Ninjutsu or Ninjitsu, both pronunciations of the same Japanese character, literally means art of disguise and stealth. Ninjutsu and its practitioners is still severely misunderstood in the modern world. In the last decades a Ninja craze was created by the mass media. The art of the Shadow Warriors was thought of as being very violent and deadly. Interestingly enough, many people were intrigued by those aspects and so they were dragged to Ninjutsu. After they discovered the genuine art only a few found the strength and interest to continue on that path. Most people know little, if anything, about it. The image martial arts movies and thrillers give is that Ninjutsu is a cruel, life-denying art of maiming and silent killing. In fact it is just the opposite. In its higher order, Ninpo, there is indeed much more to it than just a martial art. It is a way toward spiritual enlightenment, part of it being a highly evolved system of self-defense. As a way of life, it is not an end though, it is a means to an end: leading a happy life.

There are many theories as to the beginnings of what we know as the art of Ninjutsu today. There is also an official and an unofficial version of the story; the official one being readily available at a local bookstore. This version intends to fix the common stereotype. Most historians agree that it all started about more than 900 years ago in Japan.

In this distant era Samurai families that became political outcasts for multiple reasons (for example their Shogun or master got killed) had to flee deep into the mountains to escape enemy forces. Concentrated in the Iga and Koga regions in the mountains of central Japan, these families settled down and committed their lives to achieving spiritual enlightenment. They learned from wise Chinese sages and monks, as well as from Yamabushi, ascetic Japanese warrior-monks. When they lived close to villages the Ninja families and the village citizens mutually helped and protected each other in times of need.

The rulers back in the capitol did not like seeing others achieving such complete enlightenment, out of religious and personal reasons. Frankly they felt inferior and threatened by them. In Carl Jung's words they projected their own shadows onto the Shadow Warriors (Ninja). They saw the Ninja reaching higher planes of awareness and this showed them the ineffectiveness of their own system of beliefs. Hoping they could extinguish the Ninja for good, they sent warriors into the mountains with the mission to kill whole Ninja families. Then, of course, the Ninja had to defend themselves and so the famous system of self-defense and stealth and many other arts was developed.

Ninjutsu evolved as a very complex art of self-defense, stealth, disguise, intelligence gathering, espionage, assassination, psychology, acting, horseback riding, geography and meteorology. Ninpo, the spiritually higher form of Ninjutsu, was a way toward enlightenment - its practitioners followed "The Path of the Warrior".

Apart from these basic aspects, each of the various families had its own fields of expertise, for example sword, medicine, fire applications and so on.

After centuries of struggle for survival in the warring states period of Japan the Ninja, totally outnumbered from the beginning, finally lost to the Samurai and Samurai reformers in the 1700's. They were not particularly well portrayed historically. In fact, they were on the villainous side in the 1800's, being described as evil murderers, even as demons and such. Some people still cling on these stereotypes today. The Ninja history is somewhat the same as the Cowboys and Indians or the Witch hunt in the Middle Ages. It was not until later that it turned out that it was the other way around in many cases, that not the Samurai but the Ninja were the good guys. Surprisingly, even many Japanese today grab onto the stereotype of the Ninja as creepy, heartless and cold-blooded assassins and killers.

Unlike the Samurai the Ninja had no code of honor. They were not restricted in their thinking and acting. Ninja did not have to commit suicide when their master died. Surviving was the most important thing. Because of that, they were not considered highly by their enemies, the Samurai. In many ways they were the exact opposite: they were regarded as cowardly and sneaky. Though they had to be that, everything that helped was needed in this crusade for sheer survival. The contradiction gets obvious if one takes a look at the typical combat situations. The Samurai fought huge battles on open fields, with thousands dead and injured. On the opposite, the Ninja preferred not to be seen and finished his mission as fast and silent as possible with as little effort as possible. A night raid is a good example for that kind of guerilla warfare.

The Ninja were masters of virtually all weapons of their own time, but not masters of all weapons as it is commonly assumed. After firearms were introduced, there was obviously no real need to continue fighting with bow and arrow so they would not be masters of both weapons at the same time.

There are no big Ninja families left. Virtually the Ninja died out. Still the core of the art itself survived relatively intact and is being taught today by the current Grandmaster, Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi, in the Bujinkan system. Having the rank of Grandmaster, he is the last real Ninja. The Bujinkan consists out of nine different schools; three of them being actual Ninja training and strategy tactics schools and the other six being just martial arts with a particular emphasis. From its beginning on Ninjutsu has been very secretive, and it continues to be. Even advanced masters do not know everything about it and still have to learn much.

