The "Warring States Period" in ancient Japan is just like the "Spring and Autumn Warring States Period" in early China. The city-states split and went their own way. There are wars everywhere, bloody and cruel killings, and ruthless wars. These princes and warlords, who are fighting for power and profit, urgently need to train a group of professional infiltration troops who can quickly sneak into enemy lines to carry out spy tasks such as detecting "spying", "assassination", disturbing and destroying. Ninja was born in such a sinister environment full of turmoil.
In fact, the "special infiltration troops" trained by these governors and warlords did not employ "ninjas" in the early days. This is just an official intelligence combat unit that any regime will inevitably establish. In other words, it was just a simple "spy"! What's the difference between the so-called "ninja" and "spy"? We all know; Ninjutsu is a special monastic art spread from China to Japan through cultural exchanges between the two countries. In Japan, "Ninjutsu" has gradually evolved into a unique monastic school, with many sects distributed all over Japan.
Ninja: At first, it was just a name for "ninja practitioner". But some self-contained "ninja practitioners" have many disciples themselves. These "ninja practitioners" themselves or their disciples use the "ninjas" they have learned to cultivate their own "exclusive private forces" in private. They began to be enterprises, militarized management, and sometimes gave them money to become mercenaries of professional killers.
Later, because the government units analyzed and evaluated it from the perspective of investment return and investment risk, it was found that the strategic value of "Ninja" was indeed higher than that of ordinary spies and killers, so "Ninja" was gradually valued by the government units in the later period, and therefore the official "exclusive Ninja Force" began to be established.
Ninja and spy belong to [special action level] organizations. But the difference between a ninja and a spy is that they are all trained by ordinary spies in essence. The most difference is that there is one more training: Ninjutsu. Ninjutsu is the ultimate warrior trained by the unit with special skill level of Ninjutsu skill. The task form is complicated and not simple! ! Higher than ordinary spies. This is the so-called ninja.
Many people always think that Ninja always appears with a black mask every time he goes on a mission. It is really influenced by the exaggerated "objectification" mistakes in martial arts novels and movies. Indeed! This kind of black clothes is really what Ninja often wears on missions, but it also depends on the mission. This kind of black clothes is not the so-called [ninja suit]. In fact, ordinary people in ancient Japan often wore this kind of black work clothes to work. This is just an ancient Japanese work clothes! It is only because the ninja can conveniently carry out the secret needs of the task in the dead of night that he put on this black work clothes, and there are particularly subtle modifications on the work clothes to meet the needs of the task and the battle.
The real [ninja] doesn't always appear as a masked figure in black as described in novels and movies. Real [ninjas] usually dress up as various social figures or people from all walks of life to blend in with ordinary people as a cover-up of their identity. Such as beggars, charity monks, jugglers, roadside stalls, warriors, ronin, monks, quacks and other uncertain roles.
Ninja's road to cultivation
Ninjutsu was very popular in Japan during the Warring States Period because of its practicality. Ninjutsu is a set of spy information technology system mastered by ancient Japanese ninjas, including tracking, reconnaissance, espionage, bodyguards, assassination and so on. Ninja skill superman, good at using weapons such as swords and hooks and hidden weapons such as darts; They can fly over the eaves, walk on the walls and fly around in the sand without making a sound; Hold your breath in the water for five minutes at most. If you use special equipment, you can stay underwater for a day and a night. They are good at fighting on the surface and underwater, and can even dive to the bottom of the ship and eavesdrop on people's conversations ... These superhuman skills can only be learned through inhuman training.
The training requirements of Ninjutsu must start from an early age. All members of the Ninjutsu family, regardless of gender, age and age, must unconditionally inherit this family professional tradition (Ninjutsu training). As far as the training content of Ninjutsu is concerned, its basic training mainly includes five aspects: balance, sensitivity, strength, persistence and special skills.
