so as far as I can gather… the ninja started as clans in china… used for assassination, infiltration, intelligence gathering, message running, and as decoys… when the mighty mongols overran china there was a witch hunt…well ninja hunt… and most were massacred… the lucky ones escaped to japan and continued their shadow work… nobunaga disliked the ninjas and used them against each other… and they fall into mostly obscurity… fast forward the last known true ninja retired a couple years ago… without passing the complete knowledge on to anyone and without naming a new kage… but I think the ninja have to say that… and they functioned and taught until the 2010s… so somehow I doubt he was the last… ninja thoughts or questions?
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Pretty sure you can still go to Japan and train in Ninjutsu. Although there are teachers in the US and other countries who have been awarded black belts and teach in their own countries.
lol… ww2 documents recently found that the imperial army had a secret spy school a combo of ninja and modern techniques was taught… they also learned English Chinese and Russian… I want ww2 ninja spy stories so bad…
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Ninjas are real? One word: badass.
Definitely real, but not able to be invisible so much as just not noticed.
The black-clad ninja is (partially) a Hollywood invention, the real ninja would more likely be dressed as a farmer (and possibly was actually a farmer for his day job). Female ninjas may have been household servants or prostitutes. Unnoticed is as good as invisible.
It is pretty cool.
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ChosunNinja on YouTube is a real ninja, trained in ninjutsu. He has students, so the practice is still alive.
If he was a REAL ninja he wouldn’t make a YouTube channel. winkwink 
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I thought this thread was gonna be all about @Ninjastar 
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dude… the martial art is not taught by ninjas… just because you learned ninjitsu from bob at the local dojo that hardly scratches ninja training… ninja skills include hiding in plain site… explosives…various poisons… silent walking…you would have to learn to mimic accents or dialects and little nuances of the area you were under cover in… and way more… plus you have to have the mindset of an assassin… I doubt anyone would pick up even a fraction of these skills from bobs ninjitsu class every weds for an hour… I can beat the hell outa someone with a kendo stick because I took some kendo classes…but I would never call my self a samurai that’s like a whole way of life that goes well beyond the art of fighting… I would call it almost a death cult… and the ninja assassinated members and leaders of the samurai death cult… this type of indoctrination would almost require training to start as a small child… so again I say the way of the ninja as far as we know has been retired with the last kage… while I really doubt they are gone I do not see many people actually learning all these skills and mindset especially from a 1 hour martial arts class once a week that teaches fair fighting, honor and mercy …
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“ninja thoughts”
Well they were pretty rad for starts. Their sword was straight, as opposed to the curved sword of the samurai.
Maybe that can be my goal in life, become a ninja 
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@lexicon would you ever suspect a ninja to be playing a modern ninja on youtube? this is the depth of their stealth… in the old days they were taught to walk like a crippled person… which apparently is very painful… and to play the part of priests and monks as they seemed the least threatening… a ninja masquerading as a modern ninja on youtube sounds right up their alley and none would be the wiser…
i wanna be a ninja too… but who is gonna show me how to do all the cool ■■■■… and then even if i found a teacher im pretty sure he or she would demand loyalty until death…
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i would guess the straight edge would allow you to almost straddle the sword and pull it straight up and out against your body plus its easier to conceal a straight blade vs a curved one… the katanas curved blade allows for quick and powerful unsheathings but it also requires slightly more space that you may not have being a ninja… is the ninja sword a modern thing or is it historic? some of the facts are buried in the lore but its hard to tell whats what…
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Yeah it’s fascinating stuff. I think I read the reason the ninja sword was straight is because they would use it as a straight stab into the back of the samurai. Therefore the ninja sword was seen as a more ‘assassination sword’ as opposed to a ‘fighting sword.’
all has went to plan… ok by now the mods have looked at this topic and deemed it safe…so lets talk about @Ninjastar now… lol @moonbeam…this is a joke for everyone else if you start talking crap about ninjastar you may meet the 4 deadly winds…lol I wouldn’t cross a ninja… I don’t want tetanus or to be rendered unconscious via human poop bug dust… you nasty ninjas and while I cant argue with the results the method is deeply disturbing…
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i would guess that’s right the part about it being used mostly for death strikes into unknowing targets…but the only problem i have with it is the katana is a wonderful thrusting weapon so if this was the main reason i don’t see why they would wear a weapon that is a dead giveaway…instead of the weapon that would blend into what their enemies are usta seeing… now i wanna know why the straight blade…
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lol thank you for clearing that up
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you just proved why ninja info is soo dam hard to tell whats fact and whats myth…we have stories from feudal japan about them… but most of those are written by their enemies or someone close to the victims… no lord samurai is going to admit to or detail any interaction with the no honor ninja…and the ancient ninja couldn’t keep records as that wouldn’t be cool with their customers or lords… so either the mission was successful and we have these almost magical beings from the point of view of the victims… or it was a failed mission and the ninja either fell in combat or took their own lives… so this leaves a lot of space for story telling then and now… and Hollywood and old samurai flix make it 10x worse…
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Yes, probably people who take modern ninja training are not going into the assassination business for the most part.
However I think they do cover stealth.
It’s difficult to learn anything one night a week. When I did martial arts it was 3 or 4 evenings a week and I was not the most dedicated student. Some people were there daily for hours. It’s a lifestyle, like serious bodybuilding vs just going to the gym. The school in Japan used to be, and possibly still is, a live-in place. Like ninja camp, lol. I think it’s very expensive. Touristy now.
I can’t view the video on my phone so perhaps this was already covered, but I read that the sword blades were short and straight because they were broken swords taken from samurai. Feudal Japan had “sword control.” And the ninjas did have unique weapons which were mostly repurposed farming implements.
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