Ninja

  Ninja (忍者) are agents of espionage and assassination of Japanese extraction in legend, popular fiction, and satire.


  Ninja is Sino-Japanese compound derived from the two kanji (Japanese characters of Chinese origin) used to write shinobi-no-mono (忍の者), one of the native Japanese words for people who practice ninjutsu (sometimes transliterated as ninjitsu). Ninja and shinobi-no-mono, along with shinobi, another variant, became popular in the post-World War II phonetically with the kanji 志能備, has been traced as far back as Japan's Asuka period, when Prince Shotoku is alleged to have employed one of his retainers as a ninja.

  The underlying connotation of shinobi (忍, pronounced nin in Sino-Japanese compounds) is "to do quietly" or "to do so as not to be perceived by others" and—by extension—"to forebear," hence its association with stealth and invisibility. Mono (者, likewise pronounced sha or ja) means "person." The nin of ninjutsu is the same as that in ninja, whereas jutsu (術) 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."


  Early in their history, ninja groups would have been small and structured around families and villages, later developing a more martial hierarchy that was able to mesh more closely with that of samurai (侍) and the daimyo.

  While ninja are often depicted as male, and nearly all military and related professions were typically limited exclusively to males, females were supposedly ninja as well. A female ninja may be called kunoichi (くノ一); the characters are derived from the strokes that make up the kanji for woman (女). They were sometimes depicted as prostitutes 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. In either case, there is no historical support for the modern image of female ninja assassins, and they were more likely employed as spies and couriers.

  As a martial organization, 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.


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