Ninja techniques and secrets from feudal Japan revealed
Old documents show how to spy, sabotage, and assassinate. About 150 items were found in the home of a ninja heir, including copies of ten pledges written between 1700 and 1829. Ninja gradually faded away during the Edo period, from 1603 to 1868.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) – Textbooks detailing covert techniques used by ninja – Japan’s feudal mercenaries – and written pledges on their secret missions were passed down for generations at the home of a ninja descendant in western Japan, this according to a study of ancient documents.
Experts in Japanese history say that the documents discovered in 2000 in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, are valuable because they show that ninjutsu techniques employed by ninja in missions like espionage, sabotage and assassination were handed down to the next generations in the western Japan city.
Koka and Iga in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, are widely known as the home of the two most famous ninja clans. Ninja gradually faded away in Japan’s Edo period, from 1603 to 1868.
Among the 150 or so items found in the house of 79-year-old Toshinobu Watanabe, 17 were textbooks on such subjects as how to make poison or conduct night attacks. Of the 17, four were written in the 1670s and 1680s, according to research the Koka city government started last year.
One of the textbooks on poison instructed ninja to put into wells powder made by burning lizards or tiger beetles that were believed to be poisonous.
Another one on sleeping drugs said enemies would fall asleep when smoke is emitted by burning powder made from insect shells or tobacco.
The 150 sets of documents also included copies of ten pledges written between 1700 and 1829 and submitted to a local feudal domain.
The papers showed the Koka ninja vowed to join the fighting in the event of an emergency in the domain and not to reveal their status as ninja even to their family members and friends as their contracts were classified.
Ancestors of the Watanabes were farmers and worked as undercover ninja on a part-time basis.
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