Balance training: first, step on the bamboo pole until you can stand on the round bamboo pole without slipping; Lift the bamboo pole about three feet from the ground, continue to walk the bamboo pole and practice the movements freely; Continue to increase the height of bamboo poles until they are 30 to 40 feet high and democratic. At this time, they are not afraid of heights, tumbling, skipping and lying on the ground. With this balance, you can walk on roofs, walls and trees like a fly.
Sensitive training: start training at an early age, and do more special training with sensitive qualities, such as jumping over a rope full of leaves, doing dangerous obstacle running in the later stage of training, being covered by many dangerous obstacles when running, and being slightly ineffective or unresponsive in posture, that is, being injured by obstacles. So the sensitivity of Ninjutsu is very strict.
Endurance training: Endurance training in Ninjutsu can be divided into static and dynamic training methods. Static training method: Hang your hands on a tree to support your whole body, and the ground is covered with hidden weapons. Practitioners are required to never let go and jump, and only with basic long-distance running skills can they have the endurance to run five or six thousand miles. An excellent ninja master, plus jumping, can run 150 miles a day.
Strength training: The strength training of Ninjutsu strives to maximize the strength of the human body. There are many training methods, which are not listed here.
Special skill training: There are many kinds of special skill training of Ninjutsu Wushu, such as holding your breath in diving, unarmed fighting, kendo, hidden weapons, make-up, medicine, detoxification, hearing and smell training, etc. . . In the wild, there is a strong ability to endure hunger and thirst.
Ninja achieved a superhuman leap from spirit to body through these inhuman practices with extremely high mortality. Gained extraordinary perseverance, endurance and combat effectiveness. Ninjas who survived through Ninjutsu training are absolutely reliable all-power fighting machines.
Ninjutsu Wushu requires ninjas to have first-class skills such as fencing, archery, equestrian, jujitsu, footwork, body balance and poison dart. But the most demanding martial arts is the famous stealth flying escape. Invisibility, in fact, there is no real invisibility, but it is trained to be extremely sensitive in hands and feet and extremely capable of jumping and running. When people didn't find him, the ninja was dead. In China's martial arts, it's called climbing over the eaves. In fact, it is practiced through long-term jumping, grasping, crawling and hitting. Because of the mysterious actions and hidden whereabouts of the master of Ninjutsu, people also call Ninjutsu "ghost art" and "invisibility art"
In addition to flying stealth, hidden weapons is also a stunt of Ninjutsu Wushu. Hidden weapons, a ninja, is mostly poisonous darts and copper coins (Bian Feng's blade), as well as swords and chisels. Ninjutsu is widely used in hidden weapons, and throwing copper coins to relieve the poison is a unique skill of every master of Ninjutsu.
And "Flying" and "hidden weapons" are also called "Three Endurances" and "Detoxification". Ninjutsu masters are good at this. According to records, the poison used in Ninjutsu is extracted from minerals, animals and plants, which is strong enough to cause death; As long as a small amount of medicine is enough to make people sleepy, paralyzed or laugh. There are many kinds of poison methods of Ninjutsu. The tips of daggers, darts and arrows are all poisoned and used for assassination. Mixing poison with food or drink for murder; Use all kinds of toxic substances, such as poisonous flowers. A universal antidote for detoxification of Ninjutsu, which is made of herbs and medicinal liquor.
Ninjutsu, regarded as "the art of killing people", has long been targeted at ninja organizations, spying on information and assassinating political enemies. During the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate and the Tang Dynasty in China, espionage and counter-espionage activities prevailed, which was also a great struggle of various ninja organizations.
In the development of society, the terrorist activities of Ninjutsu and Ninja were condemned by the world and finally banned, and the activities of Ninjutsu completely went underground. Little is known about this. In recent years, the rendering of film and television works has made the world realize Japan once again, an ancient and cruel martial arts flower.
