Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique

by Antony Cummins

  The Areas and Fortifications of the Castle

  The following is a short description of the major parts of a castle and their functions. While castle technology and the story of the Japanese castle stretches way beyond this description, the basics can be found here, providing an understanding and sense of Japanese fortresses.

  天守

  The Tenshu

  The tenshu is the main keep of the castle, the fortified tower at the center.

  本丸

  The Honmaru

  The honmaru is the primary enclosure, which surrounds the Tenshukaku keep; sometimes the main tower can also be described as a Honmaru.

  二の丸

  The Nimaru

  The nimaru is the secondary enclosure, which makes a second outer ring in the castle.

  三の丸

  The Sanmaru

  The sanmaru is the third enclosure, which surrounds the castle; this can be the final wall, but castles with more enclosures did exist.

  大手門

  The Otemon

  The otemon is the main gate of a castle; it is considered the primary entrance and exit.

  鐘楼

  The Shoro

  The shoro is a bell tower.

  矢倉

  The Yagura

  A yagura is a form of turret or building on top of a castle wall. The wall normally consists of a stone foundation and then a plaster and wooden wall on top of this foundation. On the top of this wall is a room-like building from which troops can shoot—this is the yagura turret. Shinobi manuals often talk about fire-setting skills that bring about the destruction of yagura turret houses.

  石落

  Ishiotoshi

  An ishiotoshi is a section or hole where stones and rocks can be dropped. As enemy troops climb up the outside of the walls, debris is dropped on them from these relatively small areas.

  逆茂木

  Sakamogi

  Sakamogi are thorny branches and spiky sections that are positioned to keep invaders from attempting to infiltrate.

  忍返

  Shinobi-gaeshi

  These are more permanent spikes that are erected along the edges of walls. They are there to keep shinobi from climbing over. However, the shinobi have various ways to deal with this issue—for example, the Bansenshukai shinobi manual says that they should be hooked with rope and ripped down.

  堀

  The Hori

  The hori is the moat that surrounds the castle. Shinobi would have to measure these and wade their way across them in the dark.

  馬出

  The Umadashi

  The umadashi is a fortified exit. Walls are positioned outside of the exit so that a direct charge cannot be made against it. These can be “horseshoe” shaped walls just outside of the outlet.

  縄張

  The Nawabari

  The term nawabari means the overall layout of the castle, the ground plan or the birds-eye view. The term originated from stretching rope (nawa) used to map out the ground of a castle site.

  The Japanese castle was a complex system of defense with its own kill zones and tricks to keep enemies out. In this new image of the samurai that is being built as you read, the castle must start to be seen as a complex part of samurai warfare—similar to the complexities of its Western counterpart. And of course, if there are castles, there must be sieges.

  Siege Warfare

  Japanese castles were adapted to siege warfare. Again the similarities between Western and Eastern warfare are evident and the sophistication of Japanese siege-craft is obvious.

  If a samurai is on the defending force, the following items are things he would be familiar with as he moved in and around the castle.

  Arrow and Gun Ports

  Inset into the walls of castle defenses are small holes—they are normally rectangular, circular or triangular. Positioned at different heights, the defenders use them to shoot out over the field of battle. However, shinobi creep up to these apertures and fire burning arrows and flash arrows through them into the interior of the castle grounds to discover details about the interior layout. In addition to this, they would throw in hand grenades to kill those shooting out at the opposition.

  Stanchions, Walkways and Shields

  Along the inside of castle walls, wooden stanchions and frames would support multiple levels of walkways—similar to modern day scaffolding. Samurai would use these levels from which to shoot outward, either through arrow and gun ports or over the tops of castle battlements from between shields. In addition to this, bridges that could be retracted were set up at various positions; if the enemy breached the defenses these walkways could be retracted, allowing defending samurai to kill the enemy from the opposite side.

  Killing Zones

  Walls, turrets and enclosures were created to form killing grounds and zones, where the defending army could attack the enemy with crossfire and pin them into a corner and halt movement.

  Turrets and Palisades

  As discussed before, the castles of the early Sengoku Period and before were generally smaller; walls could be protected by turret towers, wooden shields and semipermanent buildings that were made of wood and were built along the tops of walls. Shinobi had various mixtures that would set fire to these, fires that would be difficult to extinguish, helping to break through the castle defenses.

  Allied Help

  A defending castle could set up a series of fire beacons and send messenger relays to request allied forces to counter the siege. Sometimes the relieving force could surround the besiegers, forcing them to defend their own rear and fight on two fronts.

  Sallies and Sorties

  The castle would send out night raids and attacks when they thought that the time was right. They may even evacuate a castle from an non-besieged section—if any—through gates and ports. Shinobi were trained to watch the smoke rising from castles. If the smoke from cooking fires and kitchens was too much, too little, or later than normal, a shinobi would know that the enemy had either started to evacuate or that they were preparing extra food for those going on night raids or that the food stores were diminishing. All of which was information the shinobi would pass on to his commander.

  Those who were attacking the castle had certain weapons and tools to help degrade the height and protection advantages of the defenders.

