General Overview
How cool would it be to be a ninja? Pretty awesome, wouldn`t you say? Well, ninjas were cool and they are portrayed by movies to be a lot of things. Are all the stories about the ninjas true? The ninja came around the time of the samurai. But for some reason, the ninja and the samurai do not stand on the same page.
Find out why as you read more on this article. We will also discuss the weaponry of the typical ninja soldier. The swords used by the ninja will also be disclosed.
Understanding the meaning of a Ninja
First of all, we will begin with an introduction to the ninja. Who is a ninja? A ninja could also be referred to as a shinobi. These ninja soldiers could be compared to modern-day spies and covert operatives. The ninjas believed in the use of wits and environmental factors to defeat the opponent. No method is too underhanded or despicable to be used, as long as the aim is achieved. They are the embodiment of the saying “all is fair in love and war”.
History
The ninjas were mercenaries or covert agents of early or feudal Japan. There are lots of literature on ninjas today. But the most notable ninja literature is the “Bansenshūkai”. It means “all Rivers Merge into the Sea”. It is a work based upon pooled knowledge from two distinct regions on the training of the ninja. The regions are the Iga region and the Kōga region.
Concerning the stories about the ninjas, they are not all true. Although they were trained to remain as inconspicuous as possible, they were not invisible. But they made use of deception and covert means to achieve their aims. This gave rise to various folklores about them being invisible and being able to walk on water.
As they were present during the time of the samurai, why didn`t the two forces work together? What was the cause of their rivalry? The typical samurai lives his life following the ways of Bushidō. There is no proper way of defining or explaining Bushidō. However, it is a way of life. It is the summary of the samurai warriors` way of life.
According to Bushidō, honour, bravery and personal loyalty are values to live by. These attributes are more valuable than life itself according to the samurai warrior. The ninja, however, employs deception, espionage, assassinations and all sorts of surprise attacks. With the difference in ideology, it is not surprising that the ninjas and samurai warriors did not see eye to eye.
The typical ninja makes use of various tools such as grappling hooks, spikes, chisels, various poisons and projectiles and many more. But we will focus on the swords. Their swords of choice were short swords and knives which could be hidden in plain sight. They are particularly known to use the katana. They used both the sword and its scabbard or sheath as part of their fighting tactics.
Finally
Today, we still have various ninja swords available from samuraiswordsmith.com. The ninja swords can be customised to suit your requirements. Fun fact, the ninja` sword is believed to be able to suppress evil.
