Rogue History

- When the James Bond movie "You Only Lived Twice" hit the big screen in 1967, it catapulted this version of the ninja into Western cinema.

Troupes like all black uniforms, sword fighting and throwing stars were cemented into the public consciousness, creating a sneaky warrior archetype that's inspired countless movies, a reality TV show, and Chuck Norris.

But these stereotypes are older than Hollywood, older even than the United States.

I'm Joel Cook, and this is "Rogue History."

[playful dramatic music] As two dusty laborers trudged towards the heavily guarded compound, the soldiers on the walls waved them in dismissively before continuing their watch.

But the enemies they were looking for had just entered.

The two spies quietly counted soldiers, noted defenses, and identified the sleeping quarters of their targets.

This spy mission, carried out in 10th century Japan, marked one of the first uses of ninjas.

Despite the focus on their fighting skills, ninjas were trained specifically for espionage and infiltration.

Ninja, meaning one who endures or one who perseveres, refers to soldiers with a skill in a variety of martial arts and the determination to use them.

While the term isn't incorrect, they would've referred to themselves by the older term shinobi, or one who sneaks.

Now, infiltration in the movies often looks like a black-clad figure blending into the shadows and silently removing people in their way.

But just like my black clothing stuck out in my emo era, an all-black outfit would be really noticeable in medieval Japan.

Instead, shinobi would often disguise themselves as common professions, like dancers, priests, or merchants.

One of the most popular disguises was that of the yamabushi, a nomadic mountain-dwelling monk, because they were permitted to carry swords for religious purposes, could travel freely, and their loose fitting clothing allowed shinobi to conceal additional tools.

According to the Shoninki, a Ninjutsu manual from the medieval era, the six essential tools of the shinobi were a straw hat, a grappling hook, a stone pencil, medicines, a towel, and a tinderbox.

If it's any consolation, throwing stars were a real thing, just not a real common thing.

But swords were definitely part of the basic kit, but probably not the ones you're picturing.

The manual recommended the use of a wakizashi, a short sword that was easier to conceal while undercover.

But most interestingly, the skill the Shoninki described as vital was the ability to mimic local dialects.

Now, to us, that might not seem like a big deal, but when the stakes are a little bit higher, like in the middle of a century-long civil war, for example, it might be a little more important to practice your pronunciations.

The pinnacle of shinobi activity in Japan was the Warring States Period, an era of near constant civil war from 1467 to 1603.

Up until then, the emperor and the Shogun held the most power in Japan, but they lost control during this era, resulting in a power struggle between shifting factions and clan alliances.

With the value of up-to-date intelligence now at a premium, shinobi became an incredibly important resource.

The first documented appearance describes how a group of handpicked troops from the Iga province were deployed to do nighttime recon and abduct valuable targets.

But not all shinobi were the same.

Stay with me.

The two primary types were yo no shinobi or public shinobi, and in no shinobi or hidden shinobi.

The public ones were hired openly to defend Samurai lords and served primarily as a bluff for enemies of their employer.

Their revered intelligence skills, combined with their visible presence in a Samurai lord's court warned potential enemies that the lord knew when things were happening and had enough fighters around him to respond.

But public shinobi were also spy masters, secretly hiring teams of hidden shinobi to work under their leadership.

The hidden agents, unknown even to their comrades, served as undercover spies and infiltrators.

Some foot soldiers among this hidden group earned the moniker kusa or grass because of their strategy of hiding in long grass for hours at a time to spy on rival armies.

One of the most high risk but high reward things a hidden shinobi could do was infiltrate an enemy army.

Because soldiers were recruited from common people without uniforms, infiltrators could bluff their way into an enemy base by claiming to be a new hire.

They put those grappling hooks to use too.

The Ninjutsu practice of stealthily climbing into enemy castles to blend in with soldiers was so common that their enemies had a name for it, referring to them as sniffers, or listeners.

With Samurai lords well aware of this treachery, employed counter agents to infiltrate their own armies and report back on any suspicious activities.