  Trench Warfare

  Trenches at their smallest were three feet deep with an earth mound on the top of around two feet; this total of five feet covered the average height of a samurai. The closer to the castle the trench lines were the deeper they had to be dug, as arrows could be shot into the defenses from such an angle.

  Towers and Constructed Turrets

  As discussed previously, the enemy battle camp had collapsible turrets and towers; these were erected to see enemy troop movements and shinobi.

  Battering Rams

  Covered rams on wheels were used to take down castle doors and break open sections of defenses.

  Shields and Walls on Wheels

  Small platforms were placed on low carts with walls erected on the front. These walls had shooting ports and would be rolled into place, and from here attacking samurai could shoot at the enemy. This included walls mounted on arms that could be raised so that samurai could shoot out from below them and other such contraptions.

  Shields, Bamboo Fences and Bundles

  Human-sized wooden shields that stood erect with the help of a hinged single leg would protect samurai. In addition to this, bamboo was tied in large bundles and shooting ports were cut out of the middle. These bundles could be leaned against waist-height temporary fences so that samurai could shoot from behind cover.

  Cannon and Fire

  Cannon were used to launch fire and incendiary weapons and shot. Kajutsu—“the skills of fire”—included long-range rockets, flares and anything that causes flames in the enemy camp. Some shinobi were essentially agents who moved into the enemy castle and made sure that fires were set from within. One shin
obi trick was to set a fire away from the main target to distract the defenders from the actual target and then to move on with their initial aim of setting fire to more important things like the main compound.

  Tunneling

  Tunneling was undertaken to undermine the enemy defenses. If done in secret and not on a war front, the tunnel had to start far from the target, or start from inside a nearby house. To discover if tunneling was taking place, empty barrels would be set into the ground to listen for mining below.

  Moat Crossing Skills

  Portable bridges and temporary structures were used to cross rivers and bridges. The shinobi’s task was to discover the length, width and depth of a moat and report the dimensions, or to cross it in secret at night.

  On the whole, the samurai castle was a place of residence and the target of a siege. The samurai would defend and attack castles with ingenious tricks and tactics and shinobi on both sides would come and go, stealing information or setting fires to things, something that was quite normal in life as a samurai.

  Life as a Samurai

  The world of the samurai has formed and has now taken shape within your mind; the idea of the castles that they manned and the battle camps they erected is now firm within this new image. The next step is to form an idea of the life that the samurai and shinobi led.

  Bunbu—The Brush and the Sword

  The samurai were not just “butchers of men” and were not purely fighting machines—and I do not wish to give the impression that they were just ruthless killers. Quite the opposite; they were educated poet-warriors (to varying degrees). Samurai tried to adhere to the concept of bunbu, a concept that translates as “literature and the military,” or in Japanese, “the brush and sword.” A samurai was required to follow two ways: the way of the soldier and also the way of education and literature.

  The first part, the military, is the way of the soldier. The way of the soldier means the arts of war, the equipment used and knowledge of conflict. A Natori-Ryu manual from the early Edo Period states the following about the martial arts that are to be used by the samurai:

  武藝者之品々之事

  Bugeisha no Shinajina no Koto

  The types of martial artists A samurai serves through good martial arts; also, samurai are skilled in various paths that have been transmitted to them. The following are the kinds of arts in which samurai should train themselves:

  1. Yumi – archery

  2. Uma – horsemanship

  3. Kenjutsu – swordsmanship

  4. Sōjutsu – spearsmanship

  5. Gunjutsu – the skills of war

  6. Yawara Jutoritei – wrestling and grappling

  7. Teppō – marksmanship

  8. Suiren – Aquatic training

  There are a myriad of other styles; however, they are offshoots from the above and all have benefits. Study each of these arts from someone who is skilled in that way.

  The second part—literature, study and education, including the flowing topics—would also be in the samurai curriculum. Remember that subjects came into and moved out of fashion. This list covers the whole age of the samurai and may be added to:

  1. Chinese literary classics

  2. Chinese warfare classics

  3. Etiquette

  4. Japanese and Chinese grammar and written language

  5. Calligraphy

  6. Shinto

  7. Buddhism

  8. Confucianism and Neo-confucianism

  9. Omyodo esoteric magic

  10. Esoteric cosmology

  11. Astronomy and astrology

  12. Poetry

  13. Ballads

  14. Dance

  15. Tea ceremony

  16. Ritual magic

  17. Chi (with connection to warfare)

  18. Command and leadership

  19. Hunting and falconry

  20. Ritual and ceremony of various smaller forms

  Education in the Warring States Period focused on practical military ability. In the times of peace it centered on bureaucratic and artistic subjects. The level of attention to each of the above shifted, depending on each situation, but in the main the samurai were the educated warriors of their day. The samurai were not brute raiders and fighters alone, but comprised of educated upper middle class gentry who could involve themselves in deeds of warfare and bloodshed. Overall, the best among them were well educated and very dangerous; the thinking officer.

