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 Ninjas are not a product of Kabuki theater. They are real assassins sent on secret missions to kill people. It was popular in Kabuki theater to have the stagehands, dressed in all-black as they were, to act as "ninjas" in relative stories. Ninjas disguised themselves as part of the crowd, such as servants or other lowly people, to carry out their kills. The black-garb of ninjas comes from Kabuki theater, as they were meant to be "invisible forces" in some cases. For plays, this meant that stage-hands would "kill" the relevant characters, which was supposed to be interpreted as "an invisible person" since the stagehands dressed in black were meant to be unseen. Later, western interpretation of these stagehands was assumed to mean "ninjas dressed in all-black" instead of "these ninja assassinations were so well-done and invisible that the only way to portray the ninja killing the person is by having the "ninja" in black garb, as if they were, to the audience, literally invisible" Ninjas were still a very real thing and a very real type of assassin, just not the black-garbed stereotype we know of. Other fun fact! Ninjas did not use katanas, or other "ninja swords". They used "ninjato", or in layman's terms, shanks. They were one-time-use sharpened metal weapons which they made out of whatever was convenient, or was already easily concealable and easy to prepare. They were left in the corpses afterward, as they were just hunks of metal. They were just one of many types of improvised, unassuming weapons which could be quickly used and easily forgotten. This has been your weeaboo corner
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Jun 4, 2015 08:58
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Captain Q posted:They say that if you want to know the answer to a question, don't ask the internet - post the wrong answer instead. Ninjas are the only cool thing about Japan, as westerners understand it. Samurai? Those katanas didn't see much use. You either used a pike or your gun. They were about as useful as sabers/cutlasses/whatever that officers in our military use. Purely a decorative badge of honor to say "this is a samurai sword, for I am a samurai" Similarly, the bushido code wasn't even a thing that existed for a long time and is an eastern romanticization of samurai being honorable warriors who fought for glory. In reality, war is war is war and the men with pikes on horses with rifles strapped to their backs killed lots of people because that is how wars were won. Not with glory, honor, etc but through weapons technology, strategy, and brutal slaughter. One other cool thing ninjas did was poison people. A lot. A famous depiction I love is a bit hyperbolic, but ninja as gently caress--sneak into the rafters of your target's house while he slept, dangle a string above his open mouth, and drip poison onto the string. It drips down the string, falls as droplets into his mouth, and voila! They're dead as they smack their lips and swallow while they sleep. I don't know the accuracy of that assassination method, but it's hard as gently caress to discover given the forensics of the time, and the idea of a ninja's most lethal weapon being a piece of string makes me giggle 
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Jun 5, 2015 07:17
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It's just a thing that's been in a number of kung fu movies and other media depicting sick ninja assassinations I've seen, and I basically prefaced the whole scenario as "probably not real but stupidly awesome" Edit: So I did some more looking into the history behind this method of assassination. It's one of those self-boasting ninja legends attributed to Ishikawa Goemon, who is the inspiration behind that exact Goemon, Mystical Ninja you are thinking of. It's such a well-known trope of ninja-killing that it was used in a James Bond film, among the other martial arts movies I've seen, and gets referenced a ton in books which delve into the history of ninjutsu and highlight famous ninjas throughout Japanese history. Did it actually happen? Who knows, probably not, it's the exact kind of thing that would be made up and attributed to a real person in the interest of making them a legendary figure. Is it awesome as gently caress? You bet your rear end 
bawk fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Jun 5, 2015 |
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Jun 5, 2015 10:37
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Do you need more ninja facts 
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Jun 7, 2015 04:58
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Captain Q posted:I'm not your manager, do what you want. Cool (archer reference, nerd) So, ninjas. Besides sharpened hunks of metal and the totally-true, definitely-not-legends-made-up-for-kabuki-theater-poison-strings, what did they do? Short answer: spy. Ninjas were boring. You need somebody to infiltrate another lord's land and learn the lay of his land? Ninja. You need somebody to study an important person's habits to better understand their schedule, likes, dislikes, etc? Ninja. You need somebody to...well, any boring piece of observation? You guessed it! Ninja are basically spies. I mean that in a literal, real-world definition of what spies do, not the Archer romanticized-and-also-hilaritized version of spycraft. The vast majority of ninjas were just observers in costumes of varying prestige, learning simple facts such as the current expectance of that region's agricultural exports, and the minority were intricate undercover agents who befriended high-ranking government officials to uncover their weaknesses or exploits. The killers? An even smaller minority. It'd be like finding a hitman in modern america. Nearly impossible, and the few takers would kill you instead under another lord's bequest, probably. The real professionals are still real professional, and no way any lovely newbie or has-been is going to suddenly have a person trained in weaponry, stealth, and camouflage just fall into their lap when political sabotage and subterfuge would be at an understandably high demand. "Ninja" isn't this untouchable honorable skilled status, but there definitely existed an upper echelon of sorts that handled the real "Ninja poo poo" as most people would understand it, vs the low-level intelligence stuff people take for granted. Look at it this way: Goemon was basically Japanese Robin Hood for many years. Stole from the nobles, gave to the peasants, probably pocketed way more than any "generous donations" he ever gave. He's so legendary that Kabuki Theater not only gave him a unique, legendary assassination style, it glorified his assumed legendary execution (being boiled to death). Imagine what not-Robin-Hood-but-historically-way-more-influential did with his professional time.
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Jun 7, 2015 09:58
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