Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique (18 page)

Chi and Magic

Samurai life was medieval and at the same time that the samurai existed, in Europe there were the Crusades, the Renaissance, the witch trials, and many other medieval movements. Crime was detected by defeat in combat through the judgement of god, spells were used for many facets of life, charms and rituals were performed and medicine was in its infancy. What we see as “black magic” or connote as evil arts or ridiculous practices are not far removed from our own history. As a Christian knight would wear the cross, so a samurai would wear a divine talisman.

Chi

In Japanese, the Chinese word
chi
becomes
ki
. It is the idea of an internal spirit and energy that is found in the living world, in each person and in the air, and is understood by most people. In an army the gunbaisha’s task was to identify chi in the sky or the chi of the opposite army—they would observe shapes in the clouds and air to identify and divine future events or the feel of an enemy. Defeat, victory, fires, illness and an array of many other things were “predicted” through chi.

Chi of proceeding horses

Chi of the dragon flying in the clouds

Chi of the fan

Chi of victory

The teachings of chi are in depth and very detailed, with multiple variations, including differences in color and direction. A master would be skilled in chi and they would give their findings to the lord-commander.

Magic, Divination and Auspicious Dates

Magic in the world of the samurai normally consisted of talismans of protection and divine ritual magic that brings about a desired result or again, protection and even invisibility.

Magic

Magic is too loose a term to cover samurai arts of this nature. Some have foundations in Buddhism, others Shinto and others in shamanism. The subject is vast and potentially a limitless investigation. Shinobi and samurai would both use the now famous kuji-in, a form of self-protection normally formed by drawing a grid in the sky, projecting their will into the universe to bring about change and protection. In addition to this is the making of talismans, normally through some form of animal sacrifice, such as killing mating dogs or birds, turtles, etc., and other forms of what we would consider “magic,” i.e., practices that alter nature or bring about change through supernatural ways.

Samurai performing kuji-in

Auspicious directions and dates

The cardinal points and associations

Samurai warfare, especially in earlier times, would focus on the calculation of auspicious dates and directions. Deciding a date in this way is called
hidori
while deciding the direction is
katadori
. The general idea is to use ancient and sometimes secret systems of identifying which hour, day or year was auspicious for a samurai’s forces, yet ill-fated for the enemy. Different schools of thought grew around this concept and multiple elements were considered to discover the correct time. Three major factors played their part in this decision:

1.
十干
The Ten Celestial Stems—A ten day cycle and record.

2.
十二支
The Twelve Heavenly Bodies (also symbols, earthly branches, animals or zodiac)—The Japanese zodiac.

3.
五行
The Five Elements—Normally in connection with the direction that the army faced or the birth element of the lord, etc.

A master astrologer would use the above and have to take the following points into account to decide if an hour, day, year, direction or chi formation was beneficial for the allies but hostile for the enemy. They would consider:

♦
The direction the army are facing

♦
The day they left for war

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The day of the battle

♦
The hour of the battle

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The element of the year in reference to other factors

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The element of the allied and enemy lords

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The year of birth for the allied and enemy lords

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The position of evil directions in relation to the army, including evil stars in the night sky and the position of the gods at that time

♦
The movement of birds and animals

♦
The movement of flags and banners and how they act in the wind

♦
The types and color of chi visible in the sky

♦
The types and color of chi rising from an allied or enemy army

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The results of divination through such things as burning turtle shells

After consulting the teachings and skills of that school, the master astrologer would give his advice to the lord, who would match it to the advice of his more practical tacticians and make a decision on an army’s next move.

The shinobi also had to perform divination when they were to move out to attack or venture on a secret mission; the following elements are found in the shinobi curriculum:

♦
Divination by torches, to throw up to three torches—with spikes on the bottom—around an enemy target. The fumes from the sulphur and gunpowder mixtures would force an enemy to surrender, or at least be incapacitated; the torch that made the enemy surrender, be it number one, two, or three, would be used to divine a future attack.

♦
The sound of birds and the movement of birds in the sky

♦
The direction that the shinobi left home from

♦
The hour and day on which the shinobi left for his mission

♦
Before a shinobi infiltrated a position they would pick the most auspicious direction for that hour or day and in response defenders would defend those directions

♦
Divination through the observation of incense smoke would tell a shinobi if a mission was to be ill-fated or not

♦
The use of protective amulets to avert the eyes of the enemy and render the shinobi invisible

Samurai Vengeance Attacks

With the samurai being a knightly warrior class, honor and family are important central elements of a samurai’s being. The blood feud is a common factor in Western history and literature and family feuds, such as the infamous Campbells versus McDonalds of Scotland, have become the symbols of this form of warfare. Like the rest of the world, Japan has its fair share of family vendettas.

This form of conflict is called
adauchi
, and can be broken down into
仇
“grudge,” and
討
“killing” or “strike,” allowing it to be rendered as “grudge-strike” or “revenge-killing.” The idea of family feuds or revenge killings stretches back into samurai history. However for the main part, revenge killings and feuds become lost and mixed in with the turbulent war years—of which there are many in samurai history when most wars were feuds between clans—so therefore I will concentrate on the “peaceful” Edo Period. If a fight was initiated between samurai, and if one of them was killed, then this would start the legal procedure of “official murder.” The man to take up the act of revenge would report to his lord and ask for a leave of absence while he tracked down the enemy in question and attempted to kill him. If given permission and if the man was in his own domain, then a game of cat-and-mouse would start—deception, infiltration, street fights and blood would start to flow. However, if the enemy was in another province then the samurai would have to travel there as a rōnin, where he would have to report to the local magistrate and obtain permission to kill his target. The problem this caused is that, when officially registered the enemy knew that his pursuer was in town. If permission was granted, then the pursuer would hunt down his enemy and vengeance was unleashed. Having killed the enemy, the head of his opponent was his to take and vengeance was complete.