In Search of the Niinja (18 page)

Choka

[unknown]

Shotan

Chinrin

These listed people were known as supernatural beings [skilled in hiding].

There are five methods called the Gotonpo
51
found within the skill of hiding:

Kinton – the skill of metal hiding.

Mokuton – the skill of wood hiding.

Suiton – the skill of water hiding.

Katon – the skill of fire hiding.

Doton – the skill of earth hiding.

You can hide using any of these elements, but of them all, earth hiding is quickest because there is nowhere that earth is not. Furthermore, to acquire these skills of hiding you can train yourself in the mountains where nobody goes, do this for 49 days and sit alone in meditation. Also, you can use talismans or spells and ask the 100 gods to help you, but remember if your concentration
goes then you need to train more.
52

There was a man called Raiken in the Ming Dynasty and he led a group who stole into a large warehouse, however they were detected and arrested. The leader then asked for water [for his men] and when it came he jumped into the container and broke it, he then disappeared within the shattered pieces. This is the skill of hiding in water. During the sixteenth century there was an old man who used to be a eunuch and an official but became a bandit. This bandit collected the top knots of men and rubbed soil on them with in his hand and thus disappeared, this is the skill of earth hiding.

I think that the
shinobi no mono
are an essential part of any army and in these modern times the people from Koka of Koshu are the best trained in this art and they still pass these traditions down through their families.

The
Shoninki
and the
Bansenshukai
directly attribute some of their knowledge to these ancient Chinese masters and some of the lesser scrolls show an understanding of Chinese literature. However, whilst this connection is irrefutable there is still the problem of what ninjutsu is and what could be considered the art of warfare common to all armies of the world. Therefore, we need to detect where the ninja scrolls use information from Chinese manuals that are more specific than descriptions of skills as used in all espionage.

Of all the Chinese classics, Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War
is without doubt the most influential and famous and was well known in feudal Japan as well as in Asia. The military elite of Japan, including such families as the Natori and Fujibayashi would have had, and we know that they did have, access to this text. Both Natori and Fujibayashi directly refer to Sun Tzu by name, showing (perhaps intentionally) that they are well read and educated. Nowhere is this more obvious than with Natori’s discussion of ‘Employing Spies’ and his five types of agent.

The Five Types of Spy were first recorded by Sun Tzu and they have been discussed, annotated, extended and refined throughout Asian history. They consist of:

•
    The local spy – for knowledge of the local area.

•
    The internal spy – those within the enemy army.

•
    The turned spy – those of the enemy whom you bring to your side.

•
    The doomed spy – those who are expendable in use.

•
    The living spy – those who infiltrate and return.

Considering that Natori is consciously saying that all ninja fit into one of these categories and that all ninja are used in the same way as the Chinese version, we can identify a solid comparison between China and Japan, which is also reflected in the
Bansenshukai
, albeit not so directly. The connections with the five types of spy are numerous and are found in other lesser scrolls, making the fundamental base of the Japanese ninja
,
in the eyes of the ninja themselves, a Chinese art.

The following sections show a very strong link between the Chinese and Japanese descriptions, one that starts to move beyond coincidence.

Sun Tzu, amongst other Chinese writers, recommends killing anyone who either unwittingly or intentionally releases information on a clan’s spying activities. The punishment for even knowing or distributing information about spies is death.

When espionage activities and secret operations have been leaked before their implementation, then the agents concerned and those whom they are in contact with must be put to death.

…If before the mission has begun it has already been exposed, the spy and those he informed should be put to death.

The sentence of death is echoed in the
Bansenshukai.
Was this advice from Fujibayashi based on his knowledge of
The Art of War
, or was it independent and standard practice in real life? Fujibayashi writes:

Those who are found to talk about any plans concerning the shinobi should be sent to their death immediately, as well as those who should not know about it by right. Any who take part in such secret conversations about the said shinobi and then speak to someone else, giving the information away, should also be executed at once together with the one who has heard it, according to the laws.

Even when universal peace has come in the country, there is still the law of keeping it secret and not divulging to anyone that there is a shinobi in use. It is even more so when in a state of war and thus the time when shinobi are about.

Occasionally a Chinese classic will discuss shinobi-like activity. Sun Tzu says:

Someone unfamiliar with the mountains and forests, gorges and defiles, the shape of marches and wetlands cannot advance the army. One who does not employ local guides cannot gain advantages.

This could be from the
Bansenshukai
and other ninja manuals. There are various shinobi ways to report on mountains, forests and wetlands, well documented in shinobi literature and other writings on Japanese warfare. The great disappointment and frustration is that the skills are not decribed in detail in the Chinese classics, so we cannot compare them with shinobi arts.

Chinese military thought is saturated in the idea of
and
, two terms which have been translated as ‘Form and No Form, Substantial and Insubstantial’ and ‘Vacuous and Substantial’. They represent the solid and the illusion of the solid. Sun Tzu dedicates an entire chapter of
The Art of War
to this idea and the concept goes on to saturate all of Chinese military practice thereafter. The
Hu-ch
’
ien Ching
states: ‘We should raise dust and our enemy will not know our vacuity and substance.’ Wei Liao-Tzu states: ‘“Vacuous and substantial” are the embodiment of warfare.’

The idea is that a military strategy can be in one of two forms. It can be a solid form, when what is displayed on the surface is in fact the truth of the matter. A battle formation can be just that; a general intends to fight in that position and with the forces he has deployed. In contrast, the same position may not be the real intent and the deployment is undertaken to provoke a response from the enemy. The formation is insubstantial and of no value, save for the reaction it evokes.

A shinobi must have the ability to understand if a plan, a conversation, a troop movement or anything they encounter in their spying is ‘Form’ or ‘No Form’. Knowing what is true and what is deceptive is fundamental to the ninja arts, be it vast army formations or a conversation in a bar.