What Is the Difference Between a Ninja and a Samurai?

Question

What Is the Difference Between a Ninja and a Samurai?

Answer 1

Ninja: a member of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents, highly trained in martial arts and stealth (ninjutsu), who were hired for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination.

Samurai: a member of the hereditary warrior class in feudal Japan; a professional warrior belonging to the Japanese feudal military aristocracy.

Answer 2

Sweet baby Jesus, do not listen to these people. Shoto Tanemura wrote a book called Hiden Ninpo which has a fair amount of easily digestible history. I suggest you read it. The simplest answer is that Samurai is a social class -- you were born into that rank, and you stayed at that rank, unless you were cast out or elevated yourself through some form of martial conquest (say, usurping a daimyo). The ninja were not necessarily assassins or spies. Early history seems to indicate that they were guards for Yamabushi -- warrior ascetics living in the mountains of Japan. Your social rank as ninja was no different than a commoner. You also worked like a commoner, on top of being trained from a young age (if born into a ninja village). However, being ninja and being samurai were not mutually exclusive. Hanzo Hatori was a fine example of being both ninja and samurai. For information on ninja, your best sources would be Hatsumi Masaaki or Tanemura Shoto. If you're a Japanese reader, you could also look into Fujita Seiko. Donald Draeger wrote a book on ninjutsu, much of which was unfortunately garbage tied to Japanese pop culture. Also, I believe Kacem Zoughari has a book that's been translated into English that you might be able to locate. Please attempt to use published sources at the very least, then learn what you can about your sources if you have the time -- example, Ashida Kim is not a reliable source :D

Answer 3

Despite popular belief, I would like it to be known that a ninja is not necessarily an assassin.

Samurai were official Japanese soldiers of the Edo period. They fought in wars and helped to enforce law. At first, they were seen as honorable and humble soldiers. Later on, the government became very corrupt and the Samurai basically became the government cronies/thugs who did the dirty work.

Ninja were common people who studied their own art (much influenced by Chinese rebels) to protect their villages from predators and the government who constantly took land. Of course, the ninja did work on stealth and disguise as tactics of doing justice in their own way when the government went corrupt, which is possibly where they got their assassin reputation.

Anyway, I can't sum it up in that short segment, so I would suggest some research. Enjoy!

Answer 4

The answer is that ninjas blow.

My apologies, that's the pirate in me talking. A ninja is a thoroughly trained assasin used to attack individual targets, whereas a samurai is an elite open attack troop used in actual warfare. If you would like to know about samurai, I recommend reading "The Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi (it's actually a really good book). Cheers, and remember that a samurai pirate can kill anything.

Answer 5

Samuarias were servants of their lord. They were feudal troops if you will.

People have the history of Ninjas all wrong. Indeed, they were spies, but not the way how they are portrayed in movies. Especially with the black suit thing. In order to spy and not be caught, they had to be dressed in average clothing. They weren't even called "Ninjas" back then. I could be wrong, but I think that they were called "Shinobi" or something on that order, and they weren't a clan of assassins, they ranged from anything to fallen samurai, to the average person off the street.

In reality, a Ninja is ANYONE who can endure all of life's hardships, because that is what the term "Nin" means.

Answer 6

In the history of Japan, a ninja was someone specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. These included assassination, espionage, and other martial arts.
Their roles may have included sabotage, espionage, scouting and assassination missions as a way to destabilize and cause social chaos in enemy territory or against an opposing ruler, perhaps in the service of their feudal rulers (daimyo, shogun), or an underground ninja organization waging guerrilla warfare.

Samurai was a term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. The word "samurai" is derived from the archaic Japanese verb "samorau," changed to "saburau," meaning "to serve"; thus, a "samurai" is a servant, i.e. the servant of a lord.

Answer 7

Samurai, I think, literally means Servant of the Lord in ancient Japanese. They were well armed well trained warriors who protected their lords. They also were bound by a strict code of honor and were expected to follow and set an example for all other samurais.

Ninjas on the other hand are not the orthodox warriors. Nevertheless they are supposed to be equally good, especially when it comes to stealth. They mainly used it against samurai warriors because the Samurais were way better. I think this is where their actions differed from samurai tactics. Ninjas were trained in espionage and other martial arts, and also for assassination purposes.

Answer 8

A Ninja is an assassin, While Samurai were ground troops.

a ninja was someone specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. These included assassination, espionage, and other martial arts.


Samurai was a term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. The word "samurai" is derived from the archaic Japanese verb "samorau," changed to "saburau," meaning "to serve"; thus, a "samurai" is a servant, i.e. the servant of a lord.

Answer 9

eeeeehhhhhhh

the one was a part of a class of elite warriors that pledged their life in service of their masters.
the other were a group of outlaws that used stealth and cunning as their main weapons
allthough it must be said that many samurai probably were part of ninja too.
The samurai were the official warriors of the lord that lived by a strict code of honor that forbade them from doing anything except of open and honourable combat.
for all other purpose the feudal lords (daymio) used ninja.
they were not all stealth assasins as portrayed in the hollywood movies. Ninja was a term to classify each kind of outlaw and misfit that could serve a purpose to a lord. They included thieves, spies, prostitutes and many others.

Answer 10

In the history of Japan, a ninja or Shinobi was someone specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war. These included assassination, espionage, and other martial arts.

Samurai was a term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan.