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The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art. Stephen K. Hayes
Читать онлайн.Название The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781462901838
Автор произведения Stephen K. Hayes
Издательство Ingram
My thanks go out to the staff of the Iga-Ueno Ninja Museum for information on the military aspects of Iga Ryu ninjutsu. They were there for me in the years long before Iga-Ueno became a popular attraction for tourists. I appreciate their allowing me to photograph their displays and reproduce them in this book.
I also wish to thank Rumiko Urata for her long hours of assistance in translating obscure Japanese documents. Who would have guessed in the late 1970s that she would become my bride, and we would celebrate daughters and then grandchildren as the years unfolded?
I greatly appreciate the friendship and aid of Koyu Tanaka. He so generously helped me get established in my new home in Japan. Many were our late night conversations in my humble little house on the Edo River.
And lastly, a thank you nod to the late Charles E. Tuttle, who signed my original contract for this book. He got me started on this wild, twisted adventure that has been my life since those daring days back in the 1970s.
I should mention that in these pages I have done my best to recall my training and conversations as accurately as possible. The conversations have been translated from Japanese into English, and edited for continuity. I assume responsibility for any mistakes or misinterpretations.
—STEPHEN K. HAYES
In an era over eight centuries ago, when Japan was composed of many independent feudal states and war was frequent, Daisuke of the Togakure family once suffered heavy losses in battle. Retreating into the mountains, he came upon the teachings of the warrior-priest Kain Doshi. There in the fog-shrouded peaks of Iga Province, Daisuke studied long and hard a new art of combat, new ways to use the body and spirit, a new vision. From this mystic teaching he learned to move freely without being perceived, and how to work his will without action. With the knowledge of these secrets, Daisuke emerged from the mists of Iga the master of a new concept of accomplishment. Thus was born the legend of the shadow warriors of Togakure.
(From a tale of the origin of the Togakure-ryu ninja
Woven into the rich fabric of Japanese cultural, political, and religious history is the story of an incredible art of espionage and individual combat. Its name is ninjutsu 忍術, the art of stealth, the way of invisibility, and its practitioners were the legendary spies and commandos of feudal Japan known as the ninja 忍者. Ninjutsu flourished amid the civil turmoil of the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. During this period the art was refined into a deadly science, incorporating sophisticated techniques for warfare, intelligence gathering, and spiritual development. When the odds were unfavorable or dishonor threatened, the ninja could be hired to bring victory and restore the harmony of society through espionage or assassination. Often a few black-garbed ninja could do by subtle means what it would have taken hundreds of armored soldiers to accomplish. It was these exploits that gave rise to legends that are still popular in Japan today.
The ninja’s guiding philosophy was to choose the dark, quiet, and subtle method over the bold, active, and forceful. In this way, the natural order of events was disturbed as little as possible. Suggestion took the place of force, deception replaced confrontation, and the adversary was guided into unknowingly doing the ninja’s bidding instead of being crushed in humiliating defeat. This psychological slant characterized ninjutsu, and allowed the ninja to accomplish the most while expending minimum energy and exposing himself to the least amount of danger.
Its practitioners considered ninjutsu to be a comprehensive art for the attainment of their goals, “the art of winning.” This approach required a graphic visualization of the goal and unswerving commitment to reaching it, all under the guidance of perfect moral judgment. The ninja were commoners, far below the exalted status of the samurai warrior class, and thereby free of the samurai’s rigid code of honor and prescribed way of handling situations. The samurai had to balance the dual considerations of achieving his goal and maintaining the honor and prestige of the family name, whereas the ninja was able to concentrate his energy exclusively on the goal at hand, having no honor or name to protect. Because of this total commitment, the service of the ninja commanded a high price.
Women as well as men were trained in the complex art of ninjutsu. Kunoichi (female ninja) posing as dancers, entertainers, or servants were often used for observation or espionage inside the enemy camp. Many times female assassins were able to gain the confidence of their victims through beauty and charm when other means of attack had proven futile.
ORIGIN
Looking back over a thousand years of history, it is difficult to sort out fact from fancy. There is no documentary evidence to support any one theory of the birth of this obscure art. The stories of the superstitious tell of the ninja’s descent from the tengu, terrifying long-nosed demons said to be half man and half crow, and supposedly possessed of the ability to alter the laws of nature and the workings of men’s minds.
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2. Ancient documents preserving the lore of the ninja.
3. Scroll depicting a ninja climbing tool.
Probably closer to the actual playing out of history are scrolls indicating that the art had its ultimate source in military men who fled collapsing T’ang China around A.D. 900. When the mainland kingdoms that had employed them fell, generals and commanders such as Ikai, Cho Busho, and Cho Gyokko found themselves hunted men, and so sought sanctuary across the narrow sea on the islands of Japan. Their teachings found receptive ears and blended with the indigenous attitudes and approaches to warfare.
As well as Chinese military tactics there came the closely related teachings of Chinese mysticism, developed from the esoteric knowledge of India and Tibet. Chinese monks and shamans came to dwell in the forests and caves of the Kii Peninsula beginning about A.D. 1024. They expounded systems of integrated mind-body awareness, based on personal understanding of the order of the universe, which were taken up by the Japanese yamabushi (mountain warrior-priests), and sennin and gyoja (warrior-ascetics of the wilderness). Chinese mystic priests such as Kain Doshi, Gamon Doshi, and Kasumikage Doshi, as well as their Japanese disciples, are said to have been the. teachers of the original ninja families. These beliefs remained closely associated with the ninja even after they became codified into the mikkyo (esoteric doctrine) sect of Buddhism in later years.
Ninjutsu coalesced gradually from a mixture of these Chinese and native Japanese elements; unlike most Oriental religions and martial arts, it was never actually founded at any one specific point in history. The basic body of knowledge that was later called ninjutsu was at first considered merely an unconventional way of looking at situations and accomplishing things. What went on to eventually become a highly systematic method of combat and espionage began as a shadowy counterculture, a reaction against the mainstream of Japanese political and social tradition.
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4, 5. Old books explaining ninja tactics and symbolism.
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6.