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As it is taught in Bujinkan or Ninjutsu, the Ninjato had the same length altogether as an Uchi-Katana, but with a longer sword hilt and a shorter blade but absolutely still curved. This was intended for a quicker draw. This is merely the knowledge taught. You will not find archeological evidence for that.
My Sensei told me that the straight swords were cheaper because they were easier to make, and thus if they had to ditch it or otherwise dispose of it whilst on a mission, it's not a financial hardship. And the cheapness is why there aren't many that survived to become antiques.
A straight sword would make sense as the blades could be hidden in a staff and be assembled....Also the suggestion of them being cheap metal iron would make sense from a disposability angle. Most Ninja though would probably been ex prostitutes or Ronin/Assagari mercenaries for hire....with their "clans" being simply family members.
I think nin-ja is a misspelling of Nein/Ja taken from a German questionnaire form dating back their 404 not found. Sorry nothing is found in the history books from japan. I found millions of Oda Nabunaga books, though. 🤗
Straight blades with that kind of angled tip are better for stabbing....but if that would be a reason to use a weapon that stands out from the standards of that age is really questionable especially if you think about.... there are many other weapons specially made for stabbing in close quarter situations
As a spy, you don't really want to have any distinguishing features. So even if there was a standard ninja-weapon, a lot of the time it would make little sense to keep one about your person.
I was going to say this myself. In fact, I would imagine that the spy would want to blend in enough that nothing carried would be unexpected to be seen carried by a common farmer or local resident. Since commoners were not permitted swords at all, you would expect them to carry no weapons at all that were not highly concealable.
A spy might find it practical to resemble a police officer rather than a samurai, depending on his environment, such as working in an urban area that often saw such police.
I think a modern day Ninja, would probably wear a High -Vis jacket, safety boots, maybe a hard hat and carry a clipboard. Of course, if he or she had to secretly film something, they'd disguise themselves as a RUclips content creator.
Hi Matt. Food for thought on this: Cold war buildup of American forces in Japan began in earnest in early 50s, particularly in Kadena air base in Okinawa. My Dad's friend came back from there in late 50s with a "ninja sword", straight blade. His son tried to look up some of the markings in the beginning of the Internet and told me something about police. My guess, Americans would put down good money on Japanese swords. Someone had a bunch of old police surplus swords but that's not interesting. But the story about ninjas, that's marketing genius. Guys were spending a month's pay for these special swords. The timing fits the supply. What do you think?
Japanese traders had extensive dealings with Westerners since Meiji reforms. You could see advantage in selling post-Meiji mass produced weapon for something much older and somewhat mystical.
Sounds reasonable. The curve on the traditional katana happens during the quenching process, so a mass produced blade would never have the same characteristics. In my most cliche Japanese imitation “ dere isa sukka borna every minute “
Most of the popular interpretations of "Ninja" come from the Meiji period when Ninja weren't really around anymore, but very romanticized stories were being made, particularly for theater plays and such...
I'm sure the first time a theater 'stagehand', after the audience had been trained show after show to consider them invisible, stabbed a character in a massive sneak attack, it was a mindblowing moment for the audience.
If it actually was a peasant, and managed to kill a samurai, he might have gotten the Samurai's "shiny soul". But getting caught with it, would surely conclude in the death penalty, issued by the local feudal who OWNED that Samurai.
This videos explanation is annoying.... Clearly they didn't walk around with a ninja looking sword as it is a dead give away. But who is to say when a ninja "spy" found a chance to assassinate someone that he didn't have a special sword with such features for the occasion? For such a occasion why wouldn't u have a larger guard for walls? Why wouldn't u dress in all black to hide in the dark? Was it common hell no but to say it most likely never happened is just ignorance in my opinion...
Per my understanding of the topic, the earlier concept of the "Ninja" stemmed from Kabuki theatre, where during plays people in black garb would move in the background to set the stage. This evolved into a sort of character trope for depicting "assassin's" appearing from the backdrop dressed in black skulking up to their targets. Then there's the whole, "Ninja and Samurai were enemies" cliché which has been popularized in modern media, while in actuality it's one in the same. Samurai would perform Shinobi tasks which is no different than than sending sappers/recon teams in a modern military context. They were not two separate entities, it was simply a task a Samurai would perform. I feel a majority of the Shinobi/Ninja mythos is simply a product of film media fantasy and cultural marketing that turned into something believed to be true.
There is a lot of truth in what you say. But there are historical records and evidence that some shinobi were not samurai. As I understand it, they were part of the military but specialized in "spy" activities instead of combat. For example spending years acting as an inn keeper to listen in to travelers for information is a waste of a highly skilled samurai.
I haven't had the chance to check about the details of Japanese theatre traditions, but this does track with European theater practices in terms of stagehand dress and audience expectations. There is a danger that westerns are applying our traditions uncritically to other cultures, but this is tradition that developed because it works really well. While wearing all black is not good for actually being stealthy, it does work quite well for not being seen in a dark backstage, and when you are seen it clearly indicates you which is bad for stealth but good for making sure an audience knows what is going on. The audience won't see the person in all black while they are standing off stage, and when they do see them come on stage will know they aren't part of the cast. This works so well; I believe that this is how they dressed in Japan without further evidence. The development of it as a type of character trope is reasonable. There are things like this that have happened with theater and film, but I would need direct evidence before I said it did happen not simple could have happened.
In Japanese theatre people clothed on black were stage hands and to be ignored... And in some productions were assassins hiding in plain sight Ninja looked like ordinary people who you would not notice
@johnbennett1465 some ninja were samurai and some weren't, samurai was more of a social class for a lot of history so it'd make sense that some were, they're just different types of labels.
Ninjas really existed, but their legends were largely dramatized in Edo-period kabuki and Showa-period movies. Spies do exist, but they rarely use transforming cars or mysterious gadgets like James Bond.
I think, most spying was done by hired commoners or even "corrupted/convinced" slaves. Usually, the Infos "needed" by someone, come from someone higher up in the hierarchy. Ninjas could be gardeners, masons, wood workers, cooks, and herbalists even. All one had to do, is get the information out of the residence of said feudal person. where a courier would deliver it. Now assassinating someone inside his residence, that requires either intricate knowledge of the place, or basically Rambo. I think i'd go with option one. Once a Rambo is even rumored about, someone will send reinforcements. Makes for entertaining movies, but kills the reputation of any SPY.
I find the idea that a spy would use a non-concealable object that immediately identifies them as such instead of a generic version that wouldn't quite ludicrous.
One thing that always bothered me about the idea of ninjas using specialized weapons is that if your job is espionage, then anything that sets you apart is a massive red flag. It's tough to blend in when you're carrying a "ninja" sword. Everyone would know who you were. I'm not saying this as any type of absolute, but it just seems ridiculous that there would be a ninja only style sword.
Carrying something which sets you apart from the crowd or from the rest of the people who are not in your groups might seem very cool it's not something which is necessarily good for spying being stealthy or espionage.
And when your job is to be a spy being some chick who wears a skin tight catsuit certainly doesn't help (looking at you totally spies) and when it comes to James bond alot of the things he does are not necessarily good for spying or espionage either but I guess when you're trying to sell entertainment cinema or what not you happen to have a bit more leeway in that department.
Well we know assassins in recent history use quite unique weapons, sometimes it's about sending a message. A certain type of weapon used is like a calling card, like if you get gunned down by Tommy Guns you know it was ordered from the top.
Ninjato were actually made curved, but the sheer amount of 'ki' surgeing through the ninja and his sword when he flew, turned invisible and cut through time and space forced the blade straight.
I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a special ninja sword design. All I can say is that no one has ever seen me and a ninja in the same room. ;-)
Many years ago, I remember people used to spread the rumor that ninja swords were generally shorter because a short sword is more suited to urban combat, and that ninjas were generally recruited from the poorer classes and a short, straight sword was a cheaper weapon to buy/produce as opposed to the katana which required a skilled craftsman to produce. It was originally believed that the weapons typically associated with ninjas were originally farming tools: hand claws were adapted from a tool that was used to dig up dirt to plant crops, the kama was a type of weed cutting tool, etc.... yes, this was all nonsense, but we didn't know better back in the 90s, and it kind of made logical sense.
First part of your post is true, but what are you on about in the latter part? Kama was a farming tool and was used as an improvised weapon weapon, same as many other tools. Don't know anything about claws being a farm tool, though.
I quite like Anthony Cummins postulation about "ninjato": square tsuba are basically the easiest shape of tsuba you can make, and extant historial examples of often/generally crude. A cheap way to make blades if you cannot afford a sword would be to take a nagamaki blade and ground the backswell off, which would leave younwith a straight blade (there is one at the Royal Armouries). So if you are a poor ashigaru a cheap sword could be a nagamaki blade reprofiled and add the cheapest iron tsuba available, which leaves you with a short, strait sword with a square guard.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that is is the cheapest way to make a sword for those mail order companies that sold their genuine steel ninja swords in Black Belt Magazine.
also makes sense why that’d be associated with ninja, given it could be much more readily available it’s also a great reason for it to show up in theater productions 😂
This explanation assumes that all ninja were poor though. Meagre ashigaru often had curved blades, so they would have had to be REALLY poor. My understanding is that many samurai took on shinobi roles and that it was a role rather than a class in the way we usually think of it.
Not that informed. There are at least 13 different types of Japanese swords. I don't know why he didn't mention more sword types that had shorter blades.
@@CycoSven69 Care to share what the names of these types of swords would be? The way I understood it he was referring to categories of swords, and the most common ones at that.
Neat discussion! One other possible point to research is how it might be that “square tsuba” became associated with ne’er do wells following the rules established at the Beginning of the Edo. In the 1600s some of the restrictions on sword fittings read in part: Daishō katana no sunpō oyobi tōhatsu futsumō no sei「大小刀の寸法および頭髪髴毛の制」 from the 1645, maximum total length (hilt included) of 2 shaku and 8 sun (~85 cm) for longsword and 1 shaku 8 sun for short sword (54.5 cm). Fittings like vermillion, yellow lacquer, and sandalwood sheaths, and large tsuba (大鐔) and/or large square tsuba (大角鐔) were forbidden.
@@peterchristiansen9695 It might be the materials which went into it? Sumptuary laws are often economic, to promote the production of local materials so that you're not exporting too much wealth
I read a fun speculative answer as to why ninjas always wear black; black isn't actually the best colour for not being seen in low light conditions, dark blue is more effective. But as Matt comments, shinobi in fact dressed to look like anyone else. The connection with black clothing was suggested to have been as a result of Japanese theatre conventions. In their traditional theatre, there is no curtain; instead stagehands, dressed uniformly in black to indicate they are not actors, come on and move away any props that aren't needed. The actors may not always go off stage, if they are in transit to another scene, but these stagehands will just take away props and replace them with others that are needed. By common convention, these stagehands are basically invisible, seen but not seen, part of the set but not part of the action. The audience's brain glitched over them the way you might read subtitles without really realising you are reading. So what apparently occurred is that some genius playwright or manager had the brilliant idea of getting an actor dressed as one of these quasi-invisible stagehands to step forward, ignored by the cast, produce a knife and stab the king, put his knife away and disappear off stage as the cast burst out in shock and horror "what has happened?! Someone has stabbed our lord but there is nobody here!" and the audience were "WTF just happened?" The first time would have been amazing, such a subversion of expectation, but then it soon became a cliche. I don't know if this is true, but it appealed to me.
