Monday 10 October 2011

History of Ninjas

"Due to the fact that ninja rarely left anything in writing or boasted of their achievements, the history of the ninja is shrouded in secrecy, so the great majority of stories circulating about them are difficult to prove. Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who employed surprise as a major weapon in his victories, is said in a popular folktale to have been educated by a Tengu to learn the tactic and became a ninja. In truth, he was taught by Buddhist monks who educated him with Chinese books like The Art of War." (2002-2007 Warriors-Wizards)


[1] One of the earliest roots of ninja in ninja history

Japanese folklore states that the ninja descended from a demon that was half man and half crow. However, it seems more likely that the ninja slowly evolved as an opposing force to their upper-class contemporaries, the samurai, in early feudal Japan.

Most sources indicate that the skills that became ninjutsu, the ninja's art of stealth, began to develop between 600-900 A.D. Prince Shotoku, (574-622), is said to have employed Otomono Sahito as a shinobi spy.

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