The origin of Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu, also known as occultation. There are different opinions about the origin of Ninjutsu and Ninja. Some people in China think that Ninjutsu originated from the Five Elements of Han Dynasty in China, and later spread to Japan. Like karate, judo, Shaolin Temple boxing and other Japanese martial arts, Ninjutsu is a kind of martial arts with Japanese characteristics that gradually developed after the ancient martial arts from China were introduced to Japan. Wan Hai, the authoritative work of Ninjutsu, pointed out that the root of Ninjutsu thought came from China and Jiang Taigong during the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. It was he who first put forward the concept of Ninjutsu and wrote it in Liu Tao, a masterpiece handed down from ancient times. Later, Sun Wu, Sean and Han Xin successively perfected the theory of Ninjutsu. In particular, Sun Wu's The Art of War has been highly praised by the ninja class. At this time, Ninjutsu has basically formed the embryonic form composed of tactics, formation, yin and yang, skills and so on. With the spread of Ninjutsu to Japan, Ninja appeared and developed in Japan.
The theoretical basis of Ninjutsu is Sun Tzu's Art of War from China, followed by the practice of Taoism and the skill of ambush in the mountains. Wushu developed naturally in ancient times, and all countries in the world should have such a process. Japan is no exception. However, after China's art of war was introduced into Japan, Japan's military thought changed fundamentally, and Takeda Shingen, the military commander who loves to use ninjas, was completely transformed by China's military thought. Takeda Shingen is an admirer of his grandson. He spoke highly of this grandson's earliest fighting art of "walking like the wind, Xu Rulin invading like a fire, not moving like a mountain", and wrote the words "LAM Raymond volcano" on his military flag, so his troops were called "LAM Raymond volcano" troops.
Because Shinxuan hates the secrets of his country being known by others, he likes to train ninjas. He loves the ninja who drives himself to practice (he calls them "Luanbo" and "Sanjie", which is what Takeda's family calls ninjas). The origin of "disorderly waves" comes from vagrants and unemployed people in Afghanistan, New Zealand and Vietnam, or organized by bandits, who teach them fighting skills such as mountain warfare, so they become ninjas. In addition, "three" is the general term for "meeting", "meeting" and "paying attention". These people are experts in scouts and spies. Xin Xuan sent Saemon from Futian Township to control these ninjas.
During the Warring States Period in Japan, princes of various countries competed for hegemony in an attempt to unify Japan and replace the emperor. Takeda Shingen won many major battles, and the Takeda family was once extremely powerful, and of course it made countless enemies. Takeda Shingen's younger brother Takeda Shinlian stumbled upon a thief who looked exactly like his brother, so he stayed with him and used him as a body double-a Japanese tradition called "Shadow Warrior". This is also the reason why Gaddafi of Algeria has never died. Next, Takeda Shingen and Nobunaga of Tokugawa Ieyasu fought. It is said that he was killed unfortunately, but in fact he was too dissolute and died of illness. But his son failed, so Takeda Shinrikyo decided to let the "Shadow Warrior" go to war. He helped and supported him to gain time, so that Takeda Shingen's son could gain ruling experience and hand over power to him when he was mature. Shadow samurai changed from a thief to be moved by Takeda Shinrikyo's righteous act.
In peacetime, due to the rise of the samurai class, the art of ambush in the mountains developed from samurai. In the Yuan Ping era, he learned the Yuan Yijing of ambush in the mountains, successfully applied the skills of ambush in the mountains, and completed the theory of offensive tactics. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Kusunoki Masashige developed defensive techniques, while Ninjutsu and Wushu were separated into different systems.
Ninjutsu schools and textbooks
During the Warring States period, Ninjutsu began to develop greatly, because Ninjutsu, martial arts and the art of war were urgently needed in this era. But unlike the art of war and martial arts, Ninjutsu has its own uniqueness. There are several Ninjutsu schools in developed areas, which are named after the following places:
Musashi, Jia Fei, Yue Hou, Nong Xin, etc.
Iga, Kaga, Kyrgyzstan, etc.
Ninjutsu in the last three states is the most developed in Japan.