@@Grim_Beard Only the tsuba, but they don't half ass their props. Unless there is a play specific purpose for a modification, they will want to get the looks right, specialy something with such symbolic value as the soul of a samurai.
The Shinobi have been greatly glorified in modern culture largely thanks to manga and film, they certainly existed but their form and prevalence have been greatly amplified in my opinion. Each large fiefdom would probably have a handful of shinobi at most that actually served out the assassination function that we so often associate with them. Scouting and recon would have been a much more common function.
I think this is a clear case of "post truth", no matter how much evidence, or lack thereof, one brings to the table, the majority of the public will still be convinced that ninja swords and ninja in a black dodgy suite existed, just because they like it that way.
@@Verbose_Mode Other than we have no evidence of them being used as thrown weapons and their design being pretty much the exact opposite of those desirable in a throwing knife. They were utility knives for digging and punching holes in architecture, and not so much weapons.
@@Verbose_Mode yeah same for the kama or the bill in europe. and a bunch of other weaponized farming tools. Basically everywhere in the world levy soldiers or general commoners had to fight with what they had available, well turns out a lot of simple tools are indeed pretty decent at ending people too 😆 machetes, axes, big hunting knives, hammers, the list goes on and on!
Thanks for an informative piece. I studied Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu. Regardless of the various questions around Masaaki Hatsumi and others over the claims of modern ninjutsu, I will relay this little gem. He said there was no "real Ninja Swords". The Mountain Clans credited with Ninjutsu schools would repurpose battlefield salvage or scrap. Utelising a broken katana as an example and reforging the tip at the break site producing a "shorter straighter blade". Historically, according to Hatsumi "a sword carried by a "ninja" could resemble almost any blade". Or so we were taught and all my readings from his writing support this. I am happy to be educated if others have wisdom to impart, even if it contradicts what I have been taught.
From a theater/cinema perspective, this makes a lot of sense, after all you want to have something that's easily and visually distinguishable. Not just to tell you who the hero or antihero or villain is, but also to clue in the audience as to what might be happening just before a fight or during a fight. This makes so much more sense than all of the explanations I've heard in the past, this tracks
One theory I heard is that the traditional ninja sword might have been based on a cheaper lower budget version of the katana which was typically carried by lower ranking soldiers but yet again I don't know.
Much appreciate this video, in my own research, I never found they used a straight sword. So they figured they used a wakizashi, not to mention the public was allowed to buy the wakizashi but not a uchi katana.
Katana called shinobi gatana or ninjya swords does exist but is not a straight sword. In the swordsmanship section of Hattori Hanzo's 1560 book Ninpiden or Fujibayashi Samuji Yasutake's 1676 book Mansenshukai, it is written that "thick and wide wakizashi or short katana with a pointed tip called suito are used." Except for some schools such as Iga-ryu and Koga-ryu, most other ninjutsu schools do not use special katanas for swordsmanship but use wakizashi and uchigatana. In the 7th century, the Hattori clan of the Iga region wore black clothes at the Aekuni Shrine ritual. They were called Kurondo (black party). In the 14th century, there is a record of Sinobi in the literary work Taiheiki. In the 17th century, fictional Sinobi appeared in the popular culture novel Otogibouko. In 1916, the first ninja movie, Kouga Umon, became popular. In the 1960s, a TV series featuring ninjas, Onmitu Kenshi, was broadcast. The TV series was broadcast in Australia and the Philippines, so the ninjas became popular with younger audiences. In 1967, the anime series Kamen no ninjya Akakage was broadcast. In 1967, ninjas appeared in the James Bond film.
@@jonaseklund3509 Overview of Aekuni Shrine. Empress Saimei (594-661) founded the shrine in 658 to enshrine Ohiko-no-Mikoto, the son of Emperor Kōgen and shido shogun. Ohiko-no-Mikoto's descendants lived in the Ahai district of Iga Province. Sources include the Nihon Shoki (-697), Tenno-ki (-620), and Kokki (620). When first built, it was enshrined near the summit of Mt. Nangu, south of Aekuni Shrine, but was later moved to its current location. To the north of the shrine is the Mihakayama Kofun, the largest keyhole-shaped tumulus in Mie Prefecture (early 5th century), which is said to be the tomb of Ohiko-no-Mikoto and is a national historic site. As for the actual ancient rituals, they are thought to have originated from primitive beliefs in Mt. Nangu, as Mt. Nangu is a typical sacred mountain with a cone shape. About 200 meters south of Gankoku Shrine is the Oiwa Kofun Tomb, where it has been suggested that rituals were held here from the Kofun period in the 3rd century.
@@tn1881 how is this connected to Hattori clan, in later writings (Edo) it say 10th century for the origin of the Hattori as a clan, not 7th. And than that was created by the winning regime to create ”a proud history”. While Ōhiko no Mikoto is a notable figure in early Japanese mythology, his connection to Iga specifically is not well-documented or prominent. Source on the black clothing? I have acctually visited the Aekuni jinja shrine decades ago and allready then they promoted it as a Ninja shrine of Iga, and according to Okuden The Hattoris had a festival there, but not in the 7th century. But all this is okuden and there are a lot of stories going around in Mie ken. They are exploiting it, its an industry. There are no contemporary evidence of shinobi wearing black clothing so if you have evidence of that you will make your self a name in the written history. I must say that it feels like you have a great interest in Japan history. I hope you have some true sources for what your stating.
@@jonaseklund3509 The ancestor of the Hattori clan was Hattori Ienaga, a military commander in the Heian period. Hattori Ienaga's father, Taira Iesada, was a military commander in the late Heian period. He was a member of the Ise Taira clan, whose base was in Iga Province. The Taira clan was a clan of imperial descendants. In the Engishiki, a book compiled in the 9th century, the Hattori clan is said to have originated in Hattori-go, Ahai County, Iga Province (Hattori, Fuchu Village, now Hattori Town, Iga City, Mie Prefecture), and is the chief priest of Komiya Shrine. The Hattori clan is an ancient weaving clan found in various parts of Japan, and in Kaga City there is Hattori Shrine, which was founded between 708 and 714. Hattori Shrine enshrines Amenomihoko no Mikoto, an ancient Japanese nobleman who was the ancestor of the Hattori clan. Amanokuni Shrine was founded in 658 and holds festivals twice a year. In some parts of Asia, persimmon dyeing has been practiced since ancient times, and Iga clothing was dyed with persimmon. Persimmon dyeing has antiseptic, waterproof and insect repellent properties. By applying multiple coats of persimmon tannin, a tannin film is formed, providing waterproofing. In persimmon dyeing, the tannins in persimmons react chemically with iron, changing the color of the clothes from charcoal gray to black. Putting persimmon-dyed clothes and a nail into water will turn the clothes black. Thinking of festivals as an industry is a difference in values. Japan has a belief in valuing its ancestors and their culture, and maintaining culture requires funds. Japan has a ceremony called Shikinen Sengu, in which shrines are dismantled and rebuilt at a cost of 55.8 billion yen. Depending on the ceremony, ancient building techniques are passed down to the next generation, so old shrines can be rebuilt even if they are destroyed.
A lot of the blame lies with the late Don Draeger's book, Asian Martial Arts_ and the chapter on Japan regurgitated, uncritically, what came out of the " Ninja expertise" of M. Hatsumi. This started to drift into Western popular culture, via films like _You Only Live Twice_ , which Don Draeger, not coincidently, was a martial arts advisor.
Excellent presentation, logical conclusions introduced, all from a historical and quite logical stand point. But then that is always what one can expect from your videos. BZ
What I heared is that the Ninja To as a straight sword comes from them carrying a Maguro Kiri, a huge Tuna Knife , as a weapon / sword alternative wich was easyer to explain away while under cover, blending in to the population.
I think you have something there. I cant find a solid date of introduction but apparently Edo. There are workshops claiming to make them for over 100 years. (supposedly Yakuza carried them!) And the pictures seem to satisfy the general criteria.
This might also be the reason how many other farm tools went to become weapons, like nunchucks, oni or kusarigama. In a time when carrying a weapons could get you decapitated, you'd use stuff that allowed you to talk your way out.....
I came face to face with a real Glasgow Ninja. Cycling the Clyde Walkway a few years ago i noticed clean tree branches cut and laid across the path for several hundred metres. Then I saw him standing at the side of the path. Masked in all black. A covered sword hilt visible above his shoulder. 😮 i got past him and peddled like a maniac. 😂
Third degree master ninja here. We often use a straight bladed “to” with square tsuba because they’re cheaper to hand forge when arming battalions of ninja.
I did Kendo in the 1980s when i was 20. Our teacher had lived, and taught English, and trained at Kendo in Japan, from 1970 to 1978. And he told me his teacher in Japan, who in his 70s and interestingly was blind, had an opinion about the Ninja having a special sword that was a different shape. And that was " I wonder, where did they keep their sword ? . . . not on their hip". He meant they would have to have The-sword-that-says-I-am-a-ninja in a bag all the time, and the bag on their back. Couldn't have it on your hip. Couldn't leave it in your room. Couldn't book into an inn, where servants came into the rooms to bring water, take away waste, and had their eyes open. And if you had it in a bag, and there was an outcry about "Spies ! . . . ninjas !" the ACTUAL Samurai would just have to start searching the luggage of strangers. Not to mention how unusual you would look, with a bag or a basket . . . And you would have to have this bag or basket near enough that you could arm yourself . . . for your entire Ninja career. Wouldn't it be just be suspicious " That guy who no one knows . . . what is in that long basket he is always carrying around?".
Historian Stephen Turnbull has written 2 books on the Ninja. In the first, some years ago, he had begun to suspect that most all the lore associated with the ninja was mythology and tall tales. In the second book, “Ninja, Unmasking the Myth”, he goes into great detail, having gotten access to period scrolls and letters from people involved in the warfare of the time. He now says flatly that they didn’t exist. That the word “ninja” didn’t even enter the Japanese lexicon till the 20th century, and our modern take on all things ninja is based both on early Japanese cinema and comic books. In actuality, Military commanders of the period did use infiltration, intelligence gathering, and espionage, but this was accomplished by either mercenaries (“mountain bandits”) or their own troops that just happened to be good at such things. No ninja “clans”, no secret societies, no guys running around in black suits walking on water. All myth and legend.
