without doubt that the word ‘ninja’
is a relatively modern interpretation, instead of the historically correct and original version of ‘
shinobi no mono
’ or ‘shinobi’. However, this was not the only name for this division of warrior-spy. It is unclear when the term ‘ninja’ was first used, however early twentieth-century books tend to display phonetic markers which spell out ‘
nin-ja
’ next to the ideograms
which displays a level of uncertainty. In contrast, the phonetic sound of ‘shinobi’ is dominant throughout history and can be found in many examples, with pronunciation normally aided with ‘no’ between the two, making the reading ‘
shinobi (no) mono
‘
. Where the ideogram is not accompanied by phonetic markers, then its pronunciation is uncertain but most likely a variant on the term ‘shinobi’.