Iga and Kaga are both close to Beijing, and the terrain belongs to a small closed basin surrounded by mountains and obstacles. Although barren, their strategic position is very important: because they are close to central Feng Jingen. During the Warring States Period, more than 60 local tyrants (each with a maximum strength of no more than 50 people, according to China's algorithm, at best, small bandits) rose in this tiny place. Although the site is small, the competition here is fierce beyond outsiders' imagination. Local tyrants form false alliances with each other, secretly spy on each other, and once they seize the opportunity, they will give their opponents a merciless blow. These two bloody mountains full of cruelty and cunning have gradually evolved into the base camp for the development of Ninjutsu. Iga and Kaga's greatest contribution to the cause of ninja is to systematize the theoretical basis and skills of ninja and compile a book on ninja cultivation-Wan Ji Chuan Sea. Although the genre is different, the classic that ninjas practice is the book Wan Ji Chuan Sea, whose content is to teach ninjas all the theoretical basis and technical guidance on how to perform Ninjutsu.
In the fourth year of Yan Bao (1676), the fourth generation general of Tokugawa family, Fujimori Yasuo, a hermit of Jiahe, combined the thoughts and martial arts essence of famous Chinese and Japanese celebrities in the past dynasties, and referred to the contents of Six Pagodas and Sun Tzu's Art of War, and wrote a ninja extreme training guide integrating forbearance, forbearance and forbearance. Referring to the thought of "A hundred schools of thought contend and returnees meet" in the selected works of Zuo Du Fu, an ancient Chinese book, the book was named Wan Ji Chuan Sea. As the name implies, "Wan Ji Chuan Sea" is to take the essence of each family.
Wan Ji Chuan Sea consists of six parts: correct mind, knowledge, yin forbearance, yang forbearance, meteorology and forbearance. This book later became a must-read textbook for ninja practice. Tamia Liu and Sun Tzu's Art of War are two ancient works that have far-reaching influence on the overall development of Wan Ji Chuan Sea and Ninjutsu. It can also be seen that China's thoughts on ancient military martial arts have laid a solid theoretical foundation for the future development of Japanese Ninjutsu, which is the proof that Ninjutsu really originated in China. It can be said that "Wan Ji Chuan Sea" is a summary of Japanese learning the essence of ancient China's military and practicing metaphysics.
Theoretical origin of Ninjutsu
Ninjas are mostly farmers, not aristocratic warriors. Ninjutsu's ambush skills in the mountains come from the experience of mountain warfare living in Yamato, Yoshino, pommel horse, Genlai and Iga. Kyoto is the birthplace of the magic (Yin-Yang Road) used in Ninjutsu, because there are esoteric Buddhism Benshan such as Dongye not far away. Wu Yun's face endurance comes from six paths and a cavity.
Immigrants and ninjas from China and Korea.
Because of the regime change in China, a new dynasty was established, and the loyal subjects of the emperor could not survive in China, so they immigrated to Japan, which has been in contact with China for more than two thousand years. These people have a low social status in Japan and can only engage in handicrafts that the Japanese are unwilling to engage in, such as making pottery, armor and clothing. These people were called tribesmen, and the number was the largest in the Ming Dynasty. Tribe, the Japanese name for the "circle people" who imprisoned China people during the Japanese invasion of China. These Ming immigrants usually settled in Kyoto, and then some moved to nearby Iga or Kaga to work. In addition, they also use some technologies they brought, such as gunpowder, so this is where Japan made gunpowder very early. Other craftsmen have also taken root here, such as the master who makes handicrafts and plays with dolls ... All kinds of artists have come ... In this way, there are many such people in Iga and Kaga, and ninjas can also have many skills to engage in spy work like folk street performers in the future.
In addition, some Koreans are treated as China people. There are many foreigners and naturalized people here (foreigners settle in Japan, become Japanese and change their surnames to Japanese).
For example, in the early days of the Tokugawa shogunate, many people from Iga and Kaga moved to Edo with Hattori because Shimada Hanzo of Hattori cooperated with Konka. Komachi is the transformation of Iga and Kaga. And the name of Shimada Hanzo Gate (the old house where Hattori Shimada Hanzo lived). It is said that Hattori Shimada Hanzo is a Transformers. His ancestral home is China, and his surname is Qin. Later, because he settled in Japan, he changed his Japanese surname to Hattori, and the Hattori family was born.