@@Bikewer As always the truth is probably somewhere in between. The term "Ninja" were not used but the term "Shinobi" or "Shinobi no mono" were; which is the other pronounciation of the same kanji. However in letters and documents the term used for "Iga Ninja" simply were "Iga no mono", men from Iga. The secret, alternative, ninja clan society as portrayed in pop-culture did not exist. But the "Iga ikki" did indeed exist. An "ikki" were a independent "peasant republic" where local clans/families got together and took decision together. The mere thought of lower classes getting together and making desicions was horrendus to most of the upperclass Samurai elite. The warlord Oda Nobunaga made a point of destroying every ikki he came accross, of which Iga was one (but far from the only). Now it is very easy to see the Iga province and it's inhabbitants as pesants: "So ninjas must be peasants with super powers - right"? Much of the land were owned and managed by a rural gentry called Ji-samurai and although technically of Samurai class the were very very far from the Samurai elite and much closers to the peasants class. They often had more autonomusy then the higher ranked Samurai clans and were the backbone of the rural military organisation. So landowning farmer yes, peasants no - they were still very much Samurai. They lived in the mountains yes as Iga is a very mountainus area. Were they bandits? Well they were independent and not the richest, in a remote area where few heard any screams so I would not no say that ambushes did not happen when opportunity presented it self. However to I think it would be wrong to picture a pack of ragtag bandits pillageing the peasants. Were they mercinaries? Oh yea! And as everyone knows; in business you need a nich. The nich of the Iga no mono were to infiltrate castles - for whatever reason (according to Stephen Turnbull and his sources of historical documents mostly setting them ablaze and wreaking havoc to creating an oppurtunity to attack for a external force). Just happens that the term "ninjutsu" included that. Other mercenary groups had other skills that they honed into perfection in order to differentiate and get an edge. It is not a different culture or different society, it was just more of the same but with some specialization. However the Iga ikki and their jisamurai clans knew that their days could be numbered. When Oda Nobunaga obliterated the obnoxious Iga ikki (called Tenshō Iga no ran) he also crushed the clans it were made up of. Naturally they who survived the onslaught scatered and fled but they were hunted, and with no longer having any saftey from the combined force of the clans of the Iga ikki or its hideouts, the refugees would if identifed be killed on the spot. So of course did they go underground trying dissapear - it was part of their trade after all. I suspect that this is were much of the whole secrecy thing comes from. There are no coincidence that around that same time Hattori Hanzo (who were a Samurai from Iga and who were in service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, before he became the shogun, and had just risen in the rank) started to hire men from Iga into the unitis he had under his command (who were known for unconventional warfare). The Tokugawa clan, then still named the Matsudaira clan, were pehaps the only clan that could protect the Iga refugees from the Oda clan after Oda Nobunaga were ambushed and killed (in an nightly raid from a general who apperently had out of nowhere switched side the year after the destruction of Iga). In the early days after Tokugawa Ieyasu had become Shogun those units worked as the shogunates secret police, military inteligence, counter intelligence and personal protection. A century later their tasks became centraly organized into the official secret police called Oniwaban. So if we skip the labels and read the actual history it is easy to see where the honed out and polished myths came from. But popculture took those events and kind of run with it -as it often does. Like the lives of Norsemen elites that became sagas like the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok that then became the totally confused but unfortunantly very popular tv-show "Vikings" (which can not even get basic geography correct, let alone an accurate historical portayal of the viking age - but I digress). The same have happen to wide number of similar phenomenan. So did the "ninja" exist? Most likely yes, but not as they are portrayed in pop-culture.
Hi, thanks for the good video. In the Bujinkan traditionally we do not use strait ninja to. In the Togakure Ryu of the Bujinkan there is a short version of the uchigatana that is specific to that school. When the Bujinkan came to the west some western dojos that did not know any better and did use strait ninja to train with, but as you point out this is not historically accurate. The Bujinkan teacher I have spoken to in Japan are clear on the matter. The actual ninja to/ shinobi gatana is historically a concept. It is a sword that doesn't look like a sword like the shinobi zue or shikomi zue or it is something that looks like a sword but is not one, like the antique Japanese teppo/tanegashima hidden inside the koshirae of a small sword, found at Kumamoto Castle.
I wonder if some of the association with ninjas and straight-bladed "ninja-to" comes from surviving shikomizue cane swords from the Meiji period, after wearing swords in public was banned. Some seem to have been made as new koshirae for existing wakizashi and tantos, the latter of which tend to be more straight-bladed, but we also see examples of cheap shikomezue made during the period with lower-quality straight blades.
Im not a practitioner of ninjitsu nor do i have any historical knowledge on the ninja in general, most accounts i have learned from were from practitioners and masters on youtube. One theory i have is that perhapse the ninja were oppritunists or "shadow MacGyvers" tje ninja-to could have been a modified wakisashi that was done to suit theor needs and or mission. Im sure throughout history in any military country has had soldiers repurposing or modifying existing weapons wether it be their own or captured from enemies or perhapse influenced in the making of weapons as they may have had an advantage to their own(if that makes any sense) all in all wether the ninja-to be real or mythical, i still find it a pretty practical tool that would have a purpose unlike fantasy swords that would otherwise be nonsense. Thank you for covering this topic🥷👍
This is a great look at the topic. The only story I can add (with absolutely no citation for it, as I don't remember where I saw it. Some martial arts magazine, I think.) is that ninja would sometimes wear a wakizashi blade in a katana-length saya. The idea was they could get "too close" to someone to draw a katana, and suddenly draw the shorter blade to assassinate them. It seems like a lot of work for an ambush attack, but there you have it: my "ninja sword" trivia.
Nice video. I never bought into the concept of the Sword. Because the whole concept does not make any sense. Why should a group that works in the shadows and acts as spies use special weapons that are different compared to weapons of their enemies? No spy in the world would date that.
"Invented in the 20th century in America in order to sell something." I wonder how many supposedly historical items/ideas/etc this sentence describes...
I am a ninja, I have a sword. A real ninja sword. My ninja sword can cut through any sword. My ninja sword can deflect bullets, my sword can cut steel I beams. I am a real ninja with a real ninja sword. My sword is fast, ninja fast. My ninja suit makes me invisible. A real invisible ninja with a real ninja sword.
On the "ninjato," the reason I heard that seemed the most plausible was that during the Meiji period, after the sword ban law, some (now former) samurai would carry swords disguised as canes and such. Because a curved cane would kinda be a giveaway, and not match the "gentlemen's canes" that they were attempting to imitate, these blades tended to be mostly straight in order to better disguise them. Another reason I've heard, that also sorta makes sense, relates to one of the forms of Japanese theater. Supposedly it even explains the classic "ninja suit," as it was used in theater as a form of shorthand to tell the audience that the person was "technical staff" (people who move around set pieces and pick up props between scenes and such), and not an actor/character on stage. After being indoctrinated to this, to suddenly have one of these suddenly pull out a sword from a random piece of equipment (the blade being straight to hide it in said equipment) and lunge at an actor would be a shock to the audience, as they would literally appear to come out of nowhere. It's probably mostly a pop culture thing though, at least the "finalized design" of it.
swordcanes (shikomizue) don't seem to have been prevalent, popularized by a film called "Zatoichi" in 1948, the blind swordsman trope. Completely fictional One of the widest arrays of faked and forged Japanese blades you will find are those in swordcane fittings, especially if they're claimed to be particularly old. They would have been absurdly scarce even in the Meiji era - you need a brand new blade for it, you can't just pop your old blade into cane fittings and any new blades being made were strictly supervised! As you say, the finalized idea of the swordcane cemented in the average person's mind is pop-culture fiction
@@AdamOwenBrowning My thoughts on the sword cane are that, while not exactly commonplace, it was a thing that existed in Europe. It wouldn't be hard to imagine some Japanese individuals (samurai or otherwise) imitating this. Now as you mention the standard katana wouldn't work, even the wakizashi would (normally) have too much of a curve. Tanto could have worked, or as you mention forging new swords. While the manufacture of swords was regulated, it wasn't quite as severely regulated as it is today (a product of the US occupation post-WW2), so having a new sword forged wouldn't be an impossible option. There's even the theoretical (though even if it happened, exceedingly rare) possibility of a few having been manufactured in Europe and brought to Japan as trade goods. That said, these probably would have looked a lot different in design from your modern stereotypical "ninjato" (arguably not as true if you used a tanto blade). That's to say that solely the concept of "ninjas use straight blades" would have originated from these. Not because they were "ninja weapons," but because they were a hidden weapon one could imagine a ninja might have used. Importantly however, they needed to be straight for the purposes of what they were being disguised as. From here I could see the form of the modern ninjato evolving from the lack of evidence, rather than based on it. More of a situation where they heard that hidden swords existed in Japan, and figured they would look like a traditional Japanese blade that was modified to be hidden.
One of the explanations I've heard about the straight-blade nature of the ninjato was that was indeed inspired by the early chokuto which were plentiful, cheap, and therefore easy to get a hold of. More importantly, there would've been surviving examples of older blades like the chokuto were from a time before swordsmiths, as regular practice, started to put their mei signatures that would've revealed who/where/when the blade was made and would've typically lacked many other distinguishing features thus making it a choice weapon for assassins. The idea being that these blades would be effectively untraceable should they be recovered by the authorities. As for the tsuba and general shortness of the sword, it probably would've been a practical decision. The short blades would've been more useful in building interiors and the large square tsuba would've been easy to fabricate and offer decent protection as a handguard. How much of that is true is indeterminable, but the point is that there seems to be some thought process for the way the popular idea of the "ninjato" is designed.
Thank you for sharing what you have learned with the rest of the world!👍 It's nice to know that I was correct when I told several of my friends that ninja swords weren't straight as shown in the movies!😁
I had always heard that the shape of the Ninjato was an evolution of the Chokuto sword that was an imported Chinese Tangdao that eventually got rehandled with a roughly forged square tsuba and pinned on grip because the most prolific Ninja groups were mountain nomads repurposing old and outdated equipment.
I m a true knife nerd and maker😂 metallurgy obsessed etc THISis the BEST place for accurate info on blades Buy also a great history channel. Now for years i... sometimes just use it to sleep
depending on the era, ninja has different purposes in edo era, ninja is spy like you said, but in sengoku era, ninja was strategical unit, to be used for surprise attack. it can infiltrate opponent's base to open the main gate, it can do pincher attack in war, can serve as support unit to kill horses. before sengoku era, ninja was special service of imperial ruclips.net/video/Om6eGDXmcuk/видео.html this is sainenji temple, the grave of hattori hanzo, leader of iga clan, a secret village of ninja in sengoku era. at the time, hanzo was serving for ieyasu tokugawa, as paid service. but even if it is just paid service, his loyalty is very good hanzo was using various weapons, but there is special weapon used by hanzo that being called as spear, but looks like a sword a lot. it is classified into nagamaki, but it is very different from average nagamaki. hanzo use it for cutting gate rope or slashing the leg of horse seems likely
The only reason for an assassin to have a straight blade among curved ones around is maybe hiding it in a cane or an umbrella. In that case the sword won't have a guard or braiding
Ah, Black Belt magazine. It was all the craze for school kids in the 70's and 80's in America. It is one of the main reasons that "ninja" weapons were banned in the US because kids were ordering them from the magazine. "Ninja" weapons, mainly shurikens and nunchucks, became so popular then that you could buy them from convenience stores. They weren't banned here because people were afraid of criminals using them but because children were injuring each other with them.
@@TheMrcassina What do guns have to do with the topic at hand? Besides children can't buy them. And there isn't a Constitutional right to own ninja stars.
@@robo5013 the idiosincrasy stays in the definition of dangerous, guns are far more dangerous than any ninja stars am I wrong? But any words are superfluous, I mean, legally blind people in Iowa are allowed to own guns...and everyone is perfectly fine with that (in Iowa at least).
@@TheMrcassina Again, guns aren't pertinent to this discussion. I never even used the word dangerous nor did I attempt to define any type of weapon as more dangerous than any other. I only stated a fact that is about something that was discussed in the video. Keep your politics to yourself or where they are appropriate, here is not the place.
