Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique (32 page)

窃盗の者嗜みの事

Shinobi no mono Tashinami no Koto

Shinobi no mono should maintain discretion

As a Bushi warrior, you should harshly restrict yourself from falling into evil-mindedness. This applies especially to those who have mastered shinobi ways and conduct various tactics. All of which are justified no matter what tactics are deployed, as long as they are done for loyalty. If you achieve loyalty with such skills, luck will follow and you will gain honor. Alternatively, if you plot with evil intent and have a mind to your own desires, then you will ruin yourself and become a notorious enemy. Therefore, study the correct way of
bu
—“the path of the samurai.”

Generally it is more than fair for a samurai to be prepared with any kind of art. If the art of the shinobi is mastered, it is no way a bad thing. Knowledge of shinobi ways can be used as a defense against shinobi or at times it has to be used in tactics to fulfil loyalty. Military skills should not be turned to
majutsu
—“skills of evil magic.” Even those who are known to have mastered the shinobi arts, if they used these arts for their own desires, severe punishments will find them. If a common person uses
shinobi no jutsu
—“the skills of the shinobi”—for evil intent, then their sins will be tenfold over those who exclusively perform shinobi skills as a profession. Therefore, maintain your discretion.

修身を以て成忠孝事

Mi wo Osamuru wo Motte Chuko to Narubeki Koto

Truly honing yourself perfects loyalty and fidelity

… Therefore, in any art, even if it does not look so wondrous, it should have some virtue if it truly has value. For example, [
it is said
] those who do shinobi tasks can even transform themselves to mice or birds, which should be no way believable. However, in the saying “they do such wonders,” there should be something beneficial to be found. Thus, birds can fly with excellence and mice can pass narrow paths with ease. Therefore, there should be excellent benefits found in human skills. Those who guard should keep their eyes wide open and their minds active; never let their guards down so that shinobi will not be able to do any harm, no matter what exquisite skills they use. Even if enemy shinobi come to see your camp or castle while scouting, and if they see or listen how well-prepared your allies are, it will turn out advantageous for you in the end. This is because if your allies band together as one, and if you are well disciplined, holding fast to the given role of lord and retainers, the enemy shinobi will find this outstanding. In turn, they will report it back to their own side. Doing this makes the enemy fear and become drawn to your side with respect, or even to communicate with you secretly, from such there will only be desirable effects. Nothing that would make them despise or hate you. Thus it seems that the enemy shinobi can bring you an advantage. Be fully aware of this and make sure to continue in the fulfilment of your own duties.

The above translation is a formidable window into early shinobi writings and leads us directly on to another, presumably early, writing.

The general samurai community were well aware of the name Fukushima Masanori, but few were aware of his connection to the shinobi.

Fukushima Masanori

The “Lost” Shinobi Scroll of Fukushima-Ryu

The next scroll to be translated has an elusive history. During my research I found myself in Tokyo at the Japanese National Diet Library (NDL) many times. Inside the NDL collection listings is the name of a Fukushima-Ryu shinobi scroll. After ordering a viewing of the manuscript, Yoshie Minami and myself sat in the waiting area with excitement. The clerk, a Japanese gentleman in standard shirt and tie, reported back to us. He informed us that the scroll has been missing for over fifty years and that there is no copy available. So, down but not out, I continued the search. A search that led me back to the same place it normally does, the Iga Ueno Museum (home to the largest collection of shinobi scrolls in the world). That line was a dead end. Then, time passed and a few years later, a gentleman by the name of Rein de Rooij contacted me. Rein told me that he had heard of my research and that he had been at the above museum in the early 1990s, visiting the late Mr. Okuse, the Mayor of Iga. He very kindly offered to allow me to see scrolls that he had copied during his visit, and as I looked through the list, a spark of excitement lit within me again. In the list was a copy of the missing Fukushima-Ryu shinobi scroll. Copied in classic 1990s photostat, I had the scroll re-transcribed by Mieko, my trusted helper and friend. Excitedly, translation was under way.

The scroll is broken into two sections. The first section is the original scroll and the second an annotated addendum, the latter being dated to 1797.

They are listed as:

Part One

福嶌流忍術之書

Fukushima-Ryu Shinobi-jutsu no Sho

Part One—the alternative title used in the text

福嶋流忍之巻

Fukuashima-Ryu Shinobi no Maki

Part Two—the annotated scroll

福島流忍之注書第一

Fukushima-Ryu Shinobi no Chusho Daiichi

The above sections have been amalgamated in this translation to make one solid and complete scroll. Originally the first scroll simply had a skill name and at points a very limited explanation—or memory hook. The second scroll with its annotations has been placed below each relevant section. These annotations are all below each title and can be identified by the repeat of the skill title. These have been placed in italics to show the start of the annotations.

The scroll claims to be the collected shinobi skills of a well-known Sengoku Period warlord called Fukushima Masanori, skills which were recorded by a samurai called Nojiri Narimasa. If Fukushima Masanori did indeed collect these shinobi skills—and there is little reason to think he did not—then it makes the skills old, indeed, when thinking in terms of shinobi records.

