A relatively common trope today is that of the noble and honorable Samurai warrior opposed by their shadowy brother from another mother, the mystical and morally corrupt, black garbed assassin warrior known as the ninja.

These fabled shadow warriors of Japanese history have been a staple of modern pop culture since around the 1960s when super-spy James Bond encountered them on a trip to Japan in You Only Live Twice. Prior to this, ninjas were something few people outside of their homeland were aware of. This has contributed to the real-world history of the ninja and their origins being rather chock full of admittedly awesome myths and legends, all surrounding them like a thick, shadowy fog.

Something we feel the ninjas of history would feel proud of. Afterall, hiding and remaining unseen is sort of their whole deal… And, indeed, even in their time, they seemed to like to play up some of the stories that arose around what they were capable of and how they did what they did.

This all brings us to the topic of today- just who were the ninja and what did they actually get up to in reality?

To begin with, in a nutshell the ninja were elite, mercenary spies that also doubled as a type of swiss army knife of special forces, skilled in everything from sabotage, espionage, ambush, arson, assasination, to there is even evidence that they were highly trained in first aid and use of various medicines.

As historian Yamada Yüji notes, “You need to know the topography of the enemy’s position, the condition of his food supplies, the structure of his castle. It was the job of the shinobi [ninja] to obtain this kind of crucial information. They would infiltrate the enemy domain and ascertain the lay of the land…and create chaos through acts of sabotage and arson.”

On that note, debunking our first ninja myth, there’s no historical record of them dressing in the stereotypical ninja outfits we all know and love today. Because the thing was, wearing such garb would be one heck of a way for them to stand out in many types of missions.

As such, ninjas mostly seem to have worn the garb of everything from monk to farmer to servant- whatever a particular mission required, rather than any set uniform.

We’ll have some examples of them doing just this later on, but for now, ninjas so commonly wearing the clothing of farmers and the like even gave rise to the idea for a time that they were mostly simple farmers who simply took money for spying. While there certainly were individuals who did just that, when talking actual ninjas as we think of them, they were anything but simple, and there are even nobles who were samurai who are known to have been trained up in ninjitsu. More on this later.

But for now, let’s look at the origin of the ninja.

As you might expect, as in pretty much every other group since humans have been humaning, spies in some form have seemingly always existed. So pinpointing when exactly the ninja got their start isn’t fully clear, and this general timespan with which they popped up depends on how you choose to define them.

For example, if you choose to define the Japanese “ninja” as a person who eschews the usual “accepted” rules of engagement and employs subterfuge and guile in their information gathering and the like, ninja have been around as long as people have been living in Japan.

As for the name, that doesn’t really help out either and was around long before what most today would consider ninja. And for reference here, the more common name for ninja in Japan, shinobi, or shinobi no mono, simply roughly means “spy”, with a more literal translation being either “those who act in stealth” or “a person of stealth” or more aptly “sneaky person”.

As for the term ninja, this is just a different way to pronounce the Kanji characters here, though note, doesn’t appear to have been common until much more recently in history, particularly catching on in the Western world in the 20th century as the preferred name for this group.

But going back to ninja history “they’ve always sort of been around” is admittedly not all that satisfying an answer, which is presumably why Japanese folklore credits legendary hero Yamato Takeru as being, if not the first ninja, the alleged first figure in Japanese mythological history to ignore the traditional “rules” of combat to defeat their foes. In essence, becoming the first ninja if not literally, then spiritually.

Now, we’ll get into the better documented, less mythologized origins in a second, but for now, according to this legend, Yamato Takero was born a prince of the Yamato Kingdom sometime in the first century and spent the bulk of his life being a badass who repeatedly defied seemingly impossible odds time and time again using his peerless intellect and boundless creativity.

For example, one of the most popular legends about the wily prince, and the one that has him being singled out as either the first ninja or at least the folkloric origins of the term, is when he was tasked with putting down a rebellion. The prince, who at this point in the tale was known by his birthname, Wo-Usu, opted not to challenge the rebel leader directly, but instead donned the traditional garb of a shrine maiden and simply walked into his camp. This disguise is said to have worked flawlessly, in part because the prince was known to possess delicate, feminine features and also because he immediately set about getting the rebel leader drunk.

When the rebel leader was suitably soused, the prince revealed the deception and stabbed him to death with a concealed sword, with the rebel leader being said to have used his last ounce of strength to compliment the prince on the balls it took to strike him down at his literal seat of power. In addition to helping quell the rebellion, the act earned the prince the title of Yamato Takeru, which roughly translates to The Brave of Yamato.

