Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique
Authors: Antony Cummins
Tags: #Non-Fiction, #History, #Asia, #Japan, #Military, #Espionage
SAMURAI
and
NINJA
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for them continuing support. Firstly, to Yoshie Minami and Mieko Koizumi for their constant help and translation, without them the world of the samurai and shinobi would still be dark. Next is Daniel Tennent, I would like to thank him for his ever encouraging words and his insight into warfare. Also, to Paul Martin, who has a great understanding of the Japanese sword, a researcher, who has dedicated his life to samurai history. Appreciation must go to Richard Gillies who has helped fund the acquisition of rare books and scrolls and also to Rob Simmons, Kevin Aspinall and Robert Lee, who have created the wonderful images found within these pages. To Gian Piero Costabile for his image of the Fukushima-Ryu boat and to Rien de Rooij who generously supplied me with the Fukushima-Ryu documents from his own collection. Ben Morgan for his continued and very ‘English’ style of support. Lastly to Jacob Sipes, for editing early drafts.
SAMURAI
and
NINJA
The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior
Myth that Shatters the Bushido Mystique
by
ANTONY CUMMINS
TUTTLE
Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
Copyright © 2015 Antony Cummins
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
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Contents
The Search for the Samurai and the Shinobi
Part I
TEARING THE WORLD OF THE SAMURAI AND NINJA APART
Question: There are some clans which adore those people who know much about archery, horse riding, swordsmanship, spearsmanship, etc., and who encourage their men to practice and practice; on the other hand there are those clans who do not. What can be said about this?
Answer: While practicing with sword and spear is not so useful, it can be an appropriate pastime for samurai, and therefore it is called
Heiho
—“the Way of the Soldier.” Contests with bamboo swords can be of some use—however, you should not think that you can escape death by practicing such things. That being said, with those skills, you may be seen as blessed and formidable when fighting the enemy. Also, even if things result in you being killed, you will not have died in vain if you injure the enemy, be it even a small amount. This is
the
real goal to be achieved at the cost of your life. As you are from a samurai clan, it is important to know the ways of archery, horse riding, the sword and spear, etc.
Generally in Budo, you should hope to be regarded as honorable after your death through the preparations you have made while living. Know that even if you are killed during a spectacular combat but [died] due to ill fate, if you were deeply determined and were fully prepared for everything at all times, and if you have realized that lady luck has left you but you still fight a spectacular fight—your death will be mourned.
The Gunpo Jiyoshu Military War Manual
, Volume I, c. 1612–19
The Search for the Samurai
and the Shinobi
As the twentieth century came to a close, something quite special happened. The study of Western knights and medieval combat shifted. Movies began to change, imagery began to adapt, and ingrained ideas began to fall away. The medieval knights of Europe were transformed from a clunking shiny Victorian hero figure into a dynamic, powerful and robust specialist practiced in war craft. He no longer swung a heavy sword with bent back, nor was he lifted onto a horse with a mechanical pulley system. Now the knight flashed with deadly skill as the intricate art of Western swordsmanship was rediscovered. In addition, we discovered that the knight was a very complex character. They were war masters, trained from youth to serve a lord, be experienced in the arts of the siege and defense, and master the various machines of his time; all with an aim bent on killing the enemy. The knight was no longer a two dimensional figure who sang beneath ladies’ bedrooms in the evening and fought the unholy dragon in the red light of dawn. His identity changed to the noble killer with a chivalric code that was an
ideal
and not a
reality
; a trained warrior wrapped in the fervent dedication of Christianity. This was all polished with education in various forms, the strings of ritual and an appreciation for beauty, all of which brought about a much more complex figure than previously believed.
In full contrast to this, the samurai and the shinobi of Japan remain in the looming shadow of modern fantasy and romance. The samurai is now widely believed to be a knight who charges headlong into death for the love of a lord. They also have a mysterious and magical blade, which can cut through any material. In the day he meditates on loyalty and is gifted with blessed enlightenment, but in the night, he fearfully protects against his famously dreaded enemy—the ninja. This outline is as redundant as the knight fighting a dragon next to a maiden locked in a tower, and it belongs in one place; story books. Of all the associations that exist for the samurai, one of them has fallen from grace, which by rights should not have. The samurai were classically termed as the “knights of the East,” the Japanese equivalent to the European warrior class. This connection has fallen by the wayside in recent years, yet it is one founded in reality. The samurai share so many common traits with the European knight that the differences are found in the details, not in the principles. Therefore a revolution of the samurai should be moving in tandem with the revolution of the knight.