As a practitioner of Bujinkan Budo I had been told the Ninja-To is most likely to have been a broken Katana scavenged off the battle field which would then have the kissaki re ground, hence they were shorter and look straighter as the Ninja were not Samurai class (mostly peasants) and therefore not aloud swords.
The shuriken being a "ninja tool/weapon" isn't also a modern misconception? Not that no ninja would use a shuriken if they had access to it, but more the idea that shuriken were developed to be used by ninjas. If I remember correctly, kunais are gardening tools, so if you were a spy/infiltrator/assassin, you could say that those are just tools of your craft, while shurikens are only useful as weapons.
Shuriken were police weapons in the edo period. They were thrown at fleeing criminals to slow them down. They later became associated with "Ninja" during the 20th century revival movement
A suriken would be extremely expensive to forge and polish in medieval Japan. Most throwing weapons were basic metal spikes, simple to make and of little consequence if lost
In my studying I've realized Musashi considered the basic katana as the 'short sword' and considered the Ogatana or nodachi as the long sword, which makes sense if you consider his excessive height (for his time)
In the movie The Hunted (1995), I thought it was cool that the ninja adopted a tan outfit for the bullet train massacre scene. It's obviously preposterous but to my teenage mind I was like, "yeah, makes sense." Not a good movie but that scene is fantastic.
I have to say that the revelation between this well done video and the one done previously where the existence of the ninja is debunked left me completely dispirited, It’s basically a sword fan finding out there’s no Santa.
Makes sense. As an infiltrator or assassin, you wouldn’t want to be caught carrying something so easily unidentifiable which would give you away really quickly. Carrying a standard sword, you at least have a chance to talk your way out of a situation, at least until you have an opportunity to escape.
Ninjas were just like anyone else just like samurai back in those olden times. It was about spying,infiltration,reconnaissance,etc. the ninjas 🥷 wearing all black with a straight sword came around in the 50’s. The straight sword was used as a counter to the curved sword.
Good Video, I always thought that 90% of all the information surrounding "Ninjas" is made up rubbish from post-ww2 TV and Films. Also 9 comments and 4 of them are obvious bot-spam, dont interact with bots, report them as misinformation
I remember the Zatoichi movie in which a large square guard short blade sword was featured for the first time. At the time the character who wielded it was mentioned in the story as an assassin/ spy but was not called a ninja or shinobi. The ninja craze had not started yet, then during the late 70's early 80's the whole idea of ninjas took off!
How can a spy blend in better and have an effective disguise? By having a distinctive sword with a unique handle and differently shaped crossguard that only ninjas use! Yeah! Totally way more subtle that way! All ninjas also had "NINJA" tattooed on their foreheads too, just to show how dedicated they were. Helped them blend in. /s lol
Came here for the ninja to, gubbins; stayed for the stubble, which despite watching many of your kids here, I hadn't spotted previously. Fascinating that someone so versed in blades, would choose not to have a close shave before making content. But that's likely nothing more than my prejudice showing... fun vid so far...🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 💜🌶🧠🌶💜
Matt, you're a historical time traveler randomly moving in time and geography in the age of steel blades. What single type of sword do you choose for your travels? You could end up at Culloden, the Battle of Hastings, The English Civil War, Feudal Japan, the Napoleonic wars, The Opium Wars, the Zulu wars, the Indian Mutiny, or even fighting Roman Legionaries. The list is, of course, endless, but you get the point.
@tidepoolclipper8657 I do like the idea of a straight cutlass. I have no idea, I was hoping Matt would tell me so I can go and buy it for the forthcoming zombie apocalypse. I will eventually run out of shotgun shells.
Pure Hollywood stuff bro. They do look cool. As a shinobi I would prefer to use poison, a ranged weapon like a short bow, or poison dart far above any sword or other weapon. Hand weapons would only be needed if you became exposed in your operation. Small knife/dagger might be used for taking out guards, but not a sword.
As it is taught in Bujinkan or Ninjutsu, the Ninjato had the same length altogether as an Uchi-Katana, but with a longer sword hilt and a shorter blade but absolutely still curved. This was intended for a quicker draw. This is merely the knowledge taught. You will not find archeological evidence for that.
also sword blades historically in japan have been modified to suit the times as well as the hilt construction being changeable that's not entirely outside the realm of possibly even more so that it wouldn't be noticeable until the sword is drawn, but to say it was a tell tale sign of a sword used by Shinobi is another thing entirely. Unlike the Hollywood "ninja sword".
@@michael3088 it depends on the activity or mission. if a Ninja or Shinobi is a spy as he stated he would most certainly not have specific gear. the typical outfit and equipment (Ninjato) of a Ninja did likely exist. how often they came into action is hard to say. possibly this was very rare.
@@NevisYsbryd well, I feel that you are more or less agreeing with me. I did not mention curvature at all. maybe you were also making a comment about the video. the Ninjato as it is used in Ninjutsu has a shorter blade had longer hilt for a quicker draw. whether historians will agree that this is accurate is another matter. but it is taught to be accurate.
For sure. The fantasy of everything associated with ninja is cool. That's why it's taken on its own classic identity in many fantasy and sci-fi settings.
Great vid, very interesting - like lots of accepted wisdom, it just dates to medieval scripts, pulp fiction booklets, theatre, early movies, the imagination of people writing about things they know very little about.....
Technically right, but since ninjas were spies, they wouldn't carry something like this that would make people know that they are ninjas, a simple example: a ninja wearing headband that says"im a ninja"
I am studying Ninjutsu and have been for the past couple of years, and also study the 'history' of it. You are correct, there is no such thing as a Ninja sword, the agents (Shinobi) would have used whatever was in 'fashion' at the time and straight swords may have been fashionable at some point, why would there be a specific sword to advertise yourself with?, when your trying to stay hidden! in plain sight. a lot of the 'Ninja' weapons are actually farming tools, that are modified when needed to be used as a weapon, The 'Shinobi' were different things in different periods of time, right up to what people see as the classical 'Ninja' that people think they see in films and books these days. The Shuriken thing does make me smile, its actually a throwing art and not a specific thing that the 'Ninja' used, I think the elderly in Japan still do it, like our older generation would be playing bowling balls as something to do (if I remember correctly). If people were to study the actual history, they would see through the Hollywood smoke and mirrors and see a subject more interesting than what is perceived.
Omg, fantastic piece of detective work Matt, I have also thought that they came from long spear blades remounted to use as swords, I had one in the eighties, it was made from 440 steel, the weight of the blade made it bend and it had a 2inch tang it was shite😅
Ninja swords had a straight blade, squjare tsuba, and two-handed grip mostly because they wanted something something that was completely different from the cutlass, which was the favorite weapon of all those pirates used to bully them in school.
When I was in Japan it was explained to me that the straightness of the 'ninja-to' comes from how ninja would take broken katana from a battlefield and repurpose them by filing them down, and this is how the blade would lose most of its curve. As you mention, the tsuba would also be filed down to help climbing. Intuitively it makes sense, and it might also make sense that these trashy repurposed swords wouldn't be coveted or preserved, and so we don't have any examples around anymore. I'm no expert on ancient Japanese law but I believe that even owning a broken sword as a commoner would be a crime in those days. And no self-respecting samurai would touch a broken sword. Still, it would seem a bit of a stretch that any of this is true if we don't have even ONE surviving straight sword with filed down square tsuba from that time.
It would be pretty funny if ninjas and special ninja swords were historically real, and they really did have a square guard on their sword. Because it would mean you could tell who's a ninja at a glance and arrest the spy/saboteur. As if the black pajama stage hand outfit wasn't enough of a tip off.
There are historical pictures of a straight blade single-edged sword and you can find them. It was the first type of blades that the Japanese created before they started putting a curve to the blades. They were the first kind of blades before they put a curve into them to make the tachi.
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As it is taught in Bujinkan or Ninjutsu, the Ninjato had the same length altogether as an Uchi-Katana, but with a longer sword hilt and a shorter blade but absolutely still curved. This was intended for a quicker draw. This is merely the knowledge taught. You will not find archeological evidence for that.
How come you are not in the lowlands recreating Market Garden 80 years. Or is WW2 not your thing?
My Sensei told me that the straight swords were cheaper because they were easier to make, and thus if they had to ditch it or otherwise dispose of it whilst on a mission, it's not a financial hardship. And the cheapness is why there aren't many that survived to become antiques.
A straight sword would make sense as the blades could be hidden in a staff and be assembled....Also the suggestion of them being cheap metal iron would make sense from a disposability angle. Most Ninja though would probably been ex prostitutes or Ronin/Assagari mercenaries for hire....with their "clans" being simply family members.
"There is no evidence of pre-modern ninja-to"
"Told you they were good at hiding"
ZZrhardy blink 3X's if you are being held by Ninjas!
lol
Special forces pick own weapons. No enforced standardization.
I think nin-ja is a misspelling of Nein/Ja taken from a German questionnaire form dating back their 404 not found. Sorry nothing is found in the history books from japan.
I found millions of Oda Nabunaga books, though.
🤗
Straight blades with that kind of angled tip are better for stabbing....but if that would be a reason to use a weapon that stands out from the standards of that age is really questionable especially if you think about.... there are many other weapons specially made for stabbing in close quarter situations
As a spy, you don't really want to have any distinguishing features. So even if there was a standard ninja-weapon, a lot of the time it would make little sense to keep one about your person.
He touches on that
I was going to say this myself. In fact, I would imagine that the spy would want to blend in enough that nothing carried would be unexpected to be seen carried by a common farmer or local resident. Since commoners were not permitted swords at all, you would expect them to carry no weapons at all that were not highly concealable.
A spy might find it practical to resemble a police officer rather than a samurai, depending on his environment, such as working in an urban area that often saw such police.
Countless ninjas got exposed because they had swords with rectangular tsubas...
They weren't just spy, they were involved in sabotage, assassination and guerrilla warfare
I think a modern day Ninja, would probably wear a High -Vis jacket, safety boots, maybe a hard hat and carry a clipboard. Of course, if he or she had to secretly film something, they'd disguise themselves as a RUclips content creator.
Or they'd wear business casual and carry a laptop. Pretend to be in IT.
Dress as a begger and most pepole will avoid seeing you.
Haha
And they WOUDN'T have a number tattooed on the back of their bald head.
To surreptitiously film you can walk past the subject while talking into the phone like you're making a call. You just have the phone recording.
Hi Matt. Food for thought on this: Cold war buildup of American forces in Japan began in earnest in early 50s, particularly in Kadena air base in Okinawa. My Dad's friend came back from there in late 50s with a "ninja sword", straight blade. His son tried to look up some of the markings in the beginning of the Internet and told me something about police. My guess, Americans would put down good money on Japanese swords. Someone had a bunch of old police surplus swords but that's not interesting. But the story about ninjas, that's marketing genius. Guys were spending a month's pay for these special swords. The timing fits the supply. What do you think?
This exolanation is sound. Thanks for this interesting piece of trivia.
Let's Ask Shogo discusses the Police blade. ruclips.net/video/r8Jm_6yXiaU/видео.htmlsi=ZqlDB_V2fQoI-QX5
Japanese traders had extensive dealings with Westerners since Meiji reforms. You could see advantage in selling post-Meiji mass produced weapon for something much older and somewhat mystical.
Sounds reasonable. The curve on the traditional katana happens during the quenching process, so a mass produced blade would never have the same characteristics. In my most cliche Japanese imitation “ dere isa sukka borna every minute “
@@liquidrockaquatics3900 And I hear that in George Takei's voice. Red Alert 3 Emperor George Takei.