For anybody daring to question the validity of any of this, you should first know that on his way home from stabbing the rebel leader to death in his own home, Yamato Takeru challenged and subsequently kicked the crap out of a handful of gods who opposed his father’s rule, as you do.

On top of that, at some point the prince also obtained the Kusanagi, a fabled weapon of Japanese history said to have been personally wielded by the sun goddess Amaterasu before falling into mortal hands. Not that the prince needed it, as the Brave of Yamato personally slayed countless foes with nothing but his wits. Though we imagine it was handy for lopping off god heads.

Proving once and for all that he really did these things and was the first ninja. I mean, how else do you think all those gods died off, hmmmm? Do you see any of those gods alive today?

Checkmate Yamato doubters.

As for his many exploits and growing confidence to be able to do anything, this eventually proved to be the cunning prince’s downfall when he was tasked with felling a mighty mountain god.

In this one, the prince was so supremely confident in his abilities that upon being given the task of killing this god, he boasted “As for the deity of this mountain, I will simply take him empty-handed.”

The god, offended by this boast, decided to take a leaf out of the prince’s book and confronted him on his journey up the mountain in the form of either a boar or snake and attacked him while his back was turned.

The duplicitous deity defeated the hero prince and because of his many sneaky exploits, today the legend of Yamato Takeru is now intrinsically linked with the mythological origins of ninja.

As for the actual history and origin of the ninja, for those who dare doubt the greatness of Yamato, schools for this backroom fighting using guerilla tactics have been around in Japan since at least the 12th century, with one of the earliest such started by a samurai by the name of Daisuke Togakure and a Chinese warrior-monk by the name of Kain Doshi… which if that isn’t a pairing made for Hollywood or a pretty kick-butt adventure game or novel, I don’t know what is.

But the product of these two’s work together was what is sometimes considered the first ninjitsu school. Although it should be noted that there is some contention over the historical accuracy of many elements of this origin story.

Moving on from there, the art of ninjitsu really seemed to ramp up in the ballpark of the 15th century, during the rather chaotic, war filled Sengoku Period, at least as far as being when the ninjas as we’d understand them today began to emerge and ply their shadowy trade for fun and profit en masse.

However, again, for centuries prior throughout Japan, feudal warlords and and their ilk would employ various asymmetric warfare tactics, or if we want to use the scientific term- “dick moves”, like burning down a rival’s castle or assassinating members of their leadership hierarchy when it suited them.

Further, such tactics aren’t unique to Japanese history, with militaries throughout all of human history making use of them. There is literally an entire chapter of The Art of War, written in the 5th century BCE, dedicated to setting the enemy on fire that not only encourages you to do so whenever possible, but to take advantage of the chaos it causes by stealing their stuff or attacking them as they try to put it out.

However, why the Sengoku Period is generally pointed to for the ninjas origins is that it was around this time that specific schools to train up such individuals started popping up around Japan, with the most famous and most skilled coming from the regions of Iga and Koka, though note, contrary to what is sometimes said, these were not the only places individuals wanting to become ninjas could be trained in Japan, just allegedly these two groups were the best.

For whatever reason, the clans here simply took the idea of such a special operations warrior spy and ran with it, becoming highly sought after for their prodigious skills. In fact, so associated with the craft were these regions that at a certain point, Iga-mono actually became a euphemism for “spy”.

As for potential factors that went into cultivating these talents, Iga and Koka were seen as being of little geographic, political or military importance by warring feudal lords during the Sengoku period and the years leading up to it, so the people there were largely left to do their own thing.

However, that’s not to say they didn’t have to defend themselves from time to time, and given their relative inability to do so with a grand army or any such if attacked, it’s speculated left the peoples of these two regions much more willing to think outside the box, throwing out many of the established honorable “rules” of war. Sure, poisoning the enemy commanders or sneaking in and burning buildings down with they or their warriors inside may not have been the honorable way to do battle, but it was a way that a handful of people could get the job done against a potentially vastly superior force.

Thus, in the end these so-called peasant-warriors banded together and came up with some rather ingenious ways to keep from being conquered, ultimately creating family clans that specialized in this art form, with, in turn, their remote location thought to have helped in maintaining secrecy on their training and how they went about doing what they did. Going further, by the mid-16th century, the Iga and Koka also formed an alliance and began working together.

Or to quote Yuji Yamada, the vice-president of the International Ninja Research Center, which my school counselor definitely should have told me was a job option,

“Iga farmers might have joined forces with local outlaw groups to fight for their sovereignty.”

