Sometimes I get questions from people about the history of the ninja. The sad fact it, there is so much crap out there posing as ninjutsu history that we can’t really ad to the information until we clear a lot of it out. It is not really about the amount of information, but the fact that a lot of what people think is based on mistaken notions. So their outlook is flawed. I recently got a question and I am posting it here along with my answer so as to maybe help others, and maybe answer similar questions before people go to the trouble of writing to me again.

"Ninjutsu as counterculture?

One of the things that first attracted me to ninjutsu in the 1980s was the idea that the historical ninja were sort of a counterculture in feudal Japan. I got this idea from reading Stephen K. Hayes books. The impression I got was that mainstream Japan was typified by the samurai who obeyed his superiors unquestioningly, lived to sacrifice himself etc etc as written in Hagakure. This mindset led to the horrific Japanese casualties in the Pacific War, as a generation of Japanese soldiers chose death over surrender. This is also the mindset that was imposed upon me by my leftist high school teachers. So studying an art that could empower me to resist their Marxist bullshit seemed pretty neat.

The impression I got from Hayes is that the ninja were not self-sacrificing group thinkers, but were rugged individualists. We know that Iga resisted Oda Nobunaga. I have learned that Oda Nobunaga is viewed by most Japanese as the great unifier of Japan, sort of a George Washington and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one. Yet the men of Iga resisted, and Nobunaga eventually all but eradicated the ninja.

Also Hayes’ books led me to believe there was some sort of connection between the ninja and the yamabushi ascetics who practiced Shugendo, as well as Mikkyo and/or Tendai Buddhists, from whom we get kuji-kiri and kuji-in finger weaving. The headquarters of Tendai Buddhism was Mount Hiei, another place that Oda Nobunaga destroyed."

Ok,

Well, the first thing you need to understand is that Hayes made a lot of very large mistakes. Big deal, we all make mistakes. It is only the fact that he can't seem to admit them that causes troubles. (Take a look at how shrilly he says he wasn't at fault for making most of us at one time think that the ninja used straight swords.)

The idea of a counter culture caused by mystics oppressed by those jealous of their power is central to a lot of the myths Hayes managed to create, and one some of us are devoted to countering with the truth. Sometimes I think it was a mistake made by someone who still (2013) can't speak decent Japanese and saw movies such as "Shinobi-no-mono" where Oda Nobunaga invaded and destroyed Iga. Sometimes I think it was very clever marketing since he hit the scene not long after Star Wars with it's mystic power using hero fighting against an empire trying to wipe his order out. I know that as a kid, the idea of the ninja as being an ancient Japanese version of the jedi was pretty cool. I remember all the stuff in his early books about how to gain the powers of ESP, stuff that they did not do in Japan when I finally moved there.

In any case, the idea that the ninjas were prosecuted for their mystic powers and beliefs is wrong. I dealt with the real history in an introduction to my translation of the Shoninki and I will be coming out with an e-magazine with an article on the Koga ryu that also deals with the real history. I don't want to give too much away (hey, I could lose money that way) but I do want to say why they idea of ninjutsu being created to counter samurai excesses is wrong.

Here is the essence of the myth that still has a large influence today.

In August, 1980 the following was part of an article in Black Belt magazine, authored by Stephen Hayes.

“What happened was, then those people started to teach that philosophy, there was resistance from the government. At that time the Shinto religion was the official government religion, and just like other religions it developed a hierarchy to where it had a very elaborate system of levels of priesthood. So what the government wanted was for the people to rely on the priests (for their religious needs), with the priest coming in to give some sort of blessing or whatever.”
It was the continuing conflict between the Shinto religion and the Buddhist religion that resulted in the change from a system of philosophical beliefs to a system of military espionage.
“All of a sudden (the Shintoists) were confronted with these people in the mountains who said, ‘we don’t need priests. We don’t need to worship like this, we can do it ourselves.’ So, just like in the European religious wars, the Shintoists said ‘we’ve got to quiet those people down.’ So they sent the troops in, and at that point this philosophy began to take on a military flavor, because these mountain people had to defend themselves.”

This is complete hogwash. Show it to a professor of Japanese history and you may kill them they will laugh so hard.

The introduction of Buddhism into Japan did not pose any threat to the Shinto religion. In fact, it was the imperial family that helped spread the new religion for the most part. The emperor was the head of the Shinto religion, being descended from the sun goddess, the most powerful deity in the pantheon of Shinto gods. Many temples, statues and sutras were created due to the actions of the imperial family. If you want to change it to esoteric Buddhism, such as Shingon sect, then you still find the imperial family supporting it and a lack of resistance by the powers inside Shinto. While there were some minor clashes, as with all religions and factions in court, the idea that anyone had to go underground to practice their Buddhist faith is completely false.

The ninja of Iga and Koga were actually samurai of a type. Not peasants, not ashigaru (peasant soldiers), not nobles, not mystics and not priests of any type but land- owning, weapon- carrying types known as ji-samurai. There were many levels of samurai and the separation of the classes did not happen until fairly late in Japanese history when all but a few battles were over. Ji-samurai were not really full time samurai, but well- off farmers and such that were born to certain families that believed themselves warriors and trained from childhood like the samurai while still putting more into the coffers of the lord rather than living full time as soldier and only taking resources.

The ninja of Koga managed to convince the Rokaku clan which was in charge of the provence (Omi) that Koga was part of to leave them alone in return for a pledge to come to his aid in times of need. The Iga area was one of a few areas in Japan that basically became ungovernable by any central government when all the brown fecal matter hit the fan and the local ji-samurai came to rule the area. Many other areas also threw off central rule, most being ruled by groups like the Ikko-ikki, a religious group of militarized followers of the pure land sect of Japanese Buddhism.

When Oda kicked the asses of the Rokkaku family, the Koga ninja kind of went along with the new owners. (This is of course a simple version- don't expect too much detail on a freaking blog.)

Oda's son tried to move on the Iga region by building a strong point at Maruyama in Iga, but the families there had no loyalty at all to anyone like the Koga did to the Rokkaku and they burned the place down, leading to two invasions of Iga. That is the basis of the movie "Shinobi- no Mono." Oda kicked the asses of the Iga ninja NOT because he had anything against the ninja as a class, but because he wanted to take over the entire country. (And he was well on his way before he got geeked by one of his own generals.)

As for shugendo/yamabushi, dressing up as a yamabushi was a great disguise. They were expected to make pilgrimages so seeing one on the road was not suspicious. And in the Koga region, there was Mt Handou, an important center for shugendo training in that area of Japan. Many of the warriors defeated in the many battles around Kyoto ended up in Koga, training in shugendo and that was ONE influence on ninjutsu. The training of yamabushi was very intense and many ninja went through it for it’s benefits as well as getting their stories for the disguises down pat. It would look pretty strange to be dressed as a yamabushi and yet not know how to give the prayers and such they were known for. While training, it is obvious that a lot of what shugendo had seeped into the ways ninja were taught.

Instead of looking for one source for the origin of ninjutsu, you should instead be looking for FACTORS. There are other aspects such as influences from the mainland, the akuto (essentiall, free companies that were kind of bandits, kind of rulers) and the revolts against the non-resident landowners of Iga and Koga, but I think this answered a bit and it is already too long.

My main point is that the idea of the ninja as oppressed mystics fighting against those jealous of their power is a false one. Once you understand that, then reading accounts of history start to make a bit more sense.

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