Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique (36 page)

Shinobi no Kusuri

The Shinobi substance
^*

♦
“Crow snake”

♦
Hoya—[to be found on the roots of
Artemisia capillaris
].

♦
“White snake”

Mix equal amounts of the above and soak in “oil of [unidentifiable ideogram]”
^†
for seven days and dry it in the open air. Powder the mixture and place it into a bag made of paper; light it to a windward direction.

Shinobi no kusuri
is sleeping powder. “Hoya”
^‡
can be found on the roots of the
Artemisia capillaris
. Put [the mixture] in a paper bag and have a woven bamboo [cover] for it, then wind it with thread and cover it with paper.

♦
Karasu hebi
—“crow snake” means black snake.

♦
Hakuja
—“white snake” means a snake that is white.
^§

If you burn this substance from the windward side, everyone will fall asleep and their defense will be insubstantial; in this way it is easier to steal in. There is a way to keep you from going to sleep while doing this—put the ginger mentioned in part three onto your belly button so you will not sleep, as is shown in the drawing.

手負ノ血留

Teoi no Chidome

Stopping a wound from bleeding

Fold paper so that it has eight layers
^*
in total and apply it with pressure to the injury. There are oral traditions for the holding of breath while doing this.

[The oral traditions are:]

To stop the bleeding of the injured, trace the ideograms [unknown ideogram] and
冬
for Yamabuki on the forehead of the injured person while holding your own breath. Then hold the bleeding part with the above-mentioned paper and add pressure.

忍火手内ニ持事

Shinobi Hi Te no Uchi ni Motsu Koto

Holding shinobi fire in the palm
^†

Take eight or nine spines of the feathers from a Japanese crested ibis bird and cut them to the length of the width of your fist and tie them together with string in a bundle. Pour mercury to the amount of eight tenths in each of the [stripped feather] cylinders.

Shinobi hi te no uchi ni motsu koto
is also called
Enmyoko
(“round bright light”), or
Shinobi no tebako
(“the shinobi’s portable box”).

Imagine this as a collection of feather spines, filled with mercury that have been tied together in a buddle with the string in this image.

The box should be 2 sun 9 bu square in size and 2 sun 5 bu in height. Spread mercury
^*
in a thin layer on the inside of the box. Then paste five layers of good quality gold leaf over it. Cut the spines of the feathers of a Japanese crested ibis (
Nipponia nippon
) to the length of the box and in such a number as can be laid within. Next, add mercury into the spines to a measurement of eight parts in ten. Put them together by entwining them with thread and place the bundle in the box. This gives off light when you wish to observe something.

壁外之火取事

Kabesoto no Hi Toru Koto

To take fire beyond the wall

Connect twelve pieces of Yoshino paper together and apply oil from the castor-oil plant. Let it dry in the shade for about thirty days. When you see a small light coming through a gap, paste this paper over the hole.

Kabe no Soto no Hi no Torukoto
—the drawing shows how the paper should be put together.
^†

福嶋流心意工夫之巻

Fukushima-Ryu Shin’i Kufu no Maki

Fukushima-Ryu—A scroll for the improvement of your mind and will

Shinobi-mono do not [only use]
myo
(“wondrous magic”), however; before they use [myo] they should first utilize
the five constant factors
^*
alongside wisdom, benevolence, and then bravery to execute their tactics. If they try to obtain results with [only] wondrous skills, then they will be trapped in their own fabrication, losing
honshin
—“original mind.” Thus in shinobi no jutsu [it is correct] to obtain results with righteousness.

Shinobi-mono observe the enemy. Then with the element of surprise—and by working independently—they strike at that which is insubstantial in the dark of night. They contemplate with fidelity and reach the truth. “Correct bravery”
^†
should not be restrained while “brute courage”
^‡
should be admonished. [This means that] a little cowardice [and caution] should be applied and used as a “medicine for ease.”

When the skills [recorded here] have been mastered, in addition with the [the above] short set of principles, your
ki
will be enhanced. Benefits will be acquired. To defeat an army, contemplate and use the “established path,”
^§
and know that to obstruct the enemy’s plans is an excellent military skill—there are countless cases of this.

Obtaining victory through attacking is not a way of excellence. However, if it is not possible [to obstruct the enemy’s plan], you need to attack. [Even with] “brute courage” you can win a hundred out of a hundred battles if you perform using the “principle of emptiness”
^¶
—in this way the original mind will not be lost and benefits will still be obtained.

The above scroll is the foundation of the shinobi and contains the essential elements needed in disciplining your mind. The previous four scrolls contain those elements that are
myo
, and also include reasonable skills.

Nojiri Jiroemon Narimasa

Okita Sukeshiro Naomichi

Nojiri Saburoemon Masatsugu

Okimi Jirobei

Miyake Juzo

The annotations state:

1. Benevolence
仁

2. Righteousness
義

3. Courtesy
礼

4. Wisdom
智

5. Fidelity
信

Govern with these virtues.

[All the annotations within this scroll were written] on an auspicious day of the fourth month in the summer of 1797—the year of the Snake.

By Terasawa Naosaku Yukihiro—the ninth descendant of Hyogo no Kami and transmitted to Ishikawa Yamato Minamoto no Ason Kotoku and kept in secret.

Further transcribed on an auspicious morning of the tenth month in the winter of 1824—the year of the Monkey.

Kept in the collection of Fujita Seiko—the fourteenth generation of Koka-Ryu.
^*

The deep secrets of Sekiguchi-Ryu

Sekiguchi-Ryu was discussed on page
65
along with its headmaster, Yamada Toshiyasu. Mr. Yamada is the inheritor of Sekiguchi-Ryu Battojutsu—the sword-drawing branch of the school. Sekiguchi-Ryu was founded by the Sekiguchi family and was a comprehensive martial school. However, it was later divided into separate sections, some taking over the grappling skills, while others took over the swordsmanship, etc., allowing for multiple branches to form. Mr. Yamada—and one of his predecessors—have endeavored to rediscover the “lost” parts of their school and in doing so the have had the opportunity to transcribe different Sekiguchi-Ryu manuals. One of Mr. Yamada’s predecessors, Mr. Aoki Norio, transcribed some manuals from a branch school transmitted in Awa province (present-day Tokushima prefecture). Those manuals include
gokui
(“deep secrets”), which were transmitted directly from Wakayama Katsumasa—who was a direct inheritor from Sekiguchi Ujimune, the founder of the school. These manuals have some very shinobi-like skills yet the word shinobi is not used in the manuals (apart from the shinobi torch). Skills such as walking at night, sleeping powders, poisons and blinding powders are all extremely shinobi-orientated. Therefore, some of the following selections of skills are the most shinobi-related, while others are on the boundry of the shinobi arts (and have been translated here for the first time). Luckily Mr. Yamada—with his assistant Takara Takanashi—still teach and welcome students from all over the world. For more information search social media sites for Sekiguchi-Ryu Battojutsu or see their website
www.sekiguchiryu.com