Takeda Shingen, one of the most powerful samurai lords of the late Warring States Period, saw the value of espionage and war.

Shingen,'s intelligence operations were heavily influenced by legendary Chinese General Sun Tzu and his belief in divine manipulation of the threads.

Sun Tzu believed in five types of spies: the local spy, people in the community, the inside spy, flipped enemy civic leaders, the reverse spy, a double agent, the dead spy, hired to spread false information, and the living spy who would report back to the leader.

All of these spies would be completely unaware of each other, allowing the leader of the group to corroborate reports and weed out false information.

Takeda Shingen employed a massive intelligence network based on these principles and even had a training school for Ninjutsu, the art of stealth camouflage and sabotage.

Some of the skills students would learn in his Ninjutsu school were ninja no kiai or breath control, ka-jutsu, the use of fire in all its forms, and koppo tai-jutsu, a fighting system described as being based on the laws which govern the human skeleton and framework.

Kunoichi, or female ninja, were also a part of Takeda Shingen's network.

He recruited hundreds of them to infiltrate places male spies couldn't, often posing as aruki miko, or traveling Shinto priestesses.

At times, they even carried out assassinations.

Even in death, Takeda Shingen kept it clandestine, ordering that his passing be kept a secret for three years before being revealed to his rivals.

So how did we go from that legendary samurai and his masterful spy network to the cute supernatural spies we see in popular anime like Naruto?

Well, just like most legends, it started with a heavy dose of nostalgia.

The first paintings of the black-clad ninja appeared in the Genroku Era, which began in 1688, 85 years after the heyday of shinobi.

These shadowy depictions, along with misunderstandings about the tactics of shinobi, resulted in an entire genre of fantasy literature devoted to superhuman ninjas and their dark magic.

Ninjutsu tools like the Mizugumo, large wooden shoes that allow the user to walk on water were interpreted as shinobi having supernatural abilities.

Other types of shoes, designed with cutouts of animal prints to hide footprints, were conflated as shinobi transforming into animals to travel from place to place.

Sarutobi Sasuke, a mythical character based on a real shinobi named Sarutobi Sasuke, appeared during the Meiji era and evolved into a superhero-like figure in Japanese storytelling.

If you're a fan of Naruto, then you know that the legend of Sasuke is still alive and well even today.

The beginning of the end of the shinobi started in 1603 when a Samurai named Tokugawa Ieyasu won the decisive Battle of Sekigahara.

This began the Edo period, which would eventually result in over 250 years of relative peace in Japan.

To prevent the outbreak of more conflict between the factions, Ieyasu made duels, and any other combat practices that could result in death punishable by death, which seems counterproductive, but it wasn't.

Warriors of all classes reevaluated their cultural practices and changed to fit into the new peacetime system.

But for most shinobi, Ieyasu's decrees were a cultural death sentence.

Ninjutsu, the shinobi training system, wasn't like other forms of martial arts.

While other practices like judo evolved with the changing times, Ninjutsu couldn't.

Shinobi weren't above using edge weapons, poison, or even explosives to live to fight another day, and it's kind of hard to adapt poison to friendly competition.

In the face of Tokugawa Ieyasu's decree, authentic shinobi began to fade away.

Those who had skills of interest to the new government were allowed to practice extremely limited forms of Ninjutsu.

But practitioners who failed to find positions as bodyguards or civilian spies became farmers and merchants, disappearing from the public consciousness.

As the last of the true shinobi died off, there was no one to correct the outlandish stories being told about them.

When it comes to the legacy of those who operate in the shadows, it's hard to get the details exactly right because of the secrecy required to do the work.

But their silence, paired with the passing of time, can often result in fantasy and myth taking the place of reality.

Pop culture, whether current or centuries old, can open the doors to historical figures we might not otherwise be exposed to.

But by stepping through those doors, we can learn the deeper layers of these fascinating stories.

[pensive music]