they do cover stealth that’s awesome… it seems like if they have weapon control so strict the ninja had to repurpose farming tools… even if they could convince or recruit their own smith to make swords having one hidden would be a death sentence and having a straight assassins blade would surely bring in suffering before death… it would make sense to just pick one up on the way to your target and broken and short is easier to carry conceal and ditch after…who wants to keep a broken sword…
I think they were taking the swords of slain men and fixing them. But if the end was broken, you would have a short, straight blade even after you remade the tip and smoothed it out. There would have been a lot of value in the steel and a lot of labor into the sword, so I doubt anyone with a sword would discard it even if it became damaged. Unless they were dead, of course.
Yeah, pretty sure if you got caught with a sword, whatever kind, and weren’t allowed to have one, you were dead meat unless you were really damn good with it. 
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what martial arts did you study? you don’t have to answer if you don’t want but there is a huge lightning storm outside right now and if I don’t distract myself on here I will be outside watching it…
Don’t let me keep you from the storm, that sounds awesome. But, jujitsu (Brazilian) and krav maga.
One of the studio owners also did hapkido so we got a little bit of the traditional stuff, playing with some sticks and flexible weapons. Just enough to accidentally hurt yourself, lol.
ah good points… so at home repurposed farm tools allowed you to be armed without pissing off the samurai class… and what a cache spot or many spots for your contraband weapons…far enough away if they are found it wouldn’t incriminate you…
Seems likely. But they probably did a lot of their killing by poisoning and strangling. Easy to conceal the tools of the trade.
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jujitsu is a lot of holds right? im unsure of the names and functions of many styles now… I know what hapkido is… and krav maga sounds familiar… care to explain the styles to me?
my kendo teacher was wonderful but his son was a jerk… we would go through the motions with hardwood sometimes so mock fighting just to get the movements down and see their practical uses… he shattered fingers and one kids elbow…he hit me in the gut with the handle…it doesn’t take a lot of force for hardwood to hurt… so next day we were squaring of with the bamboo I placed my right arm way back shoulder height and steadied the end of the kendo stick with my left hand… he moved forward so I did a mock thrust slightly to the left of his frame…he took the bait… I let my weapon slide forward against his block for 3/4s the blade length and I took a large step forward with my right foot my weapon stopped sliding forward and I used his block to send my grip and fist into his face… we became friends after the swelling went down…lol
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and nah its a good thing I stay inside I don’t want to get hit… I can see it through the window…but this is keeping me inside where its safe…
ive read fire was another tool… draw all possible attention to one place light several fires elsewhere and you can trap and eliminate most of them and just stay in the shadows and clean up who escape… a very small force could own a huge one if done properly …
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Jujitsu is a ground fighting style, like wrestling. There are a lot of holds. It can be a very gentle art, or you can really mess someone up. It takes a long time to learn though. And you end up with your face in lots of sweaty dudes crotches and armpits. In spite of this, it is good for women because you don’t need brute strength, you use leverage. Also because most fights end up on the ground.
Krav maga is an Israeli martial art, and it’s simple and brutal. You can learn it much faster, but there is a larger emphasis on stregnth and speed. There aren’t katas or hundreds of moves to learn though. But it does train you to think and act decisively, if someone attacks you, you do learn blocks, but the emphasis is on making that quick block and then beating the f*cker til he’s not moving. I had to stop attending because I would keep getting paired with these 220 lb guys and I was like 80 lbs smaller. You hold pads for your partners to kick and punch, and let me tell you, a good roundhouse to the side hurts even if you have a pad. If you are a female or small, it is useful to know which strikes can work on a larger opponent. (Spoiler alert: strikes to the throat, palm heel to the nose, elbows to the head, kicks to the nards).
So I think they both have their utility, and are a good workout.
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im wary of any style that the small skillful and quick dont win most of the time… but it sounds like krav maga would have good real world uses… also big dude like to lift their opponents for some reason… a quick chop right under that nub on the back of your head will render them basically blind for long enough to escape or pick something up and render them unconscious… you do have to come upwards and directly under it but its an easy target… do not recommend practicing on anyone… or yourself im unsure how safe it actually is…
I have monster respect for any skinny little dude (or lady) that kicks butt Those are the guys I try to train with because they know the stuff.
Sigh, haven’t been in 4 years though. Can’t handle it right now.
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I understand… my hand to hand instructor was a small and fast man… I watched him lock up someones arms and choke them… using one hand while he drank a soda… but calculating fighting ability based on size is flawed big doesn’t mean slow and un skillful the same as little doesn’t mean powerless… if nothing else it taught me to not pick fights,and avoid them as much as you can… I haven’t been in a fight in years and years… I wish I could train again too… but I overheat too fast on meds…
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Yeah the big guys are often good too, it’s just the little guys have to be. No room for anything less. And since I’m not big, the techniques that work for them can work for me.
I don’t miss going around with bruises all over my arms and sore knees though, haha.
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ah knuckle conditioning still haunts my dreams sometimes… maybe we should look into tai chi… its less demanding and intense… but apparently jet li could still beat our asses with it…
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I can’t remember the katas 
It looks like the kind of thing I’d love to do though. Go outside on a nice morning, drink chai tea and do tai chi.
Oh man I gotta sleep, I am going to be so screwed tomorrow.
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good night sorry for keeping you up…lol the lightning is wonderful…
I bought a book for fun a long time ago on ninjas. It said they did stuff like carry a bag of coins around. The purpose was to chuck it half as a weapon of evasion and half as a bribe to whoever was pursuing the ninja, to get them to leave the ninja alone. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I really enjoyed the story. Wish I could remember the name…
I liked the idea behind “paying off” the guy chasing you, I thought it was pretty clever. Plus, a sack of flying coins to the face wouldn’t feel great, either.
The lore of ninja is many, but few truly know the ninja, that is the mark of a true ninja, little cricket. just kidding I don’t know anything about ninjas
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