It's wrong! All wrong! Probably...
Everything about the archetypal ninjas, from their mythic water-walking abilities to their unique "Ninja-to" swords and classic black suits, is a fairly modern concept founded more on folklore and legend than on the actual Sengoku era (1467-1603) spies that they are based on. As fantastic and memorable characters are one of Japan’s main exports, it’s no surprise that the ninja image has grown into what the world recognises today. Here’s what the ninja actually was and how its modern perception came to be:
The word “ninja” is a Chinese influenced and condensed reading of the kanji “忍” nin/shinobi (“to steal away,” or “to hide”), and the kanji “者” sha/mono (“person” - the “sh” is pronounced as a “j” when 者 is combined with 忍 and other such characters). The native Japanese reading, “shinobi no mono,” often shortened to “shinobi,” can be found in texts from as far back as the 8th century but it appears in greater frequency in the 15th and 16th centuries. Fighting between the lords of Japan’s various fiefdoms created a need for specialist operators who were ready willing and able to do the “dirty work” that samurai considered dishonorable and below their station.
These assets took on many disguises and made use of a wide variety of tools and weapons (which probably didn't include swords) depending on their missions.
Two famous ninja schools in Mie Prefecture’s Iga City and Shiga Prefecture’s Koga City were established around this time to recruit and train members of the local populace in the arts of disguise, espionage, sabotage and assassination. Ninjas from both schools were actively hired by warring daimyo lords from 1485-1581. The Iga ninja clan saw its school and many of its members wiped out by the warlord Oda Nobunaga during his 1581 invasion of Iga, but survivors of the Iga clan lived to become retainers and body guards in Tokugawa Ieyasu’s army and shogunate. After playing roles in the final conflicts that would see the whole of Japan unified under Tokugawa’s banner, the Koga Clan was likewise absorbed and ninjas disappeared during the stability that came during the Edo period (1603-1868).
The neo-classic image of the ninja, in a black gee with a black mask, made its first appearance in an ukiyoe woodblock print created by the artist Hokusai Katsushika in 1817, about 200 years after ninjas had faded from significance. The image of the ninja in Hokusai’s art is likely based on “kuroko” set changers and prop manipulators of traditional Japanese theater. The black uniform worn by these stagehands signifies a person or element that can’t be seen by the cast, while real ninjas probably dressed as farmers, peasants, Buddhist monks or entertainers. This, and the fact that ninjas were generally recruited from lower classes, as their work was considered dishonourable and therefore unappealing for literary consumption in the eyes the ruling elite, meant there were scant details in historical documents, and no literary descriptions of the ninja to dispute or correct Hokusai’s work. Japanese popular culture of the Edo and later eras built upon this image and its mystique, and when the James Bond movie “You Only Live Twice” proliferated the ninja to western audiences in 1967, there was no stopping the ninja’s sword wielding, shuriken throwing, martial arts master and assassin image from growing even more.
Despite Japan’s practical need for ninjas having died out with the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, a “ninja experience”, including training with many of the tools and weapons of the trade, can still be had today. The Ninjutsu Gakuin Cafe, in the town of Yagyu to the east of Nara City, offers 1 or 2 day ninja experience classes every Saturday and Sunday from 10am-4pm! A one day course costs just ¥2,000 and a 2-day course costs ¥4,000. Reservations, and Japanese language ability are necessary. The Ninjutsu Gakuin is accessible via a Yagyu bound bus from the number 4 bus stop at Kintetsu Nara Station (¥870 each way). Get off at the Sakawara-kitade (阪原北出) bus stop and get your ninja on!
Works consulted:
http://kotaku.com/all-you-know-about-ninja-is-probably-wrong-5932403
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuroko
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316547/Japans-ninja-Jinichi-Kawakami-63-hear-needle-drop-room-kill-20-paces.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316547/Japans-ninja-Jinichi-Kawakami-63-hear-needle-drop-room-kill-20-paces.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja
http://ninjutsu.robertk.com/Bansenshukai/
http://rocketnews24.com/2016/01/22/695378/ (Japanese)
http://yagyuu.ninpou.jp/index.html (Japanese)
http://iganinja.jp/en/
Ratti, Oscar; Westbrook, Adele (1991), “Secrets of the samurai: a survey of the martial arts of feudal Japan,” Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8048-1684-7
Turnbull, Stephen (2003), “Ninja AD 1460–1650,” Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84176-525-9
Crowdy, Terry (2006), “The enemy within: a history of espionage,” Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84176-933-2
Moriyama, T. (1998). "Weekend Adventures Outside of Tokyo”, Shufunotomo Co. Ltd., Tokyo Japan, ISBN 4-07-975049-8.
Frederic, L. (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia", Belknap Harvard, ISBN 0-674-01753-6
“Ancient Warfare : Shinobi Ninjas and Kung Fu Shaolin Monks FULL DOCUMENTARIES.” 20 April 2015 – via YouTube.
Takagi, Ichinosuke; Gomi, Tomohide; Ōno, Susumu (1962), “Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei: Man'yōshū Volume 4,” Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-00-060007-9
Turnbull, Stephen (2007), “Warriors of Medieval Japan,” Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84603-220-2
Deal, William E. (2007), “Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,” Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-195331264
Draeger, Donn F.; Smith, Robert W. (1981), “Comprehensive Asian fighting arts,” Kodansha, ISBN 978-0-87011-436-6
Alt, Matt; Yoda, Hiroko (2012), “Ninja Attack!: True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws,” Tuttle Publishing, ISBN 9781306433846
Adams, Andrew (1970), Ninja: The Invisible Assassins, Black Belt Communications, ISBN 978-0-89750-030-2
Public Domain images
Woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi of actor Nakamura Shikan II as Ohatsu in the kabuki play Sakura doki onna gyoretsu, showing three Kurogo, 3rd month of 1832, Wikipedia Creative Commons, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/005-1134.jpg
Page from volume 6 of the 15-volume Hokusai Manga (sketches collection), Hokusai Katsushika, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hokusai_sketches_-_hokusai_manga_vol6.jpg
Ninja painting by Dan Parsons