When people think about Japanese history, there’s one group of people that stand out more than any other.
NINJA!
Even people who know nothing else about Japanese history know about ninja, their clothes, shuriken, and their sneakiness. Ninja have infiltrated popular culture like a well-guarded castle.
But in the hundreds of years since ninja were around, their image has been muddled. So what were ninja actually like, and are there any ninja today?
Old-School Ninja
Ninja were, at the most basic level, spies and assassins in Japan hundreds of years ago. That much is undisputed.
But over the years, ninja have become so sensationalized and romanticized in folklore and media that sometimes it’s hard to get a clear grasp on what ninja were actually like.
Ninja climbing a rope, or playing vertical tug-of-war?
Even years ago during the Meiji era, people in Japan were telling tales about mythic characters like Hattori Hanzo and exaggerating the legacy of the ninja.
Given the legend of ninja in Japan, it’s no surprise that the western perception of ninja is so skewed.
Note: ninja don’t traditionally drink canned beverages.
And today? There are ninja movies, theme parks, anime (rhymes with “are moo toe”) and video games. People have basically run wild with ninja lore and gotten pretty far from the truth. But there are also people who are trying to get it right.
There’s been an attempt to return to the traditional martial arts of the ninja (ninjutsu), instead of the campy, goofy ninja that you see today.
Bujinkan
The most famous modern-day ninjutsu school is probably Bujinkan. Founded in the 70s, Bujinkan is supposedly based on techniques gleaned from ancient scrolls. These scrolls are claimed to contain many crazy, mythical ninja techniques like killing people by yelling at them or hitting them in just the right spot.
The founder of Bujinkan also claims to be of ninja lineage. Pretty legit, right?
Well actually, nobody has actually seen these scrolls; and the last of the ninja died out long, long ago, so there’s no way that the founder of Bujinkan can be a ninja descendent.
But you’ve got to take some things on faith, you know?
Bujinkan practitioners kicking ass, taking names.
Skepticism aside, the actual practice of Bujinkan is pretty serious. It largely focuses on disabling an attacker, with a little weapon training thrown in for zest.
Bujinkan incorporates nine different styles of martial arts into one, giving you multiple ways of crushing your opponents.
And unlike many martial arts, there aren’t any Bujinkan competitions because Bujinkan techniques are meant to break limbs or kill you. Not really something you want to mess around with.
Beside Bujinkan, there are other people and organizations that are trying to revive ninjutsu, most of them are offshoots of Bujinkan, or at least tied to the founder of Bujinkan in some way.
Unfortunately, a fair number of modern ninjutsu schools seem to be based around Steven Seagal wannabes selling Westerners DVD sets on how to become ninja.
But probably the most interesting and authentic instance of modern-day ninjutsu I’ve seen has been – weirdly enough – in Iran.
Iranian Lady Ninja
Over 3,500 women in Iran train in ninjutsu today, tossing shuriken at each other, doing flips, and generally being sneaky.
Iranian state media has jumped on this phenomenon and produced an over-the-top news piece about it, complete with dramatic music and camera angles.
But with all of these new-school ninja schools, will ninjutsu ever return to its glory days? Probably not. Espionage nowadays is much more about high-tech intelligence than sneaking around and dressing in black. But ninja will always be iconic figures in Japanese history and in martial arts.