Because the war in Japan was extremely fierce at that time and information was badly needed, but the so-called orthodox samurai would not engage in such furtive behavior. Japanese samurai believe that this kind of suffering and humiliation should be done by those inferior people. Moreover, Japanese martial arts at that time was only suitable for two people to agree to stand and chop off each other's heads, which is the way you see Japanese kendo practice now. Ambush in the mountains and eclectic fighting in all kinds of terrain are not suitable for them either. The important thing is that the Japanese have no ability to improvise, so this special job was done by the people at the bottom of Japanese society at that time.
China people, this is the true face of the Japanese ninja.
There is also a ninja army composed of Japanese. There is a guy named Yuchai Hideyoshi. When he was desperate, he once took refuge in the bee-beard, he Xiaoliu, and ate at his house. He Xiaoliu, a bearded man, is an active "thief" in Mino (bandits, more widely known as wild warriors, didn't find an army to hire their master, and what's worse, they are mountain kings who rob money in the dark). Anyway, people who work in bandit groups are generally not poor, so they can be hospitable to let some people who have no food take refuge in him and eat at his house. Later, these people became loyal ministers because they helped Hideyoshi capture the Mexican stock market, and finally got rid of the stigma of robbers. However, because Nobunaga hated the rotten army with poor military discipline, Bee Shou and Xiao Liu never had anything to do with his bandit group, and their good skill of stealing chickens and dogs during the robber period became a good condition for being ninjas, so those people became ninjas in the Uji army. And have outstanding performance in all major battles.
This Tamaki Hideyoshi later unified Japan and was awarded the position of "Taihe" by the Japanese emperor, that is, the emperor assisted. And gave the surname Toyotomi, so his later name in history was Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The martial arts of Ninjutsu come from Yagyu Liu Jian School and Liu Qiang, a treasure house. However, ninjas have greatly improved these martial arts, making them use short knives and spears, thus being suitable for fighting in narrow places.
Ninja budo
Successful ninjas should be good at combining themselves with the external environment and completing tasks in a dynamic and static way. Therefore, they pay attention to the daily practice and exercise through the five ninja ways of food, incense, medicine, qi and body.
Let's start with food. Ninjas often wander lightly on branches and roofs, so it is said that a qualified ninja should not weigh more than 60 kilograms. Its three meals a day are mainly black rice, oats, tofu and konjac. At the same time, ninjas need to maintain abundant physical strength, so they often eat sesame seeds, pine nuts, brown sugar, quail eggs and other foods rich in protein, iron and vitamins. This diet structure coincides with the "low calorie and high nutrition" advocated by modern life.
Besides smell, it is said that successful ninjas can judge each other's economic situation and social status by the smell on their clothes. But at the same time, in order not to be discovered by the other party, ninjas often use seven transformations, such as businessman, yogi, monk and monk, to cover up their identity. Basic spices such as clove, sandalwood and cinnamon are used by them to make different body fragrances and enhance the authenticity of transformation.
As for medicine, it is not simple. When performing a task, ninjas will inevitably bump into each other or get hurt by their opponents, and how to avoid mosquito bites when performing a long-term latent task is also an important topic. Therefore, a qualified ninja must be a qualified doctor and medical expert at the same time, and be good at using various plants and herbs in the mountains to treat diseases and repel insects.
The so-called spirit means that ninjas should pay attention to self-cultivation at ordinary times, so as to concentrate on actual combat, be decisive, brave and calm.
Physically, it is said that ninjas pay attention to exercising muscles and joints, and at the same time exercise themselves with meditation, breathing, massage, acupuncture and other recovery methods. In addition to the above five ways, if you fully believe the ninja relics displayed in the Heritage Museum, you will find that talented ninjas are astronomers and chemists. They can predict the weather by observing the stars and make all kinds of gunpowder.
