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Ninjutsu
, sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some traditional Japanese schools, which integrated study of more conventional martial arts (''taijutsu'') along with ''shurikenjutsu'', '' kenjutsu'', '' sōjutsu'', ''bōjutsu'' and others. While there is an international martial arts organization representing several modern styles of ''ninjutsu'', the historical lineage of these styles is disputed. Some schools claim to be the only legitimate heir of the art, but ''ninjutsu'' is not centralized like modernized martial arts such as judo or karate. Togakure-ryū claims to be the oldest recorded form of ninjutsu, and claims to have survived past the 16th century. History Spying in Japan dates as far back as Prince Shōtoku (572–622). According to Shōninki, the first open usage of ''ninjut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the honor of the samurai. Though ''shinobi'' proper, as specially trained spies and mercenaries, appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period, antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century. In the unrest of the Sengoku period, mercenaries and spies for hire became active in Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kōga. It is from these areas that much of the knowledge regarding the ninja is drawn. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate in the 17th century, the ninja faded into obscurity. A number of ''shinobi'' manuals, often based on Chinese military philosophy, were written in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the honor of the samurai. Though ''shinobi'' proper, as specially trained spies and mercenaries, appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period, antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century. In the unrest of the Sengoku period, mercenaries and spies for hire became active in Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kōga. It is from these areas that much of the knowledge regarding the ninja is drawn. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate in the 17th century, the ninja faded into obscurity. A number of ''shinobi'' manuals, often based on Chinese military philosophy, were written in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bujinkan
The is an international martial arts organization based in Japan and headed by Masaaki Hatsumi. The combat system taught by this organization comprises nine separate ryūha, or schools, which are collectively referred to as ''Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu''.; The Bujinkan is most commonly associated with ninjutsu. However, Masaaki Hatsumi uses the term Budo (meaning martial way) as he says the ryūha are descended from historical samurai schools that teach samurai martial tactics and ninjutsu schools that teach ninja tactics. Training The Bujinkan organization incorporates the teachings of the martial arts lineages ''(ryūha)'' that Masaaki Hatsumi learned from Takamatsu Toshitsugu under the banner of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. These are: * Togakure-ryū Ninpō Taijutsu (戸隠流忍法体術) * Gyokushin-ryū Ryū Ninpō (玉心流忍法) * Kumogakure Ryū Ninpō (雲隠流忍法) *Koto Ryū Koppō jutsu (虎倒流骨法術) *Gyokko-ryū Kosshi jutsu (玉虎流骨指術) * Kuki S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Togakure-ryū
is a historical tradition of ''ninjutsu'' known as the "School of the Hidden Door", allegedly founded during the Oho period (1161–1162) by ( ), who learned his original fighting techniques from a Chinese monk named Kain Dōshi. However, the history and early lineage of Togakure-ryū may be impossible to verify due to the antiquity of the time period and its claimed historicity has been disputed by Watatani Kiyoshi, writer for the ''Bugei Ryūha Daijiten''. After Togakure, the title of Sōke (head of school) was recorded by Toda Shinryuken Masamitsu to have been passed down through other practitioners that kept the style secret from the outside world. Toshitsugu Takamatsu is the recorded 33rd Sōke of this school. According to Bujinkan sources he became well known throughout China and Japan for his martial arts prowess and his knowledge from studying ''ninjutsu'' that he then imparted on various Chinese nobles. Takamatsu passed the title of Sōke to Masaaki Hatsumi, the reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iga Province
was a province of Japan located in what is today part of western Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Iga" in . Its abbreviated name was . Iga is classified as one of the provinces of the Tōkaidō. Under the '' Engishiki'' classification system, Iga was ranked as an "inferior country" ( ''gekoku'') and a "near country" ( ''kingoku''). Iga was bordered by Ise to the east and south, Ōmi to the north, Yamato to the west and south, and Yamashiro Province to the northwest. It roughly coincides with the modern municipalities of Iga and Nabari in Mie Prefecture. Surrounded by mountains, historically, Iga Province was rather inaccessible due to extremely poor road conditions. However, the area is now relatively easy to access from nearby Nara and Kyoto, as well as the larger cities of Osaka and Nagoya. History Asuka period Iga was separated from Ise Province during the Asuka period, around 680 AD. The provincial capital was located in what is now part of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōka, Shiga
