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What was Ninjutsu
I am posting this thread to try to get some ideas on what people think a Ninja or the art of Ninjutsu was or is. It appears that no one can give an definitive answer, and indeed there may be no answer. It may just depend on where one draws the line between Samurai at one end of the scale and Ninja at the other. Things as we know in life are never black or white. Yet what does kind of frustrate me really is that there are plenty of people that are willing to say 'this is not ninjutsu' or 'that is not ninjutsu' without coming back with 'This is ninjutsu'.
To give my two penneth before we start, I believe that the word Ninjutsu and Ninja have become coveralls for any art that accomplishes some kind of stealth movement, trickery or hiding etc. and thats the problem. How do we talk about what is and what is not ninjutsu without using the word Ninjutsu. Because as soon as one uses that word, whatever one talks about instantly becomes that i.e. ninjutsu.
Its a little like how we now use the word Vandal to describe anyone who destoys something, knowing that in the past the Vandals were a distinct cultural group that sacked Rome.
Some Ryu Ha we know that are not taught by Dr Hatsumi have the word Ninjutsu in their curriculum. But should we be asking ourselves 'Is this term there because the Ryu did have methods of spying (every army needs spies) and the word Ninjutsu is simply used as a term to denote what it is they are studying, and probably put there in recent times. After all according to Tanemura Sensei the term Ninja has only been around for about 50 years. Even the Kabuki theatre has people that are termed ninja that change the scene during a performance.
In the past of course there were terms such as Shinobi no Mono, Iga no Mono, Kancho, Suppa, Rappa etc but no Ninja (unless people know different). And it is highly likely that the people we think of as Ninja did not have a name for what they did. They may also have of course evolved and changed as time went on. Even if you were not a ninja, and knowing the Ninja had a image that created fear about them, then would'nt it be handy if you were a thief for example to call yourself a ninja and dress like one. Or were thieves who did a bit of sneaking around, Ninja?
When I think of the Ninja I think of these people that lived in the Iga mountains whose ancestors were high class people who were defeated by Heike troops, who then developed a method of self protection of the body, mind and spirit against forces that set out to destroy them. In my view these people may be of different genetic stock to the invaders, had widely different views and could probably be seen at the time as a completely seperate cultural group.
(Note, there is at this time a lot of research going on into the origins of the Ainu, Jomon and Japanese etc. One book that touches on this is The archaeology of Human Bones by Simon May)
So what was Ninjutsu. was it:
1/ A martial arts schools that was practiced in Iga (For example Gyokko Ryu, Kukishin Ryu)
2/ A Schools that was used by people like Sandayu Momochi (For example Gyokko Ryu, Koto ryu)
3/ A Schools that has elements of hiding, stealth etc within it (togakure Ryu).
4/ A school that has no physical techniques but is based on tactics, strategy, methods of spying and/or philosophy (Possibly Gyokushin Ryu)
5/ A school i.e Katori Shinto Ryu that although a Samurai school has Ninjutsu within it.
6/ Or any combination of the above.
As I pointed out, there may not be any definitive answer to this, but I think it would be intersting to find out what peoples views are. The problem is with this and many other posts is that people try to argue over semantics. I urge you then to see this post for what it is (and this has been extremely difficult to write so that people understand it) and lets have some interesting discussion and not a free for all.
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