Being humble farmers without access to military training or weaponry, the people of Iga and Koka instead took to weaponising whatever they had to hand. For example the kama, a small cutting tool not dissimilar from a sickle, is closely associated with ninjas, but sources suggest Iga and Koka villagers weren’t above using stuff as simple as a kitchen knife to defend themselves. Over time, and as the reputation of each village grew, and they began to train and arm themselves not out of necessity, but deliberately, such weapons and tactics weren’t abandoned. Simply refined.

Appropriately, the training, techniques and history of these proto-ninja were shrouded in secrecy and even today, we know precious little about any of it, with most information we do have been gleaned from three secret surviving ninja scrolls.

Which yes, are a thing.

As an aside, the aforementioned Yuji Yamada actually studies and teaches classes on these “ninjitsu manuals” meaning he’s technically a Professor of Ninja Studies.

Seriously, come on guidance counselors. Up your game! It was right there!!!!

And on that note, yes, it is possible to get a degree in Ninja-ology, with Yamada being one of the people who teaches that course at Mie University.

Sadly, something worth mentioning is that while a lot of sites reported on the course as being one you can take to “officially” be recognised as a ninja, Yamada has stressed in interviews on what exactly the course entails, that this is not the case. He states,“This is a course to learn about the ninja, not to become one.”

But in any event, at the same time the Iga and Koka were refining the art of ninjitsu, feudal lords of Japan fully realised how useful a skillset this was, and at some point realized the people of Iga and Koka were particularly exceptional at this style of warfare and began more or less proclaiming on high to these clans “Shut up and take my money.”

Moving on from there, contrary to popular belief, ninjitsu is not a martial art and any person claiming to teach it as such is likely in desperate need of a powerful laxative, owing to being full of crap.

That’s not to say ninja weren’t trained up in various fighting skills, just there’s no record of incorporating any specific rigid fighting style, and in fact of the three surviving texts outlining their training and the equipment they used, they do not mention fighting without a weapon even once. Instead, they were simply trained in use of a myriad of weapons, contraptions, and the like that could be helpful over the course of their duties.

As the Igaryu Ninja Museum sum up –

“A person who uses Ninjutsu is a ninja. Ninjutsu is not a martial art. Ninjutsu is an independent art of warfare that developed mainly in the regions of Iga in Mie Prefecture, and Koka in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.”

So, let us now look at some of the specific activities of these ninja mercenaries. Leading off with their propensity to burn things to the ground, in 1541 we have a combined force of Iga and Koka clan ninjas doing exactly that, as recorded in a 16th century diary, “This morning…, the Iga-shu entered Kasagi castle in secret and set fire to a few of the priests’ quarters. They also set fire to outbuildings in various places inside the San-no-maru. They captured the ichi-no-maru (inner bailey) and the ni-no-maru (second bailey).”

17 years later a group of 48 ninja burned the Sawayama Castle via first stealing a lantern bearing the family’s crest, at which point they then made replicas of that lantern. They then dressed as samurai and with the lanterns bearing the appropriate crest in hand, managed to get into the castle, at which point they set it on fire.

The stories of their abilities at burning things to the ground are both frequent and one of the few things they got up to that are relatively easy to see in documented history, or at least when it involved things like burning castles.

Getting back to the training of ninjas, the ninjitsu manuals mentioned previously seem to indicate that ninjas from the Iga and Koka clans adhered to an “all’s fair in love and war” philosophy. For example, a less-than-savory tip given to ninjas tasked with reconnaissance of a fortified position was to find a dead body, or, you know, make one… cut it open and then check the contents of the stomach. If the stomach contains meat and vegetables, it’s a good sign the location is well supplied. If it only contained staples such as rice or even no food at all, that’s a good indication those inside aren’t eating well- a rather valuable piece of information in a siege, for example.

Speaking of food, the manuals also include advice on avoiding food that would cause body odour and instead stick to hearty, simple staples. Nestled in there is also advice on portable foodstuffs for the ninja on the go.

For the curious, to stave off hunger, ninjas would mix “carrots, buckwheat flour, wheat flour, yam, licorice root, and rice flour which was steeped in sake for three years”.
Yes, three years.
This calorie-dense mixture was shaped into small balls and then dried out. The result was a so-called “hunger-ball” the size of a peach pit a ninja could carry on their person and use to satisfy their hunger in a pinch.

…Or possibly a practical joke played on us all by the ninjas, no doubt laughing their butts off thinking how later peoples would spend three years making this and then tasting the revolting results.

