who were the ninja? Were they real?

Answer 1

Okay,

let's give you a brief history lesson :

Who were the ninja? Families from the Iga and Koga provinces of Japan, Yamabushi (warrior monks) living within the Iga mountain han's (provinces), as well as Ronin (masterless Samurai) that ran into the mountains of Iga and Koga.

Both Samurai (of certain ryu-ha) as well as Ninja trained in certain skills that helped to herald their reputation :

The 18 disciplines are:

Seishin-teki kyōyō (spiritual refinement)
Taijutsu (unarmed combat)
Kenjutsu (sword fighting)
Bōjutsu (stick and staff fighting)
Shurikenjutsu (throwing blades)
Sōjutsu (spear fighting)
Naginatajutsu (naginata fighting)
Kusarigamajutsu (chain and sickle weapon)
Kayakujutsu (fire and explosives)
Hensōjutsu (disguise and animal morphing)
Shinobi-iri (stealth and entering methods)
Bajutsu (horsemanship)
Sui-ren (water training)
Bōryaku (military strategy)
Chōhō (espionage)(spying)
Intonjutsu (escaping and concealment)
Tenmon (meteorology and astral projection)
Chi-mon (geography)

Also, unarmed physical skill sets :

As an example, here's an excerpt from the Bujinkan-Ninpo-Togakure-ryu ninjutsu curriculum:

Taijutsu (body art/movement)
junan taiso (body conditioning)
taihenjutsu (body movement)
ukemi (Receiving the ground safely)
kaiten (rolling)
tobi (leaping)
dakentaijutsu (striking methods)
koppojutsu (bone attacks)
koshijutsu (muscle attacks)
jutaijutsu (grappling methods)
nage (throws)
hajutsu (escapes)
gyakuwaza (locks and controls)
shimewaza (chokes)


And truly, those are only openly taught skill sets. There's much more involved than just those alone.

Schools of ninjutsu:

The Bujinkan Dōjō headed by Masaaki Hatsumi is the only legitimate organization generally accepted as teaching ninjutsu by the Bujinkan's members (under the name Budo Taijutsu). Hatsumi's Bujinkan Dōjō consists of nine separate schools of traditional Japanese martial arts, only three of which contain ninjutsu teachings. Hatsumi learned a variety of martial arts, including ninjutsu, from Toshitsugu Takamatsu.

Other extant traditional martial arts such as the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shintō-ryū contain some aspects of ninjutsu in their curriculum, but are not ninjutsu schools per se.

The espionage techniques of ninjutsu are rarely focused on in recent times, since they serve little purpose to the bulk of modern populations, and tend to attract negative publicity and students with unrealistic expectations.

Within the Bujinkan, core concepts of physical combat are taught before anything else (as it should be anyhow). The deeper levels of training, in terms of spiritual refinement, perceiving unseen threats, stealth walking, etc...are taught later.

There are three ryu-ha of Ninjutsu taught within the system :
1- Togakure Ryu
2- Gyokushin Ryu
3- Kumokokure Ryu

Only Togakure Ryu is openly taught as a syllabus within the Bujinkan umbrella, because the other two were largely espionage before combat schools, and in turn aren't as universally applicable to modern societal needs.

Answer 2

The Ninja were and are very real. The problem comes that too many people believe what they see in movies. Many movies portray Ninja as being evil, sneaky beings used only for assassinations and the like. Being Ninja only means practicing the art of Ninjutsu.

And another popular Hollywood myth:
Samurai means Warrior of the Day
Ninja means Warrior of Night

These are completely false. Samurai means "servant" or "to serve" in Japanese. Ninja again means someone who practices Ninjutsu.

Answer 3

Yes, they were real, but forget what you've seen in the movies. Born into poverty and without any class standing in feudal Japan they faced starvation and menial labor or they could surrender their lives to the way of the Ninja and face a possibly horrible death. Not great options, but it was all they had. They'd train in martial arts stolen from other styles in hidden schools. They'd learn the ways of weapons, sneak attacks, stealth, horseback riding, swimming, hand-to-hand combat, poisons, lock picking, breaking and entering, politics, camouflage and other arts that would aid them in being better assassins. If caught they would be treated worse then dogs because they were born with no class standing and had given up all hope of honor by choosing the way of the Ninja. Most were tortured and all were killed without an honor ceremony or chance to pray, unlike the Samurai who were allowed honor in death.

Their ways are watered down now but the study of ninjitsu is still around. For various reasons many of their arts are lost today or simply not trained but the main hand-to-hand and weapons styles remain fairly intact.

Answer 4

ninjas's were of course real, the style ninjisitu is actually the training of the ninja, actually ninjas were like cops, and they did do assasinations also, but the techinques were very secret, and it is also very hard to find a teacher and if you do one that is a real ninjisitu master. It is very amazing. There are books and websites one good one is www.ninjitsuryu.com

Answer 5

Ninjas were assassins in Asia. Yeah, they were real! The art Ninjitsu is based on Ninjas. And Ninjitsu is still taught today!

Answer 6

go to askaninja.com and you can get full ninja history and videos with a real ninja

Answer 7

The nija were assasins. They are real. Ninjitsu means, in japanese, well, ninja - jitsu. (Ninja, we all know what that means) (Jitsu - means the form or technique of)

Aikido and aikijitsu are good examples. Aikido, is the way of harmony, Ai - love or harmony, ki - chi energy, Do the way of, (the way of harmonizing Kii energy)

Aikido is almost a philosophy rather than an art.

Aikijitsu (Aiki menaing the same, and Jitsu meaning the form or technique of)

the techniques of harmony.

Ninjitsu is the training techniques and rutines of the ninja.

And PS, Shiroken are not to kill, they are used for distraction.

Hey tell ur sensei to stop asking stupid question lol

Answer 8

Ninjas' were real and the art of ninjitsu is still practiced but the were ruthless assassins. The primary job was to assinate with deception in and out was there M.O

Answer 9

Ninja were real from ancient Japan or China.

Answer 10

The ninja were real , they were the people of the koga and iga areas of japan , that had been trained to be fighters , assassins , and spies .