Shinobi

A ninja or shinobi (ninja, shinobi) was a warrior specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war, summarized by the term ninjutsu ("art of stealth"). These include assassination, illusion, and espionage.

The exact origin of the ninja is a matter of debate. Ninja supposedly appeared in 14th century Japan and remained active from the Kamakura to the Edo period. The role of the ninja may have included sabotage, espionage, and scouting. Such actions may have taken place at the service of a feudal lord (daimyo, shogun), or other entity waging guerilla warfare. Ninjas figure prominently in folklore and legend, and as a result it is often difficult to separate historical fact from myth.

Etymology

Ninja is the on'yomi reading of the two kanji used to write shinobi-no-mono, which is the native Japanese word for people who practice ninjutsu (often erroneously transliterated as ninjitsu). The term shinobi (historically sino₂bi₂ written with the Man'yōgana) has been traced as far back as the late 8th century to a poem to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. The underlying connotation of shinobi means "to steal away" and—by extension—"to forbear", hence its association with stealth and invisibility. Mono (likewise pronounced sha or ja) means a "person".

The word ninja became popular in the post-World War II culture. The nin of ninjutsu is the same as that in ninja, whereas jutsu means skill or art, so ninjutsu means "the skill of going unperceived" or "the art of stealth"; hence, ninja and shinobi-no-mono (as well as shinobi) may be translated as "one skilled in the art of stealth". Similarly, the pre-war word ninjutsu-zukai means "one who uses the art of remaining unperceived".

Other terms which may be used include oniwaban ("garden keeper or gardener"), suppa ("thief"), rappa ("ruffian"), mitsumono, kusa (grass) and Iga-mono ("one from Iga").

In English, the plural of ninja can be either unchanged as ninja, reflecting the Japanese language's lack of grammatical number, or the regular English plural ninjas.

Historical organization

In their history, ninja groups were small and structured around families and villages, later developing a more martial hierarchy that was able to mesh more closely with samurai and the daimyo. These certain ninjutsu trained groups were set in these villages for protection against raiders and robbers.

Ninja museums in Japan declare women to have been ninja as well. A female ninja may be called kunoichi; the characters are derived from the strokes that make up the kanji for female. They were sometimes depicted as spies who learned the secrets of an enemy by seduction; though it's just as likely they were employed as household servants, putting them in a position to overhear potentially valuable information.

As a martial organization, it has been assumed that ninja would have had many rules, and keeping secret the ninja's clan and the daimyo who gave them their orders would have been one of the most important ones. For modern hierarchy in ninjutsu, see the article about ninjutsu.

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Image

The stereotypical ninja who wears easily identifiable black outfits (shinobi shozoku) comes from the kabuki theater. Prop handlers dress in black to move props around the stage. The audience sees the prop handlers but pretend they are invisible. Building on suspension of disbelief, ninja characters came to be portrayed in the theatre as wearing similar all-black suits. This made the audience unable to tell a ninja character from the prop handlers until the ninja character distinguished himself from the other stagehands with a scripted attack or assassination.

Modern organizations
There are several organizations currently purporting to teach ninjutsu, or to provide neo-ninja training. Claims of authenticity are disputed, with some sources stating that none of the modern schools have koryū origins.

In popular culture
Ninja appear in both Japanese and Western fiction of many formats, including books, television, movies, video games, and Internet media. Depictions range from realistic to the fantastically exaggerated, both fundamentally and aesthetically, and often portray ninja in non-factual ways for humor or entertainment. Some examples of ninja in works of fiction are Ask a Ninja, Ninja Warrior and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Self-styled modern groups
Among others:
* Death squad-type armed groups active under Indonesian rule in East Timor, which terrorized populations supporting independence and were allegedly controlled by the Indonesian military, in some cases called themselves "Ninja". The name seems to have been borrowed from the movies rather than being directly influenced by the Japanese model. The "ninja" gangs were also active elsewhere in Indonesia.
* The Angolan special police forces are a specialized paramilitary police force officially referred to as the Emergency Police, but popularly known as “Ninjas”.
* Rebels in the Pool Region of the Republic of the Congo also called themselves "Ninja".
* Red Berets, a Serb paramilitary group of Dragan Vasiljković based in Knin, Croatia, called themselves "Kninjas".
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