Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth that Shatters the Bushido Mystique

313 Pages·2012·4.3 MB·English

by  Anthony Cummins

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.
www.tuttlepublishing.com
Copyright © 2015 Antony Cummins
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Contents
The Search for the Samurai and the Shinobi
Part I
TEARING THE WORLD OF THE SAMURAI AND NINJA APART
Part II
THE SAMURAI
Part III
THE SHINOBI
Part IV
THE RESURRECTION
The Boring Stuff
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.
Antony Cummins
Shiki, Japan
2013