  The Samurai and Shinobi Schools

  For approximately half of the history of the samurai—that being the latter half—samurai formed themselves into “schools” and “traditions.” Starting around the fourteenth century but gaining popularity in the fifteenth century, they started to form organizations that collected under a single title.

  They added the suffix “Ryu” to their names. Examples of these are Tenshin Katori Shinto-Ryu, and Shinkage-Ryu. The term “Ryu” can be translated in two ways that are not separate; first it is translated as “school” and second as “flow of tradition.” Therefore, Sekiguchi-Ryu means the “flow of traditions from in the Sekiguchi family.” However, this of course still holds the connotations of the codified school.

  The school can either start with a family name or can adopt a name that the founder finds appropriate to his style. The following show both examples:

  Natori-Ryu—Named after the Natori family, they also adopted the name Shin-Kusunoki-Ryu as a secondary title due to their integration with Kusunoki tactics. Natori-Ryu is a school of Gungaku military study and concentrates on the higher tasks of warfare, such as tactics and warfare strategy. This school includes shinobi no jutsu—“the arts of the ninja.” Another example is Sekiguchi-Ryu, which is also based on a family name.

  Mubyoshi-Ryu—Literally “no rhythm school” was most likely named to show the elite nature of the founder. Started by Hagiwara Juzo in the 1600s—he took many teachings from Shinjin-Ryu—the name Mubyoshi is correctly translated as “the school without any discernible rhythm,” i.e., an enemy cannot predict their tactics. The school is a comprehensive martial arts school which includes martial arts of various forms, ritual magic, weapons training, criminal capture, martial philosophy and shinobi no jutsu—the arts of the shinobi.

  Generally a school is founded by a single man who has a moment of divine inspiration, such as a god who came to them as they diligently trained in the mountains for a number of weeks or months. At this point a god or spirit gave them the secrets that their school was based on. In addition to this a school may also include a famous name from history, a great general, or famous fighter to help attract students. This was done to give a prestige to their image. Often examples such as Kusunoki and Takeda (including Koshu where the great general was from) are used to add that bit of extra appeal. Likewise for shinobi related schools—names such as Yoshitune were used for the same reason. People famed for their expertise in guerrilla warfare may have been added to a school’s background. These backgrounds may have been given because schools would be formed by a swordsman studying other arts, combining them to form a “new style.” Therefore they needed an anchor point in history. Founders may pick a god to establish the school, and maybe add a famous person from history that was well known; or at least highlighted during the founder’s lifetime. For example, the founder might use a person long dead, but whose name was known to give prestige to the school. But this was not always the case.

  Generally a school has a central building that it uses as a headquarters, where the master will teach. It may have branches in certain areas. Each building will normally have a “kan” name, the ideogram “kan” 館 means “building” or “construction.” It is the name given to the place where that branch studies—for example, the previously mentioned Mubyoshi-Ryu had its headquarters in Kaga domain. Their training hall or group were called “Keibukan” 経武館, meaning “To pursue the way of Samurai,” and of course any other branch was entitled to have their own “kan” name, while remaining under the overall banner
of the school. It did not always have to follow this “kan” format. For example, the headquarters of Ichizen-Ryu, which was run by a samurai named Chikamatsu Shigenori in the 1700s in Nagoya castle, was called Rempeido.

  To enter a samurai school a warrior normally had to make an oath to confirm that he would not reveal the school’s secrets to anyone. Often this would take the form of keppan—a blood oath. This was normally an oath to the gods with a small offering of blood to seal the vow between the student and the gods, not the instructor. A student could leave a samurai school if they wished, it was not a lifetime commitment. Upon formally leaving a school the samurai may have to give back any scrolls they had received or copied, and they would then be free to join another school. Samurai could train in multiple schools at the same time. This was not an issue. Some samurai would use a martial arts school to study combat and other schools to study military arts, ceremony and other facets of samurai life.

  The following is a keppan from the school Oishi Shinkage-Ryu that was signed in 1837 or 1838.

  The texts can be summed up as follows:

  ♦ Those of our school should not enter combat with people of other schools

  ♦ Do not give away the secrets of our school to others

  ♦ Do not speak ill of other schools

  ♦ Be reserved in your manner

  ♦ Do not transgress against our master

  After this there is a list of gods to whom the student had to swear an oath.

  Qualifications in samurai schools were also varied in format, but the most famous is the concept of menkyo—“licence.” The black belt is a modern invention. Proper samurai schools would be divided into students, both high and new, then instructors. At the top of all these were master teachers at the head of the school. Students on entering a school would move through a very limited selection of positions, ranks, or levels until they had mastered the style enough to be awarded menkyo, henceforth being recognized as a teacher of the art. The next and final step was to achieve the kaiden level, making them menkyo kaiden—“master teacher.” This was an extremely high position and required decades of training with a full knowledge of the school and all of its secrets. The level of training and skill to acquire this position must not be underestimated. For example, the above mentioned war master Chikamatsu Shigenori was a student of Naganuma-Ryu (considered an extremely prestigious samurai school) and out of around one thousand students at the time, only ten were awarded menkyo kaiden. Chikamatsu Shigenori was one of them—meaning his skills should have been exceptional.