On that note, according to Max Miller of the phenomenal channel Tasting History, which fun fact is one of the only history channels I watch because, you know, I do this all day, so in my offtime watching other similar channels would be more like work… But Tasting History? Max Miller? Chef’s kiss… and a different angle on it all in focussing on cuisine.

But in any event, Mr. Miller spent three years making and then tasted these food balls and notes they are, in fact, disgusting.

Or to quote him directly, “It says to have three of these to stave off hunger, but maybe if you have three of these you just don’t want to eat anymore… Utter disappointment… It’s so bitter. They’re terrible. Absolutely terrible. The texture’s terrible. The flavor is terrible… Ya, 1 out of 10.”

I have literally never seen him more disgusted while chewing in any of his phenomenal videos.

In any event, the ninja also made a concoction of “crushed plum pulp, put with rye ergot (a fungus that grew on grass) and crystallized sugar”. The mixture would again be dried and formed into a ball that the ninja could carry on their person.

As for moving around, the ninja manuals detail numerous techniques for stealth as well as tips on conditioning. Some of these would seem intuitive, like walking on your tip toes to avoid noise, but the manuals stress drilling these movements until they are not just second nature, but something a ninja can do without exertion, particularly useful for avoiding heavy breathing.

On that note, the manuals also contain advice on breathing, as well as how to make footwear that’s particularly good for stealth, essentially just by attaching layers of cotton to the underside of sandals, as well as how to make things like makibishi, or caltrops, from commonly available materials like bamboo to help slow down pursuers. The scrolls even include tips on how to keep dogs from barking, as well as the best method of defending yourself if attacked by multiple people at once. If you’re curious on this one, they recommend focusing on attacking to your right, as well as throwing special powders the ninja would make into the eyes of your opponents, so you can use that great cardio training and stealth to get away.

This advice dovetails into information about conditioning which tells aspiring ninja to endlessly hone their bodies, encouraging the repetition of movements that would strengthen the body as well as practising things like climbing, running and swimming.

A speedy and quiet ninja is an alive ninja, after all.

There are also entire sections on both disguise and infiltration, which brings us back around to their garb. No mention here of ninjas seeming to have dressed in all black outfits with a cool, face-obscuring mask.

That would just be a great way to stand out and eventually identify that you were a ninja, which being identified as such was the last thing any ninja on a mission would want to have happen.

Instead, as mentioned, ninjas wore things like the traditional garb of a peasant farmer in their day-to-day life, or otherwise adopting similar disguises as necessary to infiltrate or blend in, everything from samurai to monk to traveling musician, with it being noted that, in order to disguise themselves as the latter, some ninjas would even learn how to play traditional instruments to an acceptable level to sell the ruse that they were just a simple traveling bard.

Ninjas were committed to the bit, essentially.

In the event they didn’t need to hide in plain sight and instead sneak into a place without being seen at all, it’s speculated they’d likely have worn dark blue rather than black, given black tends to stand out against the dark of night better, whereas dark blue typically blends exceptionally well.

Likewise it’s speculated that the outfits worn during such endeavors would also have been extremely baggy so as to disguise a ninja’s silhouette as much as possible, not dissimilar from a modern ghillie suit used by many militaries around the globe.

The folds of such an outfit could also be used to hide a great deal of weapons and tools necessary for the ninja’s mission.

Although, whether that’s actually what they wore when sneaking about at night or not, the ninja scrolls do recommend only bringing what you absolutely needed for a given mission so as not to get slowed down by carrying too much.

As to where the idea of them wearing the more stereotypical black, masked outfits today came from, this appears to have first popped up in Edo theater, with such entertainment also seeming to be where the idea that the ninjas were sort of the magical, dishonorable counterparts to the honorable samurai was likewise proliferated.

Despite the fact that, as mentioned, there are several known instances of individuals who were samurai, who were also trained up as highly skilled ninja as well. The two were not mutually exclusive- ninjitsu just being a skillset anyone could acquire with training, and a rather useful one for a warrior. These skills then tended to be passed down within families.

Let’s now jump back to their skills beyond stealth, with the various ninja groups developing a truly staggering amount of ways to ruin someone’s day.

As for weapons, they were once again trained in everything from knives, shears, farm implements, to even simple nails to do their deadly work. In fact, their seeming preference to train up in using weapons derived from farm implements is speculated to have also helped them pass as farmers carrying tools of their trade… that just so happened to also be capable of being used as a deadly weapon if one needed.