Samurai: "Apparently we've been infiltrated by shinobi... better check everyone's swords then." Lol 😁
🤣🤣🤣
Guy with a square tsuba: I mean, we don't _have to_ check all of them
What if the samurai was the shinobi? It was a job after all, whereas samurai was a social class.
@@craigevans2961 Exactly.
Most of the popular interpretations of "Ninja" come from the Meiji period when Ninja weren't really around anymore, but very romanticized stories were being made, particularly for theater plays and such...
I'm sure the first time a theater 'stagehand', after the audience had been trained show after show to consider them invisible, stabbed a character in a massive sneak attack, it was a mindblowing moment for the audience.
"What are Ninja swords"?
My guess would be any sword the Ninja could lay their hands on for the task at hand.
This is the answer I prefer.
That's what I was going to say.
They would probably use shorter swords, katana are too long for indoors. So just a shorter version
If it actually was a peasant, and managed to kill a samurai, he might have gotten the Samurai's "shiny soul". But getting caught with it, would surely conclude in the death penalty, issued by the local feudal who OWNED that Samurai.
This videos explanation is annoying.... Clearly they didn't walk around with a ninja looking sword as it is a dead give away. But who is to say when a ninja "spy" found a chance to assassinate someone that he didn't have a special sword with such features for the occasion? For such a occasion why wouldn't u have a larger guard for walls? Why wouldn't u dress in all black to hide in the dark? Was it common hell no but to say it most likely never happened is just ignorance in my opinion...
Per my understanding of the topic, the earlier concept of the "Ninja" stemmed from Kabuki theatre, where during plays people in black garb would move in the background to set the stage. This evolved into a sort of character trope for depicting "assassin's" appearing from the backdrop dressed in black skulking up to their targets.
Then there's the whole, "Ninja and Samurai were enemies" cliché which has been popularized in modern media, while in actuality it's one in the same. Samurai would perform Shinobi tasks which is no different than than sending sappers/recon teams in a modern military context. They were not two separate entities, it was simply a task a Samurai would perform.
I feel a majority of the Shinobi/Ninja mythos is simply a product of film media fantasy and cultural marketing that turned into something believed to be true.
There is a lot of truth in what you say. But there are historical records and evidence that some shinobi were not samurai. As I understand it, they were part of the military but specialized in "spy" activities instead of combat. For example spending years acting as an inn keeper to listen in to travelers for information is a waste of a highly skilled samurai.
I haven't had the chance to check about the details of Japanese theatre traditions, but this does track with European theater practices in terms of stagehand dress and audience expectations. There is a danger that westerns are applying our traditions uncritically to other cultures, but this is tradition that developed because it works really well.
While wearing all black is not good for actually being stealthy, it does work quite well for not being seen in a dark backstage, and when you are seen it clearly indicates you which is bad for stealth but good for making sure an audience knows what is going on. The audience won't see the person in all black while they are standing off stage, and when they do see them come on stage will know they aren't part of the cast. This works so well; I believe that this is how they dressed in Japan without further evidence.
The development of it as a type of character trope is reasonable. There are things like this that have happened with theater and film, but I would need direct evidence before I said it did happen not simple could have happened.
In Japanese theatre people clothed on black were stage hands and to be ignored... And in some productions were assassins hiding in plain sight
Ninja looked like ordinary people who you would not notice
@@markmittelbach7975 look up Kabuki kuroko. Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese theater. The kuroko are the stage hands that dress in black.
@johnbennett1465 some ninja were samurai and some weren't, samurai was more of a social class for a lot of history so it'd make sense that some were, they're just different types of labels.
Ninjas really existed, but their legends were largely dramatized in Edo-period kabuki and Showa-period movies. Spies do exist, but they rarely use transforming cars or mysterious gadgets like James Bond.
I think, most spying was done by hired commoners or even "corrupted/convinced" slaves. Usually, the Infos "needed" by someone, come from someone higher up in the hierarchy. Ninjas could be gardeners, masons, wood workers, cooks, and herbalists even. All one had to do, is get the information out of the residence of said feudal person. where a courier would deliver it. Now assassinating someone inside his residence, that requires either intricate knowledge of the place, or basically Rambo. I think i'd go with option one. Once a Rambo is even rumored about, someone will send reinforcements. Makes for entertaining movies, but kills the reputation of any SPY.
Yeah, this.
"Do you have a capable, trustworthy man who could go over there, look what they´re up to, and don´t cause a fuss? Please?"
In one of the books, You only Live Twice, Bond pops in for a bit of Ninja training
"That is not exactly Christmas!"
I find the idea that a spy would use a non-concealable object that immediately identifies them as such instead of a generic version that wouldn't quite ludicrous.
One thing that always bothered me about the idea of ninjas using specialized weapons is that if your job is espionage, then anything that sets you apart is a massive red flag. It's tough to blend in when you're carrying a "ninja" sword. Everyone would know who you were. I'm not saying this as any type of absolute, but it just seems ridiculous that there would be a ninja only style sword.
Carrying something which sets you apart from the crowd or from the rest of the people who are not in your groups might seem very cool it's not something which is necessarily good for spying being stealthy or espionage.
And when your job is to be a spy being some chick who wears a skin tight catsuit certainly doesn't help (looking at you totally spies) and when it comes to James bond alot of the things he does are not necessarily good for spying or espionage either but I guess when you're trying to sell entertainment cinema or what not you happen to have a bit more leeway in that department.
What do you mean? It is a known historical fact that all assassins wore large, vision obscuring hoods to disguise themselves
Well we know assassins in recent history use quite unique weapons, sometimes it's about sending a message. A certain type of weapon used is like a calling card, like if you get gunned down by Tommy Guns you know it was ordered from the top.
Like trying to infiltrate a US Army installation carrying an AK-74, or a professional kitchen while wearing a Jack-in-the-Box hat.
Ninjato were actually made curved, but the sheer amount of 'ki' surgeing through the ninja and his sword when he flew, turned invisible and cut through time and space forced the blade straight.
And Chuck Norris briefly tried using ninjato in his fights, but they all suffered from performance anxiety and shrank into daggers...
Wrong... Go sit in a corner and put your head down
@@seanmalloy7249 Then they sighed at the prospect of being made into a pair of sais.
Ninjato doesnt exists they used an short form the Wakazachi
I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a special ninja sword design. All I can say is that no one has ever seen me and a ninja in the same room. ;-)
tiz raz all ghoul not have super natural methods
Many years ago, I remember people used to spread the rumor that ninja swords were generally shorter because a short sword is more suited to urban combat, and that ninjas were generally recruited from the poorer classes and a short, straight sword was a cheaper weapon to buy/produce as opposed to the katana which required a skilled craftsman to produce. It was originally believed that the weapons typically associated with ninjas were originally farming tools: hand claws were adapted from a tool that was used to dig up dirt to plant crops, the kama was a type of weed cutting tool, etc.... yes, this was all nonsense, but we didn't know better back in the 90s, and it kind of made logical sense.
yup good old 90s remember that had a ninja comic book it explained ninja swords were strait and shorter, lol made sense when I was a little kid.
Well, the kama is a sickle basically.
First part of your post is true, but what are you on about in the latter part? Kama was a farming tool and was used as an improvised weapon weapon, same as many other tools. Don't know anything about claws being a farm tool, though.
@@charliesage7004 Shuko/tekagi were used to carry bales of hay, bundles of rice and other stuff.
Really glad you did this episode!!! Helps a lot to clarify.
I quite like Anthony Cummins postulation about "ninjato": square tsuba are basically the easiest shape of tsuba you can make, and extant historial examples of often/generally crude. A cheap way to make blades if you cannot afford a sword would be to take a nagamaki blade and ground the backswell off, which would leave younwith a straight blade (there is one at the Royal Armouries). So if you are a poor ashigaru a cheap sword could be a nagamaki blade reprofiled and add the cheapest iron tsuba available, which leaves you with a short, strait sword with a square guard.
Seems plausible. Would explain a lot.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that is is the cheapest way to make a sword for those mail order companies that sold their genuine steel ninja swords in Black Belt Magazine.
Panglossianism
also makes sense why that’d be associated with ninja, given it could be much more readily available
it’s also a great reason for it to show up in theater productions 😂
This explanation assumes that all ninja were poor though. Meagre ashigaru often had curved blades, so they would have had to be REALLY poor. My understanding is that many samurai took on shinobi roles and that it was a role rather than a class in the way we usually think of it.
Love your content Mr Easton. Good stuff, very well informed. Much appreciated.
Not that informed. There are at least 13 different types of Japanese swords. I don't know why he didn't mention more sword types that had shorter blades.
@@CycoSven69 Care to share what the names of these types of swords would be? The way I understood it he was referring to categories of swords, and the most common ones at that.
@@christopheroconnor6830 ruclips.net/video/DgqyF0-656I/видео.html
Neat discussion!
One other possible point to research is how it might be that “square tsuba” became associated with ne’er do wells following the rules established at the Beginning of the Edo.
In the 1600s some of the restrictions on sword fittings read in part:
Daishō katana no sunpō oyobi tōhatsu futsumō no sei「大小刀の寸法および頭髪髴毛の制」 from the 1645, maximum total length (hilt included) of 2 shaku and 8 sun (~85 cm) for longsword and 1 shaku 8 sun for short sword (54.5 cm). Fittings like vermillion, yellow lacquer, and sandalwood sheaths, and large tsuba (大鐔) and/or large square tsuba (大角鐔) were forbidden.
Interesting! This is a really important piece of the puzzle
Very interesting, thanks
What’s wrong with yellow lacquer…? 😂
@@peterchristiansen9695 It might be the materials which went into it? Sumptuary laws are often economic, to promote the production of local materials so that you're not exporting too much wealth
It reminds me of the order emitted by the government of the city of Venice prohibiting gondolas other than black
I read a fun speculative answer as to why ninjas always wear black; black isn't actually the best colour for not being seen in low light conditions, dark blue is more effective. But as Matt comments, shinobi in fact dressed to look like anyone else.
The connection with black clothing was suggested to have been as a result of Japanese theatre conventions. In their traditional theatre, there is no curtain; instead stagehands, dressed uniformly in black to indicate they are not actors, come on and move away any props that aren't needed. The actors may not always go off stage, if they are in transit to another scene, but these stagehands will just take away props and replace them with others that are needed. By common convention, these stagehands are basically invisible, seen but not seen, part of the set but not part of the action. The audience's brain glitched over them the way you might read subtitles without really realising you are reading.
So what apparently occurred is that some genius playwright or manager had the brilliant idea of getting an actor dressed as one of these quasi-invisible stagehands to step forward, ignored by the cast, produce a knife and stab the king, put his knife away and disappear off stage as the cast burst out in shock and horror "what has happened?! Someone has stabbed our lord but there is nobody here!" and the audience were "WTF just happened?"
The first time would have been amazing, such a subversion of expectation, but then it soon became a cliche. I don't know if this is true, but it appealed to me.
Just a thought: are straight blades and square tsuba easier to make if all you're doing is knocking out cheap props for films and theatre?
@@Grim_Beard Only the tsuba, but they don't half ass their props. Unless there is a play specific purpose for a modification, they will want to get the looks right, specialy something with such symbolic value as the soul of a samurai.
