'Divine punishment': Ancient ninja oath unveiled in Japan

Another piece of history to add to the legend of the Ninja!

that were not in the "Bansenshukai", a secretive 17th-century text considered to be somewhat of a ninja encyclopedia.

Its not secretive any more. I own a copy. They also need to mention the other 2 important texts: the Shoninki and the Ninpiden. Another important text is the Iranki.

All other countries have better ninjas than Japan because you never see the ninjas of other countries.

seems like propoganda to make japan cool. and if true, why would they share it with foreigner who'd put them in a disadvantage? unless to share to hurt them, putting them on the advantage.

"Thieves and ninjas did the same thing -- sneaking into other people's houses -- but ninjas prized morality highly,"

"Thieves and ninjas did the same thing -- sneaking into other people's houses -- but ninjas prized morality highly," 

Well, either there weren't any ninja helping them during WW2 or the morality was out the window. Either way, they lost. And it was divine punishment.

Is it true that the term 'ninja' was not actually used to describe ninjas and their activities until relatively recently?

That's correct. It can be said that the word "ninja" is a XX century invention, product of modern mass culture. Most common words referring to them during the great samurai wars were "shinobi", or "shinobi no mono" (written with the same characters as ninja). Other words to name the medieval Japanese spies were "rappa", "suppa", "kanja", about a dozen of different words.

The "ninjas" and the sumo rikishi of all other countries are faced with the same dilemma. Move to Japan and turn pro, or continue practicing their art in mom's basement/backyard "dojo."

The problem with ninjas today is that they usually expect to knock off work (i.e. entertaining tourists) at about 5 p.m. so nobody gets to see their supposed fleetness in the dark. Maybe the people riding bikes without headlights are bicycle ninjas?

@BigYen Probably old, but thanks and cheers.

Can you walk around with your katana and shuriken on the subway ninja boy?

@Kenji. Yes you can if it licensed, you are a martial artist and it is contained in proper travel bags. If you are low life scum, you definitely can’t. Not sure about shuriken. It a gray area, but there really isn’t reason to carry on the subway.

Well I am sure if you lived here youll know how many scary people there are here, by all means anyone would be weary even anything protruding out of a long case.

Asakaze:

I believe you mean "MM" century invention (20th century). "XX" is 20 AD.

Or BC.

juminRhee

By XX century I mean the century that ended eighteen years ago, in 2000. XX A.D. (Anno Domini). Not sure what do you mean by "MM".

Never liked ninjas until blown away by these three ninja movies.

1978 Shogun's Samurai

1979 Hunter in the Dark

1989 Shogun's Shadow (Gekitotsu)

The "ninjas" and the sumo rikishi of all other countries are faced with the same dilemma. Move to Japan and turn pro, or continue practicing their art in mom's basement/backyard "dojo." 

It takes years of training to prepare for the jump to the pros, and enough money for a plane ticket.

The problem with ninjas today is that they usually expect to knock off work (i.e. entertaining tourists) at about 5 p.m. so nobody gets to see their supposed fleetness in the dark. Maybe the people riding bikes without headlights are bicycle ninjas?

The damn union ruined everything.

Asakaze:

Traditionally, years were written in those roman numerals. Movies from last millennium used them a lot. MCMXXXIII is 1983, MCMXCIX is 1999, for example.

M = 1000

C = 100

X = 10

V = 5

I = 1

I meant no condescendence, just trying to convey information. My apologies if it came out wrong.

I can't keep snack foods, such as potato chips, in my house because I'll turn into a binja and secretly eat everything in one sitting.

juminRhee

Thanks for the explanation. I recall figures like MCMXXXIII at the end of movies, but here I use Roman numerals as in history books: 20 is XX, 19 is XIX, 18 is XVIII etc. Regards.