The increasing interest in the European knight has not been replicated for the samurai or the shinobi. In fact, quite the reverse has taken place. With the craze of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) taking the world by storm, things Japanese have been pushed back into the realm of cliché and comedy. The samurai are fast becoming a vague, diluted shadow of a reality that once existed. They were real warriors, but with little or no respect in a modern fighter’s world. It is now time for the
revolution of the samurai
, and like his Western counterpart, he too will undergo a change of image. Here you will see the samurai change from the obedient, enlightened, Victorian-style super warrior to the very real, very deadly, medieval Japanese knight. These warriors were trained in military arts, siege warfare, and castle defense. They were trained as mounted riders who tore through enemy territory in scouting war bands. The Samurai were educated scholar-warriors who attempted to understand the mysteries of the world through a deep and religious philosophy. Contrarily, there were also those whom threw philosophy away for personal advance, treachery, wealth, and above all, bloodlust. Observe the military headhunter, the head-taker who, like the tribes of old, took the heads of their enemies as gruesome trophies to be displayed as a measure of his prowess. You will also find the tactician, a mastermind of war alongside the
chi
masters; those select few who scan the enemy for omens of doom in the
chi
riding above them in the sky. There will even be fire-masters, the owners of flame and explosives. Therein will be standard-bearers giving forth their war cries to a backdrop of flame and smoke. Yet above all of these, we will investigate one special samurai military entity—the infamous ninja.
The ninja were a specialist branch of samurai warfare and were an integral part of the Japanese war machine. They were not outside of the samurai system and nor was their task the duty of lower people, under the iron fist of samurai rule. The ninja were a selection of specially trained people—often from specialist families—who concentrated on systems of espionage and infiltration. They maintained spy networks across the different principalities of Japan and gathered information from the highways of the world. Meeting in secret and in dark corners of enemy territory they plotted against each other and against enemy lords. They built complex pictures of a clan’s resources, the feel of the people, the standards and banners used by its officers. The ninja also drew detailed plans of enemy castles, towns, highways and byways. They could be hidden in the ranks of an army, waiting for secret orders to be given for them to move on a mission of stealth, or alternatively, they could be hired to defend a lord and his castle. However, what is fixed in our minds is what ninja are famous for above all things: stealth. They skulk in the black of night, climbing a castle wall in windy rains, or creep through bamboo groves hiding from the moon, moving in the silhouette of a target’s house, to murder everyone in their beds. All of these things are part of the samurai way of life. Now is the time for these truths to catch up with the rest of history. That is to say, restore the samurai to his rightful place as one of the most professional and deadly warriors of all time.
The history of the samurai and the ninja has previously followed two paths; the
academic
and the
fantastical
. Both have been rolled together to form a complex mess of half-truths. An extreme and impressive level of historical detail has been studied, yet forged with hearsay and romanticism. Therefore, this book has two simple aims: make that which is complex easy, and in doing so, eradicate that which is false. This means that this volume will purposely avoid an overuse of Japanese, it will not ask you to remember lists of names and dates. It will not bog you down in technical trivia. This book will destroy the half-history and deliver a solid, yet simplified, realistic foundation. From this you can return to other more complex books on medieval Japan and appreciate them with a new depth of understanding. Overall it will be a series of steps that act as a map, allowing you to journey through samurai life without the confusion of having to understand the intricacies of Japanese history.
It is my ardent wish that you now wipe your mind clean of all the movies, the comics and the stories you have read. Right now, imagine your mind as a blank sheet of paper. In beautiful, dark calligraphy the word “samurai” appears at the top of this parchment. Then as you move forward, chapter by chapter, allow a new historical image of the Japanese knight to draw itself on the page. In the end you will be left with a clearer understanding of this warrior class. From this fresh image, a new respect will grow for these historical warriors and, ultimately, a thirst for more historically accurate knowledge on the long-dead knights of the East.