Ninja's nine-character motto refers to "face, fight, fight, be the whole, fight and be the first", which comes from China's ancient Taoist book Bao Puzi. This nine-character mantra is a spell that Taoist priests read when exorcising demons in the mountains. Ninja also takes this "nine-character proverb" as a mantra. Ninjas may use this because they live in an environment where they will die at any time. Reading this spell can give yourself a kind of self-hypnosis, thus eliminating fear and increasing the role of spiritual strength.
The real Ninjutsu originated from China Ninjutsu, also known as invisibility (China called it Five Elements Evasion at that time). There are different opinions about the origin of Ninjutsu and Ninja. Some people in China think that Ninjutsu originated from the Five Elements of Han Dynasty in China, and later spread to Japan. Like karate, judo, Shaolin Temple boxing and other Japanese martial arts, Ninjutsu is a kind of martial arts with Japanese characteristics that gradually developed after the ancient martial arts from China were introduced to Japan. Wan Hai, the authoritative work of Ninjutsu, pointed out that the root of Ninjutsu thought came from China and Jiang Taigong during the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. It was he who first put forward the concept of Ninjutsu and wrote it in Liu Tao, a masterpiece handed down from ancient times. Later, Sun Wu, Sean and Han Xin successively perfected the theory of Ninjutsu. In particular, Sun Wu's The Art of War has been highly praised by the ninja class. At this time, Ninjutsu has basically formed the embryonic form composed of tactics, formation, yin and yang, skills and so on. With the spread of Ninjutsu to Japan, Ninja appeared and developed in Japan.
Evasion of Five Elements —— Fire, Water and Earth in Jin Mu.
Golden dodge: it is to use bright metal to reflect light and hurt your opponent's eyes to avoid it. It is used to escape.
Wood dung: the ancestor of Japanese dog feet. You have to climb up and down to survive, and use some tools to escape. The origin of wooden dung is that you practice in trees when you usually practice. In the past, houses were low-lying, and people who could climb trees could basically sneak into any house. It is used to escape.
Escape on water: cultivate water, breathe underwater through pipes, cross the river with special wooden shoes (water spiders), etc. It is used to escape.
Fire escape: Smoke bombs or some props used for arson are made by chemical means. There has never been a bomb before. The fired firearms remain on the original fireworks. They are used to escape.
Earth-hiding: it is not the kind of underground escape in the movie, but actually used to dig tunnels and traps. It used to be mostly land, with soft geology and easy implementation. People who study this technology will dig tunnels or holes to hide according to the nature of the soil. It is used to escape.
At the end of the Han dynasty, due to the constant war, evasion was born, which was mainly used to avoid the chaos of military forces.
List of famous ninjas
Bai Di Santaifu, also known as Betty Danbo. He is a local tyrant based in Ueno, Iga, and one of the three famous people in Ueno. In Oni Tsuka, he defeated Nobuo Oda's Iga Pacification Army. A legendary ninja who has been an enemy of Yokota all his life.
Ishikawa five Uemon, Iga ninja. As a subordinate of the Third Taifu of Baidi, he once sneaked into Osaka City to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Unfortunately, it was discovered because it accidentally touched the treasure "Thousand Birds Incense Burner" and was later executed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Fuma Coutarrous, leader of Luanbo in Xiangzhou. Serve five generations of northern families. Collect wartime information for the North Island family and carry out activities to destroy the enemy country. Legend has it that Fuuma Koutarou is 7 feet 2 inches tall. It is said that he organized a gang of thieves in Edo City after the demise of Kitajima. The "Uber Party" led by him is a ninja group active in the underworld, and there are many legends circulating among Japanese people.
Dr. Sasuke Suzuki, the leader of miscellaneous people. Zahezhong is a mercenary group with iron guns (muskets) as its main weapons. Because the iron cannon was precious at that time, the fighting capacity of the mixed people could not be ignored. Join hands with Hong Anji against Nobunaga. Later, he was killed in the battle with Toyotomi Hideyoshi!