Well done, excellent work!!!!!😊
The Shinobi have been greatly glorified in modern culture largely thanks to manga and film, they certainly existed but their form and prevalence have been greatly amplified in my opinion. Each large fiefdom would probably have a handful of shinobi at most that actually served out the assassination function that we so often associate with them. Scouting and recon would have been a much more common function.
Ninja-toe is what I get when I wear socks in my flip-flops
I think this is a clear case of "post truth", no matter how much evidence, or lack thereof, one brings to the table, the majority of the public will still be convinced that ninja swords and ninja in a black dodgy suite existed, just because they like it that way.
I'd imagine they would wear peasant clothes and a straw hat. Be ordinary and anonymous.
Fun fact! Kunai were originally just sharpened garden trowels that Ninja realized made a good shank and throwing weapon.
@@Verbose_Mode Other than we have no evidence of them being used as thrown weapons and their design being pretty much the exact opposite of those desirable in a throwing knife. They were utility knives for digging and punching holes in architecture, and not so much weapons.
@@NevisYsbryd - Exactly. But hey, it was a garden tool you could get a point or edge on, and it wouldn't look weird around a peasant, so... shank.
@@Verbose_Mode yeah same for the kama or the bill in europe. and a bunch of other weaponized farming tools. Basically everywhere in the world levy soldiers or general commoners had to fight with what they had available, well turns out a lot of simple tools are indeed pretty decent at ending people too 😆
machetes, axes, big hunting knives, hammers, the list goes on and on!
Thanks for an informative piece. I studied Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu. Regardless of the various questions around Masaaki Hatsumi and others over the claims of modern ninjutsu, I will relay this little gem. He said there was no "real Ninja Swords". The Mountain Clans credited with Ninjutsu schools would repurpose battlefield salvage or scrap. Utelising a broken katana as an example and reforging the tip at the break site producing a "shorter straighter blade". Historically, according to Hatsumi "a sword carried by a "ninja" could resemble almost any blade". Or so we were taught and all my readings from his writing support this.
I am happy to be educated if others have wisdom to impart, even if it contradicts what I have been taught.
From a theater/cinema perspective, this makes a lot of sense, after all you want to have something that's easily and visually distinguishable. Not just to tell you who the hero or antihero or villain is, but also to clue in the audience as to what might be happening just before a fight or during a fight. This makes so much more sense than all of the explanations I've heard in the past, this tracks
11:36 I saw that add when I was very young and wanted it all
One theory I heard is that the traditional ninja sword might have been based on a cheaper lower budget version of the katana which was typically carried by lower ranking soldiers but yet again I don't know.
shinobi ga tana
Much appreciate this video, in my own research, I never found they used a straight sword. So they figured they used a wakizashi, not to mention the public was allowed to buy the wakizashi but not a uchi katana.
Katana called shinobi gatana or ninjya swords does exist but is not a straight sword. In the swordsmanship section of Hattori Hanzo's 1560 book Ninpiden or Fujibayashi Samuji Yasutake's 1676 book Mansenshukai, it is written that "thick and wide wakizashi or short katana with a pointed tip called suito are used." Except for some schools such as Iga-ryu and Koga-ryu, most other ninjutsu schools do not use special katanas for swordsmanship but use wakizashi and uchigatana. In the 7th century, the Hattori clan of the Iga region wore black clothes at the Aekuni Shrine ritual.
They were called Kurondo (black party). In the 14th century, there is a record of Sinobi in the literary work Taiheiki. In the 17th century, fictional Sinobi appeared in the popular culture novel Otogibouko. In 1916, the first ninja movie, Kouga Umon, became popular. In the 1960s, a TV series featuring ninjas, Onmitu Kenshi, was broadcast. The TV series was broadcast in Australia and the Philippines, so the ninjas became popular with younger audiences. In 1967, the anime series Kamen no ninjya Akakage was broadcast. In 1967, ninjas appeared in the James Bond film.
Excellent reference my freind, cheers!
7th century? Source on that please.
I can only find evidences as ”it is said”. That goes for the shrine ritual as well.
@@jonaseklund3509 Overview of Aekuni Shrine. Empress Saimei (594-661) founded the shrine in 658 to enshrine Ohiko-no-Mikoto, the son of Emperor Kōgen and shido shogun. Ohiko-no-Mikoto's descendants lived in the Ahai district of Iga Province. Sources include the Nihon Shoki (-697), Tenno-ki (-620), and Kokki (620).
When first built, it was enshrined near the summit of Mt. Nangu, south of Aekuni Shrine, but was later moved to its current location. To the north of the shrine is the Mihakayama Kofun, the largest keyhole-shaped tumulus in Mie Prefecture (early 5th century), which is said to be the tomb of Ohiko-no-Mikoto and is a national historic site. As for the actual ancient rituals, they are thought to have originated from primitive beliefs in Mt. Nangu, as Mt. Nangu is a typical sacred mountain with a cone shape. About 200 meters south of Gankoku Shrine is the Oiwa Kofun Tomb, where it has been suggested that rituals were held here from the Kofun period in the 3rd century.
@@tn1881 how is this connected to Hattori clan, in later writings (Edo) it say 10th century for the origin of the Hattori as a clan, not 7th. And than that was created by the winning regime to create ”a proud history”.
While Ōhiko no Mikoto is a notable figure in early Japanese mythology, his connection to Iga specifically is not well-documented or prominent.
Source on the black clothing?
I have acctually visited the Aekuni jinja shrine decades ago and allready then they promoted it as a Ninja shrine of Iga, and according to Okuden The Hattoris had a festival there, but not in the 7th century. But all this is okuden and there are a lot of stories going around in Mie ken. They are exploiting it, its an industry.
There are no contemporary evidence of shinobi wearing black clothing so if you have evidence of that you will make your self a name in the written history.
I must say that it feels like you have a great interest in Japan history.
I hope you have some true sources for what your stating.
@@jonaseklund3509 The ancestor of the Hattori clan was Hattori Ienaga, a military commander in the Heian period. Hattori Ienaga's father, Taira Iesada, was a military commander in the late Heian period. He was a member of the Ise Taira clan, whose base was in Iga Province. The Taira clan was a clan of imperial descendants. In the Engishiki, a book compiled in the 9th century, the Hattori clan is said to have originated in Hattori-go, Ahai County, Iga Province (Hattori, Fuchu Village, now Hattori Town, Iga City, Mie Prefecture), and is the chief priest of Komiya Shrine. The Hattori clan is an ancient weaving clan found in various parts of Japan, and in Kaga City there is Hattori Shrine, which was founded between 708 and 714. Hattori Shrine enshrines Amenomihoko no Mikoto, an ancient Japanese nobleman who was the ancestor of the Hattori clan. Amanokuni Shrine was founded in 658 and holds festivals twice a year. In some parts of Asia, persimmon dyeing has been practiced since ancient times, and Iga clothing was dyed with persimmon. Persimmon dyeing has antiseptic, waterproof and insect repellent properties. By applying multiple coats of persimmon tannin, a tannin film is formed, providing waterproofing. In persimmon dyeing, the tannins in persimmons react chemically with iron, changing the color of the clothes from charcoal gray to black. Putting persimmon-dyed clothes and a nail into water will turn the clothes black. Thinking of festivals as an industry is a difference in values. Japan has a belief in valuing its ancestors and their culture, and maintaining culture requires funds. Japan has a ceremony called Shikinen Sengu, in which shrines are dismantled and rebuilt at a cost of 55.8 billion yen. Depending on the ceremony, ancient building techniques are passed down to the next generation, so old shrines can be rebuilt even if they are destroyed.
I am trying to imagine a bunch of MPs sitting in session talking about ninjas and zombies with a straight face.
Eu kkkkk
A lot of the blame lies with the late Don Draeger's book, Asian Martial Arts_ and the chapter on Japan regurgitated, uncritically, what came out of the " Ninja expertise" of M. Hatsumi. This started to drift into Western popular culture, via films like _You Only Live Twice_ , which Don Draeger, not coincidently, was a martial arts advisor.
Excellent presentation, logical conclusions introduced, all from a historical and quite logical stand point. But then that is always what one can expect from your videos. BZ
What I heared is that the Ninja To as a straight sword comes from them carrying a Maguro Kiri, a huge Tuna Knife , as a weapon / sword alternative wich was easyer to explain away while under cover, blending in to the population.
I think you have something there. I cant find a solid date of introduction but apparently Edo. There are workshops claiming to make them for over 100 years. (supposedly Yakuza carried them!) And the pictures seem to satisfy the general criteria.
This might also be the reason how many other farm tools went to become weapons, like nunchucks, oni or kusarigama. In a time when carrying a weapons could get you decapitated, you'd use stuff that allowed you to talk your way out.....
In short, a ninja sword is whatever sword a ninja decides to use
My favourite is. The concept of a secret organisation. With a uniform so you can be instantly identified as a ninja From 100 yards
I came face to face with a real Glasgow Ninja. Cycling the Clyde Walkway a few years ago i noticed clean tree branches cut and laid across the path for several hundred metres. Then I saw him standing at the side of the path. Masked in all black. A covered sword hilt visible above his shoulder. 😮 i got past him and peddled like a maniac. 😂
What were you peddling?
@@gerry343 illegal swords obviously 🙄
It's good to know someone's out there studying the blade.
Well, pretty shit ninja then.
He jumped out in front of me and I said, " What do you want?"...
He said, "I need about tree-fiddy."
Third degree master ninja here. We often use a straight bladed “to” with square tsuba because they’re cheaper to hand forge when arming battalions of ninja.
I did Kendo in the 1980s when i was 20. Our teacher had lived, and taught English, and trained at Kendo in Japan, from 1970 to 1978.
And he told me his teacher in Japan, who in his 70s and interestingly was blind, had an opinion about the Ninja having a special sword that was a different shape.
And that was " I wonder, where did they keep their sword ? . . . not on their hip".
He meant they would have to have The-sword-that-says-I-am-a-ninja in a bag all the time, and the bag on their back. Couldn't have it on your hip. Couldn't leave it in your room. Couldn't book into an inn, where servants came into the rooms to bring water, take away waste, and had their eyes open.
And if you had it in a bag, and there was an outcry about "Spies ! . . . ninjas !" the ACTUAL Samurai would just have to start searching the luggage of strangers.
Not to mention how unusual you would look, with a bag or a basket . . . And you would have to have this bag or basket near enough that you could arm yourself . . . for your entire Ninja career.
Wouldn't it be just be suspicious " That guy who no one knows . . . what is in that long basket he is always carrying around?".
Shalom ✌🏿 You've done an awesome job thanks man!
Historian Stephen Turnbull has written 2 books on the Ninja. In the first, some years ago, he had begun to suspect that most all the lore associated with the ninja was mythology and tall tales.
In the second book, “Ninja, Unmasking the Myth”, he goes into great detail, having gotten access to period scrolls and letters from people involved in the warfare of the time.
He now says flatly that they didn’t exist. That the word “ninja” didn’t even enter the Japanese lexicon till the 20th century, and our modern take on all things ninja is based both on early Japanese cinema and comic books.
In actuality, Military commanders of the period did use infiltration, intelligence gathering, and espionage, but this was accomplished by either mercenaries (“mountain bandits”) or their own troops that just happened to be good at such things.
