My project will explore the historical evolution of ninja clans in ancient Japan. It will contain information about the origin of ninja and the essence of the art of ninjutzu. The project will also explore different techniques and weapons used by the ninja warriors and its goal will be to give insight on many mythological beliefs related to the image of Japan's deadliest and most feared assassins. There will be provided a lot of information on historical events and real-life figures from the two most famous ninja clans: Iga and Koga during the Sengoku era in Japan. The project will also present information about the culture of ninja, exploring the life and structure in the Iga and Koga villages. It will touch on the relationship between the ninja and the Yamabushi traveling monks, who might have actually given the origin of the techniques of ninjutzu. Overall, the project's main purpose is to differentiate the reality from the myth about ninja and to explore the actual ninja culture and lifestyle.
Posted by valery at October 13, 2004 01:21 PMMy basic question and concern is: where's the information for this? I don't doubt that there IS information, but a lot of it is (as I said the other day in the lab) basically 14-year old boy level. Can you find SCHOLARSHIP about ninjutzu? A student in Anth230 last year did do a project which you might use as a starting point (http://home.wlu.edu/~coxa/anth230/). I don't think it was very successful, largely because it didn't get very far beyond the perspective of a martial arts enthusiast.
So what I want to see is some results of searches in various places --some evidence that there's really something worthwhile to be said about the subject.
Here are 4 books from Bibliography of Asian Studies. I have no reason to think they're either 'good' or 'bad', but you'd probably need to get them by ILL:
Turnbull, Stephen R.
Title: Ninja: the true story of Japan's secret warrior cult
Citation: Poole, Dorset: Firebird Books, 1991
Title: The making of a ninja: Ashida Kim's training camp
Citation: Boulder, Colo.: Paladin, 1986 173p
Author: Kim, Ashida
Title: Ninja death touch
Citation: Boulder, Colo.: Paladin, 1989 93p
Author: Hayes, Stephen K.
Title: The ninja and their secret fighting art
Citation: Rutland, Vt.: C.E. Tuttle Co., 1981 156p.
As an example of the level of stuff one has to wade through, look at the contributors to this thread: http://www.dojo2000.com/www/messages2/428.html
What I see here is poseurs, wannabees, violence freaks, psychopaths, turkeys... Surely there MUST be more to it, but that's the company you have to rub shoulders with. Ick.