Fukushima Masanori (1560–1624) was born in the Owari province and was a renowned warrior of the Sengoku Period. He served under Lord Hideyoshi and then Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu. Fukushima Masanori rose to fame during the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583 as one of the
Seven Spears of Shizugatake
. It was this battle that earned him a celebrated status. After campaigning with Lord Hideyoshi he was granted Iyo province and took part in the invasion of Korea. He performed sieges on the holy mountain Koya-san and also later became the lord of Kiyosu region in Owari. During his career he gained the Nojiri family as retainers—of whom Nojiri Narimasa was the author of the following shinobi manual. Fukushima Masanori then went on to serve Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu and was both at the legendary Battle of Sekigahara and the Siege of Osaka. He was a famed warlord and general, and for many years the name Fukushima has always been associated with these above deeds. However in “ninja circles,” the name Fukushima, Nojiri, and the school Inko-Ryu all cry out the image “shinobi.” Fukushima Masanori died in 1624.

The scroll itself should be seen like any other shinobi scroll, not as a full school but as a shinobi supplement to another school’s art. The Fukushima and Nojiri samurai were just that—samurai trained in the arts of war. Their education also included the addition of deep, secretive shinobi no jutsu—“the skills of the shinobi.” The scroll itself is one of the more difficult for a modern reader to “digest” as it is arranged in an apparently random format. It is quite an eclectic skill set. It can jump from skills for climbing over a fence to the mutilation of dogs (in performing spells of invisibility). It even includes substances that will make a shinobi believe he is a demon in the night—bloody terrifying stuff. As stated above, this scroll should be tempered by the knowledge that the skills were considered deep and ancient. These arts of infiltration were used by the very experienced samurai descendants of the Fukushima clan, and their retainers.

A note on the images:

The illustrations for this scroll are at times extremely ambiguous and difficult to decipher, while some are straightforward. The versions used here are copied from the manual in the Iga Ueno Museum and have been redrawn by Koizumi Meiko, and while difficult to interpret they have been left in their original form to preserve them.

福嶌流忍術之書

Fukushima-Ryu Shinobi-jutsu no Sho

A Record of Fukushima-Ryu Shinobi Skills

The annotations say:

This writing is based on a selection made by Lord Fukushima Saemon-dayu [Masanori].

Shinobi means
kanja
(“spy”), and the use of spies is performed in order to obtain information concerning the enemy, so that you can judge if or where an enemy is substantial or insubstantial—this allows you to gain victory in any battle that you fight. Therefore it is regarded as a task of importance. Sun Tzu wrote:

“Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of [a spy’s] reports. Be subtle! Be subtle! And use your spies for every kind of business.”

福嶋流忍之巻第一

Fukuashima-Ryu Shinobi no Maki Dai Ichi

The Shinobi Scroll of Fukushima-Ryu: Part One

夢相通

Musotoshi

Transmitting dreams

♦
On the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the seventh month, collect pine wood charcoal which has been burnt [for illumination] around a grave – 2 momme

♦
Take moss from a grave – 5 bu

♦
Collect dewdrops that have formed on the leaves of the Taro plant which is growing to the east of your own house

♦
Charred meno – newt: there are oral traditions for if [the target] is male or female

♦
Your own earwax

Mix the above into black ink.

Musotoshi
is a writing that makes a target dream as you wish them to dream. Use charcoal of pinewood that has been used to light a grave—any grave will do. The moss from the grave can also be from any grave. To take dewdrops from taro leaves, trace the ideogram
伊
before you take them.
Meno
means
imori
, which is a newt, and the oral tradition for this is as follows; depending on the gender of your target, switch the gender of the newt you use. For example, use a female newt for a male target. To know if a newt is male or female, know that male newts have a blue belly while a female newt has a red belly. Concerning the above tradition of the newt, you should capture male and female newts when they are mating and separate them, next put them in a bamboo tube but have them separated by an internal wall joint. Close the openings and leave them for three days; after these three days you will find that they have bitten through, making a hole [in the bamboo joint]. Take them out and you will notice that they will be together, joined as one [in copulation]. Divide them again and then char them separately. Whether the target is male or female will determine which one you need to use. To make the ink, powder the above four ingredients listed and then solidify them by mixing in the dewdrops from the Taro leaves. When you rub [the ink stone] to make ink, any pottery can be used, but you must use pure water. The brush should be made from the weeping willow tree [and with this brush] write down the details [of what you wish the target to dream about]. Write the ideogram
伊
on to the weeping willow tree brush before you use it. The way to make the document is the same as a
musubijo
—“tied letter.” Draw the sign of Seimei pentagram
^*
on the folded knot and then the Doman grid
^†
on the rear.
^‡
Put the target’s name on the top [of the folded paper] and then put your own name below it. If there is a sea or a river around the gate [of the target], write the ideogram for ship
舟
on the underside. This document should be placed in any graveyard.