Samurai and ninja: the real story behind the Japanese warrior myth that shatters the Bushido mystique

225 Pages·2015·4.081 MB·English

by  Cummins, Antony

SAMURAI
NINJA
and
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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, with-
out 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 cre-
ated 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 sup-
plied me with the Fukushima-Ryu documents from his own collection. Ben Mor-
gan for his continued and very ‘English’ style of support. Lastly to Jacob Sipes, for
editing early drafts.
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SAMURAI
NINJA
and
The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior
Myth that Shatters the Bushido Mystique
by
ANTONY CUMMINS
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore
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Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
www.tuttlepublishing.com
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.
Library of Congress cataloging in process
ISBN: 978-4-8053-1334-3
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Contents
The Search for the Samurai and the Shinobi • 7
Part I
TEARING THE WORLD OF THE SAMURAI AND NINJA APART • 11
Part II
THE SAMURAI • 23
Part III
THE SHINOBI • 115
Part IV
THE RESURRECTION • 213
The Boring Stuff • 221
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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 prac-
ticing 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 every-
thing 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
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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 fig-
ure 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 intri-
cate 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 mas-
ter 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 real-
ity; 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 apprecia-
tion for beauty, all of which brought about a much more complex figure than pre-
viously believed.
In full contrast to this, the samurai and the shinobi of Japan remain in the loom-
ing 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 equiva-
lent to the European warrior class. This connection has fallen by the wayside in
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8 The Search for the Samurai and the Shinobi
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, Vic-
torian-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 under-
stand the mysteries of the world through a deep and religious philosophy. Con-
trarily, 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 tacti-
cian, 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-bear-
ers 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 terri-
tory 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, high-
ways 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
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The Search for the Samurai and the Shinobi 9
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 understand-
ing. 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 intrica-
cies of Japanese history.
It is my ardent wish that you now wipe your mind clean of all the movies, the com-
ics 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 his-
torically accurate knowledge on the long-dead knights of the East.
Antony Cummins
Shiki, Japan
2013
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