No ninja “clans”, no secret societies, no guys running around in black suits walking on water. All myth and legend.
@@Bikewer As always the truth is probably somewhere in between. The term "Ninja" were not used but the term "Shinobi" or "Shinobi no mono" were; which is the other pronounciation of the same kanji. However in letters and documents the term used for "Iga Ninja" simply were "Iga no mono", men from Iga.
The secret, alternative, ninja clan society as portrayed in pop-culture did not exist. But the "Iga ikki" did indeed exist. An "ikki" were a independent "peasant republic" where local clans/families got together and took decision together. The mere thought of lower classes getting together and making desicions was horrendus to most of the upperclass Samurai elite. The warlord Oda Nobunaga made a point of destroying every ikki he came accross, of which Iga was one (but far from the only).
Now it is very easy to see the Iga province and it's inhabbitants as pesants: "So ninjas must be peasants with super powers - right"? Much of the land were owned and managed by a rural gentry called Ji-samurai and although technically of Samurai class the were very very far from the Samurai elite and much closers to the peasants class. They often had more autonomusy then the higher ranked Samurai clans and were the backbone of the rural military organisation. So landowning farmer yes, peasants no - they were still very much Samurai.
They lived in the mountains yes as Iga is a very mountainus area. Were they bandits? Well they were independent and not the richest, in a remote area where few heard any screams so I would not no say that ambushes did not happen when opportunity presented it self. However to I think it would be wrong to picture a pack of ragtag bandits pillageing the peasants. Were they mercinaries? Oh yea! And as everyone knows; in business you need a nich. The nich of the Iga no mono were to infiltrate castles - for whatever reason (according to Stephen Turnbull and his sources of historical documents mostly setting them ablaze and wreaking havoc to creating an oppurtunity to attack for a external force). Just happens that the term "ninjutsu" included that. Other mercenary groups had other skills that they honed into perfection in order to differentiate and get an edge. It is not a different culture or different society, it was just more of the same but with some specialization.
However the Iga ikki and their jisamurai clans knew that their days could be numbered. When Oda Nobunaga obliterated the obnoxious Iga ikki (called Tenshō Iga no ran) he also crushed the clans it were made up of. Naturally they who survived the onslaught scatered and fled but they were hunted, and with no longer having any saftey from the combined force of the clans of the Iga ikki or its hideouts, the refugees would if identifed be killed on the spot. So of course did they go underground trying dissapear - it was part of their trade after all. I suspect that this is were much of the whole secrecy thing comes from. There are no coincidence that around that same time Hattori Hanzo (who were a Samurai from Iga and who were in service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, before he became the shogun, and had just risen in the rank) started to hire men from Iga into the unitis he had under his command (who were known for unconventional warfare). The Tokugawa clan, then still named the Matsudaira clan, were pehaps the only clan that could protect the Iga refugees from the Oda clan after Oda Nobunaga were ambushed and killed (in an nightly raid from a general who apperently had out of nowhere switched side the year after the destruction of Iga).
In the early days after Tokugawa Ieyasu had become Shogun those units worked as the shogunates secret police, military inteligence, counter intelligence and personal protection. A century later their tasks became centraly organized into the official secret police called Oniwaban.
So if we skip the labels and read the actual history it is easy to see where the honed out and polished myths came from. But popculture took those events and kind of run with it -as it often does. Like the lives of Norsemen elites that became sagas like the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok that then became the totally confused but unfortunantly very popular tv-show "Vikings" (which can not even get basic geography correct, let alone an accurate historical portayal of the viking age - but I digress). The same have happen to wide number of similar phenomenan.
So did the "ninja" exist? Most likely yes, but not as they are portrayed in pop-culture.
He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes, and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.
Hi, thanks for the good video. In the Bujinkan traditionally we do not use strait ninja to. In the Togakure Ryu of the Bujinkan there is a short version of the uchigatana that is specific to that school. When the Bujinkan came to the west some western dojos that did not know any better and did use strait ninja to train with, but as you point out this is not historically accurate. The Bujinkan teacher I have spoken to in Japan are clear on the matter. The actual ninja to/ shinobi gatana is historically a concept. It is a sword that doesn't look like a sword like the shinobi zue or shikomi zue or it is something that looks like a sword but is not one, like the antique Japanese teppo/tanegashima hidden inside the koshirae of a small sword, found at Kumamoto Castle.
Japanese version of Vikings having horned helmets. Makes it easier for theatre to show what side people are fighting for.
I wonder if some of the association with ninjas and straight-bladed "ninja-to" comes from surviving shikomizue cane swords from the Meiji period, after wearing swords in public was banned. Some seem to have been made as new koshirae for existing wakizashi and tantos, the latter of which tend to be more straight-bladed, but we also see examples of cheap shikomezue made during the period with lower-quality straight blades.
Im not a practitioner of ninjitsu nor do i have any historical knowledge on the ninja in general, most accounts i have learned from were from practitioners and masters on youtube. One theory i have is that perhapse the ninja were oppritunists or "shadow MacGyvers" tje ninja-to could have been a modified wakisashi that was done to suit theor needs and or mission. Im sure throughout history in any military country has had soldiers repurposing or modifying existing weapons wether it be their own or captured from enemies or perhapse influenced in the making of weapons as they may have had an advantage to their own(if that makes any sense) all in all wether the ninja-to be real or mythical, i still find it a pretty practical tool that would have a purpose unlike fantasy swords that would otherwise be nonsense. Thank you for covering this topic🥷👍
This is a great look at the topic. The only story I can add (with absolutely no citation for it, as I don't remember where I saw it. Some martial arts magazine, I think.) is that ninja would sometimes wear a wakizashi blade in a katana-length saya. The idea was they could get "too close" to someone to draw a katana, and suddenly draw the shorter blade to assassinate them. It seems like a lot of work for an ambush attack, but there you have it: my "ninja sword" trivia.
Check out ko katanas. They have shorter blades made for close combat in cramped quarters. That's what both samurai and shinobi used sometimes.
VERY interesting! Great video...
Nice video. I never bought into the concept of the Sword. Because the whole concept does not make any sense. Why should a group that works in the shadows and acts as spies use special weapons that are different compared to weapons of their enemies? No spy in the world would date that.
Last thing ninja wanted is to engage in sword duel with guard screaming for assistance.
It's because the corridors in malls are straight, not curved.
Nice reference! Great flick!
"Invented in the 20th century in America in order to sell something." I wonder how many supposedly historical items/ideas/etc this sentence describes...
Not nearly enough to come close to compete with Victorians in that department.
I wonder how many of our commonly held modern beliefs about historic events and historic figures is as fake as the proverbial ninja sword?
A weapon that you can't easily conceal and would instantly identify you as a ninja wouldn't be very beneficial to a spy.
I am a ninja, I have a sword. A real ninja sword. My ninja sword can cut through any sword. My ninja sword can deflect bullets, my sword can cut steel I beams. I am a real ninja with a real ninja sword. My sword is fast, ninja fast. My ninja suit makes me invisible. A real invisible ninja with a real ninja sword.
We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.
On the "ninjato," the reason I heard that seemed the most plausible was that during the Meiji period, after the sword ban law, some (now former) samurai would carry swords disguised as canes and such. Because a curved cane would kinda be a giveaway, and not match the "gentlemen's canes" that they were attempting to imitate, these blades tended to be mostly straight in order to better disguise them.
Another reason I've heard, that also sorta makes sense, relates to one of the forms of Japanese theater. Supposedly it even explains the classic "ninja suit," as it was used in theater as a form of shorthand to tell the audience that the person was "technical staff" (people who move around set pieces and pick up props between scenes and such), and not an actor/character on stage. After being indoctrinated to this, to suddenly have one of these suddenly pull out a sword from a random piece of equipment (the blade being straight to hide it in said equipment) and lunge at an actor would be a shock to the audience, as they would literally appear to come out of nowhere.
It's probably mostly a pop culture thing though, at least the "finalized design" of it.
Nice explanation. Plausible.
swordcanes (shikomizue) don't seem to have been prevalent, popularized by a film called "Zatoichi" in 1948, the blind swordsman trope. Completely fictional
One of the widest arrays of faked and forged Japanese blades you will find are those in swordcane fittings, especially if they're claimed to be particularly old.
They would have been absurdly scarce even in the Meiji era - you need a brand new blade for it, you can't just pop your old blade into cane fittings and any new blades being made were strictly supervised!
As you say, the finalized idea of the swordcane cemented in the average person's mind is pop-culture fiction
@@AdamOwenBrowning My thoughts on the sword cane are that, while not exactly commonplace, it was a thing that existed in Europe. It wouldn't be hard to imagine some Japanese individuals (samurai or otherwise) imitating this.
Now as you mention the standard katana wouldn't work, even the wakizashi would (normally) have too much of a curve. Tanto could have worked, or as you mention forging new swords. While the manufacture of swords was regulated, it wasn't quite as severely regulated as it is today (a product of the US occupation post-WW2), so having a new sword forged wouldn't be an impossible option. There's even the theoretical (though even if it happened, exceedingly rare) possibility of a few having been manufactured in Europe and brought to Japan as trade goods.
That said, these probably would have looked a lot different in design from your modern stereotypical "ninjato" (arguably not as true if you used a tanto blade). That's to say that solely the concept of "ninjas use straight blades" would have originated from these. Not because they were "ninja weapons," but because they were a hidden weapon one could imagine a ninja might have used. Importantly however, they needed to be straight for the purposes of what they were being disguised as.
From here I could see the form of the modern ninjato evolving from the lack of evidence, rather than based on it. More of a situation where they heard that hidden swords existed in Japan, and figured they would look like a traditional Japanese blade that was modified to be hidden.
The Ninja-To, its like a short sword but you can use it as a tool too.
One of the explanations I've heard about the straight-blade nature of the ninjato was that was indeed inspired by the early chokuto which were plentiful, cheap, and therefore easy to get a hold of. More importantly, there would've been surviving examples of older blades like the chokuto were from a time before swordsmiths, as regular practice, started to put their mei signatures that would've revealed who/where/when the blade was made and would've typically lacked many other distinguishing features thus making it a choice weapon for assassins. The idea being that these blades would be effectively untraceable should they be recovered by the authorities. As for the tsuba and general shortness of the sword, it probably would've been a practical decision. The short blades would've been more useful in building interiors and the large square tsuba would've been easy to fabricate and offer decent protection as a handguard. How much of that is true is indeterminable, but the point is that there seems to be some thought process for the way the popular idea of the "ninjato" is designed.
Thank you for sharing what you have learned with the rest of the world!👍 It's nice to know that I was correct when I told several of my friends that ninja swords weren't straight as shown in the movies!😁
I had always heard that the shape of the Ninjato was an evolution of the Chokuto sword that was an imported Chinese Tangdao that eventually got rehandled with a roughly forged square tsuba and pinned on grip because the most prolific Ninja groups were mountain nomads repurposing old and outdated equipment.
I m a true knife nerd and maker😂 metallurgy obsessed etc
THISis the BEST place for accurate info on blades
Buy also a great history channel.
