Ninja Skills

The Ninja were, and still are famous not only for their for martial art and their prowess as warriors but also for a wide range of other more sinister and more mysterious skills. Living and developing their arts in feudal Japan the ninja were essentially outlaws, forced to live on their wits and often in opposition to the powerful elite of Japanese society and the fanatical, well trained and well equipped Samurai warriors who they controlled. When they weren't directly fighting the countries nobility in many cases the dark arts and skills of the ninja were employed for jobs that the Samurai's stricty moral code would not allow them to do - such as espionage and assasinations - which forced the Ninja's skills to develop across a much broader range of disciplines than those of other groups such as the Samurai.

Taijutsu

Taijutsu is a collective term for all of the the ninja skills of hand to hand combat, and is therefore one half of the ninja martial art of ninjutsu. In addition to learning specific techniques and developing their physical strength, fitness and endurance Taijutsu would have also included the philosophy and general principles of fighting as well as methods to kill a victim with bare hands before they even realize what was happening.

Ninja Weapons Skills

When you think of ninja weapons today you think of the Shuriken throwing stars shown in many a ninja movie. The art of using these as a weapons is called shurikenjutsu. Other concealed weapons and weapons that could be used to kill from a concealed position without revealing yourself were also popular with the Ninja, such as Kunai 'throwing arrows', blowpipes and such like. For face to face combat the ninja would have most likely fought with either a katana sword or a spear.

Outdoor and Survival Skills

Everything from camoflage and evasion techniques to tracking the enemy to hunting would have been included in the outdoor and 'forest skills' of the ninja. They would have been taught about the uses of plants and herbs, both to create weapons and for deadly poisons used for weapon tips or for covert asssasinations. In addition to the basic outdoor skills that you might imagine these would have also been supplemented by advanced skills as described below

Ninja Magic

Other than their fighting talents the main skill that people think of when you say ninja is the art of invisibility. They were famous of being able to make themselves or other things invisibile which lead to the popularization of the myth that they possesed supernatural powers. In fact they would have used techniques which are today used in stage magic, or illusionism, such as sleight of hand, misdirection and so on. In addition to using these to gain entry to buildings for theft or assasination they would also have used these skill in their martial art to create deceptive movements and unseen attacks. The other side of ninja magic was the meditative and mystical practices such as the kuji kiri nine levels of power, which are:Rin - Strength, Kyo - Direction of energy, Toh - Harmony, Sha - Healing, Kai - Premonition, Jin - Knowing the thoughts of others, Retsu - Mastery of time and space, Zai - Control of the elements of nature, and Zen - enlightenment

Espionage

The ninja developed ways to encrypt messages so that they could only be read by the person they were being sent to. This would involve the recipient wrapping the scroll around a specially constucted bamboo implement, identical to that owned by the sender, to reveal the message. Psycholical techniques to manipulate people would also come under this category.

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