They also seem to have created a number of custom weapons for various purposes, though in some cases it isn’t actually clear whether they invented something, or simply found specific things useful for their work. This includes things like metal offcuts in the so-called Ninja Star, which made for a great small makeshift dagger of sorts in close quarters, while also could be thrown at opponents in a pinch. Noteworthy, actual evidence of their use, as in so much with ninjas, is hard to come by, given how secretive the groups were with regards to their craft.

Likewise, we have the ninjato sword, commonly wielded by ninjas in pop culture including perhaps the most famous ninja of all, Leonardo of the Ninja Turtles. Legend posits that the sword was created by ninjas to serve as an alternative to a katana and that its design reflects the ninja’s more direct, and quick fighting style, as well as its shorter size better suited for close quarters than a katana, and the straight edge also being better for stabbing.

They also allegedly used a variety of devices to deliver poisons, everything from blowguns to hollowed out eggshells filled with such substances, designed to be thrown directly into the face of opponents.

On top of this, there are references to various bits of everything from custom climbing equipment to even tiny collapsable boats and similar small collapsable ladders that they allegedly used. They also seemed to have been trained extensively in lock picking. The list goes on and on. Essentially, would a skill or tool be useful in infiltrating enemy camps or locations? Well, they probably had something for that.

And, of course, ninjas were masters of fire. This fact, along with their ability to seemingly just up and disappear, seems to have lent some credence among the masses to the ninja’s mystical abilities, when, in fact, they just developed a number of devices that utilized gunpowder, and were really quiet and quick.

On this note, what is generally well known is that rudimentary firearms were first introduced to Japan in the late mid 1500s by the Portuguese. What’s less well known is that the ability to make gunpowder was already known in the region, with the recipe said to have been gleaned from information learned from Chinese immigrants to Japan over the previous few centuries. While not widely used across Japan, at some point the villages of Iga and Koka not only became adept at the creation of a very rudimentary version of gunpowder, but were endlessly creative in utilising it.

This led to the creation of things like primitive flamethrowers, bottle rockets that could be used to send messages or alert people to their presence, small firecrackers that could distract or otherwise confuse an opponent, to even hand held grenades, with some designs for various gunpowder laden contraptions even appearing in the aforementioned ninja scrolls.

And just for fun, the show Ninja Truth, which had Mr. Ninja Professor himself, Yuji Yamada, in as an expert, decided to test some of these things using period appropriate tools and materials.

Perhaps the most impressive device uncovered by the team was a small gun that could be concealed inside of a dagger-like holster. Essentially, the ninjas had made a gun knife.

Which is incredibly ninja because, as everybody knows, nobody expects a gun knife.

Of course, the show was careful to clarify that even with historical documents, little discussed in the episode could be taken as gospel. In part because the documents, even being hundreds of years old, themselves are likely based on oral recollections, with things modified over time.

In the end, ninjas and their clans just kept an incredible amount secret while plying their trade, keenly aware that the less people knew about them and how they did what they did, the better they’d be able to leverage their reputation, and the more they could charge for their services, given the skills and devices they had that few others did.

In short, when it comes to ninjas, basically nothing can be taken as gospel.

As for what happened to the ninja, well, as the centuries rolled on, while warriors and spies continued to exist, the likes of the specialized classes of ninjas and Samurai went the way of the dodo.

That said, as they faded into history, their legends only grew in theater and other forms of entertainment- something that has continued to this day. This has given rise to a number of myths about both groups, though with arguably the myths about ninjas being far more outlandish, primarily owing to that so much of what they did was done in secret.

But bottom line, the more less perfected ninja were mostly just incredibly well trained spies and special forces operatives, many of whom hired out their services to various warring groups who needed a castle burned, intel from the inside of their enemy camps, or the like, with these skills still common among certain professions to this day, if perhaps the means in which the people get the job done may have changed over the years- from dressing as monks to infiltrate a castle, to wearing a suit and tie and bearing credentials of an academic at an educational symposium.

Which by the way, if you watch our video on what it’s actually like to be a spy in modern times, this is one of the top ways the various spy organizations the world over today recruit spies from other nations, with apparently many an educational symposium even secretly put on by entities like the CIA themselves in order to target specific PhDs, engineers, and the like they’d like to get their meathooks in.

In short, want a specific individual to be recruited as a spy who’s an expert in a certain branch of nuclear physics and working for your enemies’ program you’d like more information on? Well, fund an awesome symposium somewhere tropical that’s centered around their exact area of expertise and then make sure they get an invitation, maybe even all expenses paid if they’re willing to come present their latest paper at it. Then, you know, while they’re there, have one of your agents smooze them up, and ultimately offer them a deal if they seem like they might be open to it.