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Ninja
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 For other uses, see Ninja (disambiguation)."Shinobi" redirects here. For other uses, seeShinobi (disambiguation).
Jiraiya, ninja and title character of the Japanese folktale 
 Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari
.In thehistory of Japan,a
ninja
(
忍者
 
ninja
?
) was someone specially trained in a varietyof unorthodox arts of war . The methods used by ninja includedassassination,espionage, and a variety of martial arts.In theJapanese culture, they were usually trained for dangerous missions.
[
citation needed 
 
]
Their exact origins are still unknown. Their roles may have includedsabotage,espionage, scoutingandassassinationmissions as a way to destabilize and cause social chaos in enemy territory or against an opposing ruler, perhaps in the service of their feudal rulers(daimyo,shogun), or an underground ninja organization wagingguerilla warfare.
[
citationneeded 
 
]
•
Etymology
 Ninja
is the
on'yomi
 reading of the twokanji 
忍者
used to write
 shinobi-no-mono
(
忍の者
), which is thenative Japanese wordfor people who practice
ninjutsu
(
忍術
,sometimes erroneouslytransliteratedas
ninjitsu
). The term
 shinobi
(historically 
 sino
2
bi
2
 
written with theMan'yōgana 
志能備
), has been traced as far back as the late8th century when Heguri Uji no Iratsume wrote a poem
[1][2]
 to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. The underlying connotation of 
 shinobi
(
忍
 
) means "to steal away" and—by extension—"to forbear,"hence its association with stealth and invisibility.
Mono
(
者
, likewise pronounced
 sha
or 
 ja
) means "person."The word
ninja
became popular in the post-World War IIculture. The
nin
of 
ninjutsu
isthe same as that in
ninja
, whereas
 jutsu
(
術
) means skill or art, so
ninjutsu
means "theskill of going unperceived" or "the art of stealth"; hence,
ninja
and
 shinobi-no-mono
(aswell 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
(
お庭番
"one in the garden"),
 suppa
,
rappa
,
mitsumono
,
kusa
(
草
grass) and
 Iga-mono
("one from Iga").InEnglish language, the plural of 
ninja
can be either unchanged as
ninja
, reflecting theJapanese language's lack of grammatical number , or the regular English plural
ninjas
.
[3]
Historical period of origin
The ninja use of stealth tactics against better-armed enemy
 samurai
does not mean thatthey were limited to espionage and undercover work: that is simply where their actionsmost notably differed from the more accepted tactics of samurai. Their weapons andtactics were partially derived from the need to conceal or defend themselves quickly fromsamurai, which can be seen from the similarities between many of their weapons andvarious sicklesand threshing tools used at the time.
[4]
 Ninjas as a group first began to be written about in15th centuryfeudal Japan as martialorganizations predominately in the regions of IgaandKogaof central Japan, though the  practice of guerrilla warfare and undercover espionage operations goes back much further.
[
citation needed 
 
]
At this time, the conflicts between the clans of 
daimyo
 that controlled small regions of land had established guerrilla warfare and assassination as a valuable alternative tofrontal assault.
[
citation needed 
 
]
Since 
 Bushido
, the Samurai Code, forbade such tactics asdishonorable,
[
citation needed 
]
a daimyo could not expect his own troops to perform the tasksrequired; thus, he had to buy or broker the assistance of ninja to perform selective strikes,espionage, assassination, and infiltration of enemy strongholds.
[
citation needed 
]
There are a few people and groups of people regarded as having been potential historicalninja from approximately the same time period. It is rumored that some of the higher-ranking daimyos and shoguns were in fact ninja, and exploited their role as ninja-huntersto deflect suspicion and obscure their participation in the 'dishonorable' ninja methodsand training.
[
citation needed 
]
 
Though typically classified as assassins, many of the ninja were warriors in all senses. InStephen K. Hayes's book,
Mystic Arts of the Ninja
, Hattori Hanzo, one of the most well- known ninja, is depicted in armor similar to that of a samurai. Hayes also says that thosewho ended up recording the history of the ninja were typically those within positions of  power in the military dictatorships, and that students of history should realize that thehistory of the ninja was kept by observers writing about their activities as seen from theoutside." Ninjutsu did not come into being as a specific well defined art in the first place, and many centuries passed before ninjutsu was established as an independent system of knowledge in its own right. Ninjutsu developed as a highly illegal counter culture to theruling samurai elite, and for this reason alone, the origins of the art were shrouded bycenturies of mystery, concealment, and deliberate confusion of history."
[5]
A similar account is given by Hayes: "The predecessors of Japan's ninja were so-calledrebels favoringBuddhismwho fled into the mountains near Kyotoas early as the 7th century A.D. to escape religious persecution and death at the hands of imperial forces."
[6]
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 that of samurai and the daimyo. These certain
ninjutsu
trained groups were set in these villagesfor protection against raiders and robbers."Ninja museums" in Japan declare women to have been ninjas as well. A female ninjamay be
kunoichi
 (
くノ一
); the characters are derived from the strokes that make up thekanji for female (
女
). 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 householdservants, putting them in a position to overhear potentially valuable information.
[
citationneeded 
 
]
As a martial organization, ninja would have had many rules, and keeping secret theninja's clan and the daimyo who gave them their orders would have been one of the mostimportant ones.
[
citation needed 
]
For modern hierarchy in ninjutsu, see
 Ninjutsu
.
Historical garb, technique, and image
There is no evidence that historical ninja limited themselves to all-black suits. In moderntimes,camouflagebased upon dark colors such as dark red and dark blue can be used togive better concealment at night. Some cloaks may have been reversible: dark colored onthe outside for concealment during the night, and white colored on the inside for 
of 00

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envisageamit

for the sake of uploading something...u cant jus copy paste from wiki..ppl will know..dummy

reply10 / 19 / 2009
asterixobelix

I am sure Andres will love this document

reply03 / 18 / 2008
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