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CHAPTER 2

Training and Skills

A child, either male or female, born into a professional ninja family was expected to carry on the family tradition. Training began at the age of five or six years and was carried out for the remainder of the person's natural life. Five kinds of exercises characterized this training: those of balance, agility, strength, stamina, and various special skills.

One of the first exercises given to youthful trainees was designed to develop a keen sense of balance. A small tree was felled and its branches cut off. The remaining log was placed horizontally about two or three feet off of the ground. Trainees were made to “walk the beam”, to turn around on it, to lower themselves, to sit, to rise, even to jump and turn around on it, all without losing balance and falling to the ground.

As skill in maintaining balance grew, the trainee was made to repeat the exercises at greater heights until no fear of high places was felt and he or she was capable of performing incredible feats of balance. One day such a skill would serve the ninja well as he inched his way along narrow areas high on walls, roofs, or in trees.

Balance training in youth.

Training for agility began by making young hopefuls leap over a kind of rope which was suspended between two uprights in full view of the trainee. The nature of the material from which the rope was constructed made this exercise a bit more difficult and dangerous than simply high jumping over a slack rope. A kind of hemp vine that was covered with prickly thorns was used as the rope. Should the rope be touched in flight over it, its thorns would cause severe lacerations and profuse bleeding.

At an advanced level of skill with this exercise, trainees would in the course of other exercises suddenly come upon this rope, which had been stretched in dark or hidden places. Mastery of this exercise laid the basis for the ninja's skill in clearing obstacles that could not be avoided except by jumping over them.

One of the most classic training exercises used for the development of stamina was one that also produced the ability to run swiftly. Ninja had to be superior runners, not only to elude pursuers, but to carry important intelligence, which they had gathered, back to their superiors. All young trainees became familiar with both speed and distance running before they reached their teens.

A special type of straw hat was used to indicate the proper speed of running, simply by placing the hat on the chest as the runner sprinted along. If the runner's speed remained sufficient, the hat would remain stuck to the runner's chest by the force of the wind. A trainee who could maintain this level of speed for long distances developed great stamina. It is reported that ninja were capable of running as much as 50 miles without stopping. Longer distances were usually covered by a series of runners who worked in relays. To some extent stamina determined the ability of ninja to run and walk silently. Terrain conditions also affected this, for it takes different techniques to move silently on surfaces such as loose sand, leaves, wet grass, and hard-packed dirt areas. But breath control entered all methods of running and walking and a ninja learned to hold his body in a peculiar “shoulder shrugged high position” which allowed the optimum intake of air and lessened fatigue and heavy panting.

If a ninja combined walking and running techniques it was possible for him to cover in excess of 100 miles per day, a great tribute to his stamina.

All ninja were aware of the necessity of developing maximum body strength. Training for strength began early and one basic method required a trainee to hang suspended from an overhanging bough using only a double-hand grasp to do so. The older the trainee, the higher he would hang, some 30 to 50 feet being common. A fully trained ninja was expected to hang in this fashion, motionless, for about one hour.

To every intent and purpose the exercise was also a mental one by which a strong will, resistant to pain, could be developed, though physical benefits centered on the strengthening of fingers, wrists, arms, and shoulders. This ability later gave the ninja confidence in his ability to hang motionless among dense foliage even while his enemies camped directly below him.

Endurance training in youth.

SPECIAL SKILLS OF THE NINJA

It was the category of special skills that marked the ninja out as a near super-human person. No training or technique that might prove useful to him in his profession was overlooked.

In his youth the ninja made special preparations to develop a unique body. Then, when bones were soft and ligatures and tendons pliable, he learned to stretch and manipulate his joints so that he might dislocate them, under control, from their normal positions. This strange skill came into good use in the event he was captured. If bound up by his captors he could effect his own release by appropriate dislocations and stretching actions. A ninja who was being trussed up always expanded his body as much as possible, for later by simply relaxing, he greatly loosened his bonds.

If it became necessary for the ninja to squeeze through small openings, he could do so by manipulation of his joints. The skill was also useful in certain aspects of hand-to-hand combat such as at the time an enemy applied a painful joint lock against the ninja. By dislocation techniques the ninja could minimize the pain and actually escape from the leverage being applied.

The ninja's expertise at walking was the result of the use of ten styles or techniques:

1. Nuki ashi . . . . . .Stealthy step

2. Suri ashi . . . . . . .Rub step

3. Shime ashi . . . . .Tight step

4. Tobi ashi . . . . . .Flying step

5. Kata ashi. . . . . .One step

6. So ashi . . . . . . .Big step

7. Ko ashi . . . . . . .Little step

8. Kakizami . . . . . .Small step

9. Wari ashi . . . . . .Proper step

10. Tsune ashi . . . . .Normal step

But he also used another interesting method called yoko-aruki or “side walking.” By a specific technique of moving the legs sideways in cross step fashion, the ninja confused the enemy. Tracks left by this method do not reveal which direction the ninja is traveling. Side walking also had uses in narrow passages or lanes such as found in castle corridors or in bamboo groves.

Swimming was one of the ninja's most reliable skills. He was trained to move through water for great distances, silently, but not in a particularly swift manner. By use of his special swimming techniques the ninja could negotiate a moat without being seen or heard. He could, if called upon to do so, swim with great loads, using self-made flotation devices. The use of powerful and very skillful strokes made the ninja able to swim against tides and currents or to cut across them. If caught in water plants and seaweed, he used still other stroking methods to disentangle himself.

A special vertical kind of swimming enabled him to carry things to their destination without wetting them. He could actually write while swimming and keep the paper from becoming water-soaked. The ninja also practiced hand-to-hand combat in and under water, learning to fight with and without weapons. He was equally skilled at grappling with an enemy on the deck of a boat, and could cleverly manage to hurl both himself and his enemy, locked in combat, into water, where his skill would greatly reduce the chances for survival of the enemy. By other methods of swimming the ninja could keep himself afloat and in position to fire arrows or firearms, his powerful legs making this possible.

Breath control methods gave him the ability to remain under water for about three minutes. Longer periods were made possible by use of special breathing devices. Diving and swimming under water involved precision techniques useful in avoiding detection or the missiles fired by his enemies. The ninja knew precisely at which depth he must swim in order to avoid arrows, spears, or rifle balls.

The ninja's ability to suppress his breathing was useful in more ways than in running, walking, and swimming. Breath control often became important as a lifesaving technique when the ninja went into hiding near a position occupied by an enemy. The slightest sound made by either inhalation or exhalation would surely bring a spear or sword thrust his way.

Some ninja reduced their breathing by methods of concentration. Others relied upon mechanical means such as placing a small piece of cotton flannel cloth in the mouth to muffle the flow of air.

Underwater training.

NINJA DISGUISES

It was necessary for the ninja to train himself to recognize a wide variety of sounds without sighting the person or object causing them. The noises usually made by gates or doors as they were being opened and closed not only told the ninja what specific dimensions were involved, but in which direction these portals lay. The ninja was also able to quickly judge the number of persons in a room from the sounds of their breathing, their steps, and the rustling of their garments.

A telltale rhythmic breathing also enabled him to distinguish a light from a heavy sleeper, a false sleep from a genuine one, knowing that a person feigning sleep is tense enough for his body to emit sounds as the joints moved ever so slightly, if under muscular strain.

The ninja was an exceptionally good dancer. He was trained to dance folk rhythms so that he could, under appropriate conditions, mingle with the people of a specific region and thereby learn more about the target to which he had been assigned. Since the ninja had to conceal his true identity, he had to make use of disguises, with which he physically transformed himself and imitated somebody useful to the accomplishment of his mission.

Disguises included those of: (1) warriors, (2) farmers, (3) artisans, (4) theatrical artists, (5) merchants, and (6) monks, priests, or nuns. But clever disguise was often not enough, for the ninja had also to be able to copy the social and personal mannerisms of the person being imitated. The best physical transformation would be compromised if the ninja failed in the other aspects of his deceptive ruse.

Considerable study of different social classes of people had to be made by ninja in order to effect their disguises, and so skillful did some of them become that they retained their false identities for years without being discovered. For example, if a ninja wished to operate in the disguise of a priest, it was necessary for him to become competent in performing the religious duties of the clergy.

As a master of deception the ninja was also competent in the use of camouflage to conceal his whereabouts. Both natural and man-made objects served to let him carry out his insidious activities without being seen. For example, the ninja arranged to disappear from sight by jumping into a hole in the ground that had been filled with the fine ashes of the paulownia tree (shinobi bai). From a distance the hole was invisible. Because of such deceptions many persons credited the ninja with supernatural powers.

NINJA IN THE FIELD