Ninja Ad 1460-1650 (Warrior, 64)

Rating:
Summary: Ninjas in Detail
Review: Military historian Steven Turnbull does an excellent job of portraying historical ninjas in this thin volume. A lot of the book on ninjas cover either ninja legends or "ninjitsu" which is a kind of reconstructed martial art which is practiced mainly by American ninja fans and Japanese who are working at ninja theme parks. Turnbull strips all this away and shows us what an authentic ninja was like. The real ninja was a mercenary who specialized in espionage, sabotage, and assassination. The image of a black-clad ninja is perhaps inaccurate. The point of espionage is not to get noticed, so ninja were more likely to be dressed as everyday people in order to infiltrate towns and castles. There are, however, lots of illustrations and photos of black-clad ninjas. Perhaps undercover ninjas are not so interesting to look at. The time period covered is 1460-1650 which was the golden age of ninjas, and which roughly corresponds to the Sengoku (Warring States) period of Japanese history. After this time period, Japan was in a state of peaceful unification and isolation which rendered the ninjas obsolete.

One great point of this book is that it introduces the excellent ninja museum in Iga-Ueno in Mie prefecture. I've visited this museum and they have a ninja house and a wonderful collection of fascinating ninja tools. The highlight of visiting the museum is the excellent ninja show. If you visit the Osaka or Kyoto area, and you have an extra free day, I recommend that ninja fans visit this place and check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Ninjas in Detail
Review: Military historian Steven Turnbull does an excellent job of portraying historical ninjas in this thin volume. A lot of the book on ninjas cover either ninja legends or "ninjitsu" which is a kind of reconstructed martial art which is practiced mainly by American ninja fans and Japanese who are working at ninja theme parks. Turnbull strips all this away and shows us what an authentic ninja was like. The real ninja was a mercenary who specialized in espionage, sabotage, and assassination. The image of a black-clad ninja is perhaps inaccurate. The point of espionage is not to get noticed, so ninja were more likely to be dressed as everyday people in order to infiltrate towns and castles. There are, however, lots of illustrations and photos of black-clad ninjas. Perhaps undercover ninjas are not so interesting to look at. The time period covered is 1460-1650 which was the golden age of ninjas, and which roughly corresponds to the Sengoku (Warring States) period of Japanese history. After this time period, Japan was in a state of peaceful unification and isolation which rendered the ninjas obsolete.

One great point of this book is that it introduces the excellent ninja museum in Iga-Ueno in Mie prefecture. I've visited this museum and they have a ninja house and a wonderful collection of fascinating ninja tools. The highlight of visiting the museum is the excellent ninja show. If you visit the Osaka or Kyoto area, and you have an extra free day, I recommend that ninja fans visit this place and check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Turnbull does it again
Review: This is a fascinating and easy-to-read book about the ninja and shinobi of Japanese history. And it should be noted I say "history" for a reason; Stephen Turnbull explains in the introduction that he took great lengths to make sure his sources were accurate and that he stayed away from the legends of myths accompanied with ninja. He'll mention ninja kites, but not ninja glides...and forget about the human bomb ninjas you saw in the kung fu movie "Duel to the Death."

The book presents diagrams and detailed explanations of the different equipments and tactics used by ninja, and also gives some insight into their history, including their war with Oda Nobunaga and their eventual service with the Tokugawa Shogunate (there is a very interesting reason as to why they joined the Tokugawa so willingly). The most fascinating part was the tale of how a ninja killed Uesugi Kenshin - this was by sticking a spear into him while hidden in the toilet (I won't go into graphic detail). It's a strange (and darkly humorous) tale, but Turnbull eventually dismisses it as legend using evidence that Kenshin died of stomach cancer.

Overall I enjoyed this read. It was a very educated look into the world of ninja from a neutral perspective, but I found it to be a good read. Another fine reason why my respect for the Osprey series remains high.

Rating:
Summary: Turnbull does it again
Review: This is a fascinating and easy-to-read book about the ninja and shinobi of Japanese history. And it should be noted I say "history" for a reason; Stephen Turnbull explains in the introduction that he took great lengths to make sure his sources were accurate and that he stayed away from the legends of myths accompanied with ninja. He'll mention ninja kites, but not ninja glides...and forget about the human bomb ninjas you saw in the kung fu movie "Duel to the Death."

The book presents diagrams and detailed explanations of the different equipments and tactics used by ninja, and also gives some insight into their history, including their war with Oda Nobunaga and their eventual service with the Tokugawa Shogunate (there is a very interesting reason as to why they joined the Tokugawa so willingly). The most fascinating part was the tale of how a ninja killed Uesugi Kenshin - this was by sticking a spear into him while hidden in the toilet (I won't go into graphic detail). It's a strange (and darkly humorous) tale, but Turnbull eventually dismisses it as legend using evidence that Kenshin died of stomach cancer.

Overall I enjoyed this read. It was a very educated look into the world of ninja from a neutral perspective, but I found it to be a good read. Another fine reason why my respect for the Osprey series remains high.