280px, Kōka "ninja house" 280px, Shigaraki ware ceramics is a city in southern Shiga Prefecture, Japan. (The word 'Kōka' is often rendered as 'Koga' in English, especially when referring to the "Koga Ninja".) , the city had an estimated population of 89,619 in 36708 households and a population density of 190 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kōka occupies the entire southern end of Shiga Prefecture, and is thus long east-to-west. At the eastern end of Kōka, the southern ridge of the Suzuka Mountains with one elevation of 1000 meters runs from northeast to southwest, forming the boundary with Mie Prefecture. The highest altitude point in Kōka is Mount Amagoi in this range. Neighboring municipalities Shiga Prefecture *Ōtsu * Rittō * Konan * Higashiōmi * Ryūō * Hino Kyoto Prefecture *Wazuka * Minamiyamashiro *Ujitawara Mie Prefecture *Yokkaichi * Suzuka * Kameyama *Iga * Komono Climate Kōka has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanji
are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived syllabic scripts of '' hiragana'' and '' katakana''. The characters have Japanese pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After World War II, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as shinjitai, by a process similar to China's simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the common folk. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3,000 kanji used in Japanese names and in common com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ryū (school)
is the Japanese term referring to a school in any discipline. The kanji itself is commonly used as a suffix. In English, the word is frequently used to refer to schools of Japanese martial art, although it can also be found used in other disciplines (for example Nihon- koryū and Sōgetsu-ryū in ikebana, Kantei-ryū in calligraphy, etc.). In the martial arts Japanese martial arts are often classified and codified into . Usually a given style will have its own curriculum, ranks and licensure system. These may be based on the parent style or a combination of sources that form the background of the system. The name of a style may have particular meaning or may simply be a location. Toyama-ryū is named for the Toyama Military Academy in Japan. In contrast, Gōjū-ryū is the ' hard-soft' style, which indicates both characteristic techniques and thematic elements that form a 'signature' of the style. Sometimes this is merged or confused with the name of the dojo A is a ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the '' kuge''. In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the ''shugo'' of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku to the ''daimyo'' of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of ''daimyo'' also varied considerably; while some ''daimyo'' clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other ''daimyo'' were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. ''Daimyo'' often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could afford to pay samurai in money. The ''daimyo'' era ended soon after the Meiji ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a direct role in matters of the state, may also sometimes be considered an assassination. An assassination may be prompted by political and military motives, or done for financial gain, to avenge a grievance, from a desire to acquire fame or notoriety, or because of a military, security, insurgent or secret police group's command to carry out the assassination. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times. A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin or hitman. Etymology The word ''assassin'' may be derived from '' asasiyyin'' (Arabic: أَسَاسِيِّين, ʾasāsiyyīn) from أَسَاس (ʾasās, "foundation, basis") + ـِيّ (-iyy), meaning "people who are faithful to the fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kusunoki Masashige
was a Japanese samurai of the Kamakura period remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty. Kusunoki fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in the Genkō War to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate and restore power in Japan to the Imperial Court. Kusunoki was a leading figure of the Kenmu Restoration in 1333 and remained loyal to the unpopular Emperor Go-Daigo after Ashikaga Takauji began to reverse the restoration in the Nanboku-chō wars three years later. Kusunoki attacked Takauji in Settsu at the command of the Emperor, an act of obedience surely to result in defeat, and died at the Battle of Minatogawa in 1336. Kusunoki became a popular legend in Japan representing loyalty and virtue, and associated with the phrase "Would that I had seven lives to give for my country!" (七生報國; "''Shichishō Hōkoku!''"). Kusunoki was posthumously awarded the highest court rank in Japan, Senior First Rank (''shō ichi-i)'', by the Meiji government in 1880, over 500 years after his death. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minamoto No Yoshitsune
was a military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods. During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles which toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-brother Yoritomo consolidate power. He is considered one of the greatest and the most popular warriors of his era, and one of the most famous samurai in the history of Japan. Yoshitsune perished after being betrayed by the son of a trusted ally. Early life Yoshitsune was the ninth son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, and the third and final son and child that Yoshitomo would father with Tokiwa Gozen. Yoshitsune's older half-brother Minamoto no Yoritomo (the third son of Yoshitomo) would go on to establish the Kamakura shogunate. Yoshitsune's name in childhood was Ushiwakamaru or ''young bull'' (). He was born just before the Heiji Rebellion in 1160 in which his father and two oldest brothers were killed. He survived this incident by fleeing the capital with his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