Now for years i... sometimes just use it to sleep
The ninja swotds were so secret that there are no trace of hem in history. 😂
Stealth Technology.
excellent as always
depending on the era, ninja has different purposes
in edo era, ninja is spy like you said, but in sengoku era, ninja was strategical unit, to be used for surprise attack. it can infiltrate opponent's base to open the main gate, it can do pincher attack in war, can serve as support unit to kill horses. before sengoku era, ninja was special service of imperial
ruclips.net/video/Om6eGDXmcuk/видео.html
this is sainenji temple, the grave of hattori hanzo, leader of iga clan, a secret village of ninja in sengoku era. at the time, hanzo was serving for ieyasu tokugawa, as paid service. but even if it is just paid service, his loyalty is very good
hanzo was using various weapons, but there is special weapon used by hanzo that being called as spear, but looks like a sword a lot. it is classified into nagamaki, but it is very different from average nagamaki. hanzo use it for cutting gate rope or slashing the leg of horse seems likely
The only reason for an assassin to have a straight blade among curved ones around is maybe hiding it in a cane or an umbrella.
In that case the sword won't have a guard or braiding
Ah, Black Belt magazine. It was all the craze for school kids in the 70's and 80's in America. It is one of the main reasons that "ninja" weapons were banned in the US because kids were ordering them from the magazine. "Ninja" weapons, mainly shurikens and nunchucks, became so popular then that you could buy them from convenience stores. They weren't banned here because people were afraid of criminals using them but because children were injuring each other with them.
while guns otherwise....completely safe...
@@TheMrcassina What do guns have to do with the topic at hand? Besides children can't buy them. And there isn't a Constitutional right to own ninja stars.
@@robo5013 the idiosincrasy stays in the definition of dangerous, guns are far more dangerous than any ninja stars am I wrong? But any words are superfluous, I mean, legally blind people in Iowa are allowed to own guns...and everyone is perfectly fine with that (in Iowa at least).
@@TheMrcassina Again, guns aren't pertinent to this discussion. I never even used the word dangerous nor did I attempt to define any type of weapon as more dangerous than any other. I only stated a fact that is about something that was discussed in the video. Keep your politics to yourself or where they are appropriate, here is not the place.
What ninja weapon do you think is banned in the US?
As a practitioner of Bujinkan Budo I had been told the Ninja-To is most likely to have been a broken Katana scavenged off the battle field which would then have the kissaki re ground, hence they were shorter and look straighter as the Ninja were not Samurai class (mostly peasants) and therefore not aloud swords.
The shuriken being a "ninja tool/weapon" isn't also a modern misconception? Not that no ninja would use a shuriken if they had access to it, but more the idea that shuriken were developed to be used by ninjas. If I remember correctly, kunais are gardening tools, so if you were a spy/infiltrator/assassin, you could say that those are just tools of your craft, while shurikens are only useful as weapons.
Shuriken were police weapons in the edo period. They were thrown at fleeing criminals to slow them down. They later became associated with "Ninja" during the 20th century revival movement
A suriken would be extremely expensive to forge and polish in medieval Japan. Most throwing weapons were basic metal spikes, simple to make and of little consequence if lost
And not that you can't throw a kunai or that they never were thrown but kunai were never documented as being used as a throwing weapons.
Suriken come in many shapes one of which is just an iron nail, another item a craftsman might have on his personage for some work related reason.
In my studying I've realized Musashi considered the basic katana as the 'short sword' and considered the Ogatana or nodachi as the long sword, which makes sense if you consider his excessive height (for his time)
In the movie The Hunted (1995), I thought it was cool that the ninja adopted a tan outfit for the bullet train massacre scene. It's obviously preposterous but to my teenage mind I was like, "yeah, makes sense." Not a good movie but that scene is fantastic.
I have to say that the revelation between this well done video and the one done previously where the existence of the ninja is debunked left me completely dispirited, It’s basically a sword fan finding out there’s no Santa.
I'm devastated! My BudK ninja sword is fake???? Well crap...that thing cost like $50...
nope its real bra we can flly wihsecwet techniq
Shucks, and other comments.
For $50, that should have been a REAL ninja sword!!! You got ripped off!
Makes sense. As an infiltrator or assassin, you wouldn’t want to be caught carrying something so easily unidentifiable which would give you away really quickly. Carrying a standard sword, you at least have a chance to talk your way out of a situation, at least until you have an opportunity to escape.
Ninjas were just like anyone else just like samurai back in those olden times. It was about spying,infiltration,reconnaissance,etc. the ninjas 🥷 wearing all black with a straight sword came around in the 50’s. The straight sword was used as a counter to the curved sword.
Glad you brought up the "police sword"
That's funny I was already thinking about how Black Belt Magazine sold those swords. Thanks for putting these videos out.
Good Video, I always thought that 90% of all the information surrounding "Ninjas" is made up rubbish from post-ww2 TV and Films. Also 9 comments and 4 of them are obvious bot-spam, dont interact with bots, report them as misinformation
Actually a good percentage of the rubbish came from kabuki theatre, like the ninja suit.
I remember the Zatoichi movie in which a large square guard short blade sword was featured for the first time. At the time the character who wielded it was mentioned in the story as an assassin/ spy but was not called a ninja or shinobi. The ninja craze had not started yet, then during the late 70's early 80's the whole idea of ninjas took off!
Where on earth did this modern idea of a ninja sword come from? 1980s cocaine fueled movie producers in Miami.
Gotta love Menahem Golam and Yoram Globus for that. Wild times.
How can a spy blend in better and have an effective disguise? By having a distinctive sword with a unique handle and differently shaped crossguard that only ninjas use! Yeah! Totally way more subtle that way! All ninjas also had "NINJA" tattooed on their foreheads too, just to show how dedicated they were. Helped them blend in. /s lol
Came here for the ninja to, gubbins; stayed for the stubble, which despite watching many of your kids here, I hadn't spotted previously. Fascinating that someone so versed in blades, would choose not to have a close shave before making content. But that's likely nothing more than my prejudice showing... fun vid so far...🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
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Matt, you're a historical time traveler randomly moving in time and geography in the age of steel blades. What single type of sword do you choose for your travels? You could end up at Culloden, the Battle of Hastings, The English Civil War, Feudal Japan, the Napoleonic wars, The Opium Wars, the Zulu wars, the Indian Mutiny, or even fighting Roman Legionaries. The list is, of course, endless, but you get the point.
For me personally I'd go with a straight blade Cutlass if I couldn't bring other swords.
@tidepoolclipper8657 I do like the idea of a straight cutlass. I have no idea, I was hoping Matt would tell me so I can go and buy it for the forthcoming zombie apocalypse. I will eventually run out of shotgun shells.
Pure Hollywood stuff bro. They do look cool.
As a shinobi I would prefer to use poison, a ranged weapon like a short bow, or poison dart far above any sword or other weapon. Hand weapons would only be needed if you became exposed in your operation. Small knife/dagger might be used for taking out guards, but not a sword.
As it is taught in Bujinkan or Ninjutsu, the Ninjato had the same length altogether as an Uchi-Katana, but with a longer sword hilt and a shorter blade but absolutely still curved. This was intended for a quicker draw. This is merely the knowledge taught. You will not find archeological evidence for that.
also sword blades historically in japan have been modified to suit the times as well as the hilt construction being changeable that's not entirely outside the realm of possibly even more so that it wouldn't be noticeable until the sword is drawn, but to say it was a tell tale sign of a sword used by Shinobi is another thing entirely. Unlike the Hollywood "ninja sword".
Blade curvature is so negligible to drawing speed as to be irrelevant. It is predominantly a matter of blade length and the suspension system.
@@michael3088 it depends on the activity or mission. if a Ninja or Shinobi is a spy as he stated he would most certainly not have specific gear. the typical outfit and equipment (Ninjato) of a Ninja did likely exist. how often they came into action is hard to say. possibly this was very rare.
@@NevisYsbryd well, I feel that you are more or less agreeing with me. I did not mention curvature at all. maybe you were also making a comment about the video. the Ninjato as it is used in Ninjutsu has a shorter blade had longer hilt for a quicker draw. whether historians will agree that this is accurate is another matter. but it is taught to be accurate.
Great topic following Shogun awards! This is not a criticism, I appreciate the informed view.
Ninja swords are cool, no other answers needed.
For sure. The fantasy of everything associated with ninja is cool. That's why it's taken on its own classic identity in many fantasy and sci-fi settings.
Great vid, very interesting - like lots of accepted wisdom, it just dates to medieval scripts, pulp fiction booklets, theatre, early movies, the imagination of people writing about things they know very little about.....
The fact that you can't find them doesn't prove they don't exist, it actually means they are genuine ninja swords.
Technically right, but since ninjas were spies, they wouldn't carry something like this that would make people know that they are ninjas, a simple example: a ninja wearing headband that says"im a ninja"
Maybe the ninjas were the swords we found along the way all along.
in the movie KNOCK UP, "Why do you need a ninja sword, are you going to become a ninja?"
I am studying Ninjutsu and have been for the past couple of years, and also study the 'history' of it. You are correct, there is no such thing as a Ninja sword, the agents (Shinobi) would have used whatever was in 'fashion' at the time and straight swords may have been fashionable at some point, why would there be a specific sword to advertise yourself with?, when your trying to stay hidden! in plain sight. a lot of the 'Ninja' weapons are actually farming tools, that are modified when needed to be used as a weapon, The 'Shinobi' were different things in different periods of time, right up to what people see as the classical 'Ninja' that people think they see in films and books these days.
The Shuriken thing does make me smile, its actually a throwing art and not a specific thing that the 'Ninja' used, I think the elderly in Japan still do it, like our older generation would be playing bowling balls as something to do (if I remember correctly).
If people were to study the actual history, they would see through the Hollywood smoke and mirrors and see a subject more interesting than what is perceived.
Omg, fantastic piece of detective work Matt, I have also thought that they came from long spear blades remounted to use as swords, I had one in the eighties, it was made from 440 steel, the weight of the blade made it bend and it had a 2inch tang it was shite😅
When he said "1956" I was kinda expecting him to say something like "1986 when they appeared in toy shops around the world".
Ninja swords had a straight blade, squjare tsuba, and two-handed grip mostly because they wanted something something that was completely different from the cutlass, which was the favorite weapon of all those pirates used to bully them in school.
The fact that Matt has not reviewed Alatriste is criminal
When I was in Japan it was explained to me that the straightness of the 'ninja-to' comes from how ninja would take broken katana from a battlefield and repurpose them by filing them down, and this is how the blade would lose most of its curve. As you mention, the tsuba would also be filed down to help climbing. Intuitively it makes sense, and it might also make sense that these trashy repurposed swords wouldn't be coveted or preserved, and so we don't have any examples around anymore. I'm no expert on ancient Japanese law but I believe that even owning a broken sword as a commoner would be a crime in those days. And no self-respecting samurai would touch a broken sword.
Still, it would seem a bit of a stretch that any of this is true if we don't have even ONE surviving straight sword with filed down square tsuba from that time.
It would be pretty funny if ninjas and special ninja swords were historically real, and they really did have a square guard on their sword. Because it would mean you could tell who's a ninja at a glance and arrest the spy/saboteur. As if the black pajama stage hand outfit wasn't enough of a tip off.
There are historical pictures of a straight blade single-edged sword and you can find them. It was the first type of blades that the Japanese created before they started putting a curve to the blades. They were the first kind of blades before they put a curve into them to make the tachi.
Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you.
Remember: daedric wakizashi are the best, if you're strong enough or enchant them :D