There is a big emphasis on creativity in the fighting style. It is often said that one should not think, just act. Some martial arts stress the instinct as to lead one through difficult situations, few are based on thinking. But both ways are deceptive: in a situation of immediate danger the thinking process is much too slow and instincts can mislead one. What is used in Ninjutsu is the power of intuition. For that, extensive mind training is necessary. In the process of this training intuition is sharpened in a way that extra sensory perception seems to be a possibility. Generally speaking, it is a very individualistic art since it is different for everyone. The experiences that trainee's have are very subjective and hard to grasp objectively. The atmosphere when studying Ninjutsu is usually relaxed and friendly and quite different from other martial arts with their rigid way of thinking and moving.

Ninjutsu is a highly evolved system of self-defense based on relaxation rather than tension and pure muscle strength. With it, weak, little and old people are able to prevail against bigger and stronger aggressors. Violence is only used when there is no other way out. It is not considered weak behavior if you get out of the way of a possible hazard and flee. It is considered rather smart: there is no need to get hurt and to hurt others as long as there is no reason to protect someone else from danger.

There is also nothing supernatural about the Ninja and their highly praised physical and psychological abilities. They are human beings with their natural restrictions. Still they apparently have sources of power overlooked or discarded as bad that gives them tremendous powers. With them, they could withstand the overwhelming armies of the Samurai for a long time. One of those sources is their own Shadow, a term that Carl Jung defined. It is a part of the unconscious that keeps all supposedly bad habits and aspects of our minds that have been repressed. The Ninja freed those and integrated them with his "good" side. It turns out that the Shadow contains many qualities that are of great help in many ways, but common morals preached them to be evil. Still if the Ninja wanted to prevail against the Samurai, they had to gather everything that might help them. Looking beyond the negative image of the Shadow and integrating it they experienced Wholeness or Oneness, a term often used in connection with spiritual enlightenment. That is why they are also commonly called Shadow Warriors.

In comparison to other popular martial arts, Ninjutsu has a deeper and older body of knowledge. One could go as far as to say that most martial arts should better be called martial sports, since they are there merely for fitness and discipline reasons rather than providing an effective self-defense system.

"I would say that most martial arts are invented products, like for instance karate was invented, created at a certain point of time like judo was, for a certain purpose by a certain person." (Hodel)

Since the actual purpose of Ninjutsu was surviving under hostile conditions, it is much more integrated and whole. Only the techniques that worked survived. The others died with their users on the battle ground. By now the concentrated forms of only the most effective combat techniques have survived and make up the core of Ninjutsu.

The art involves body, mind and spirit, the latter one is hard to find in most other martial arts and sports. Much is based on the 5 elements - Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Void / Antimatter. Each element represents a system of certain moods, stances, general ways of thinking and such, fire, for example, is an aggressive element, so the movement is forward and backward, the mode of thinking are strong emotions and the being connected with it is an animal with its instincts.

The Void stands for creativity, and for the ability to change between the elements. It also represents the religious aspect for everyone of us. Originally the religion connected with Ninjutsu/Ninpo is a mixture of a mystical sect of Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto and other local religions. Enlightenment and Wholeness/Oneness of the universe was stressed. Still the art does not interfere with someone's religion and beliefs. Many of today's practitioners are Christians for example.

"It teaches you to be careful. However, it's not a life style like a religion would be. In other words it doesn't answer every question there is to answer in life. People having a desireful religion they can still have that and have it not attached or influenced by this training." (Hodel)

The training itself helps developing an increased awareness of danger, much like a sixth sense. It also makes you more aware to the world in general; martial arts people behave differently. But it is necessary to do the movement in order to understand the mental aspects. The Grandmaster says that like the human body, one fifth of the training is "head". The rest is the actual "body", movement.

"And it helps you having a happy life by making you healthy, by making you have friends that can protect you, by having you become a person that protects others; in other words, you're being the good guy. And it's a lot nicer going through life as the good guy than it is going through life as someone that has a reputation as being tough or being the bad guy." (Hodel)

Unfortunately as with many other popular things there are many fakes out there. There are many fake masters who are for example karate masters and just put on a black suit. Then they pretend being a Ninja masters to get some money out of the Ninja craze. Though with the right sources at hand it should not be a problem to avoid them.

As we see here there is much more to Ninjutsu than just some green cartoon turtles or dastardly murderers. In spite of the media, the Bujinkan network spreading worldwide means the first steps into full recognition and appreciation have been taken.

After a civil war that lasted several centuries the Ninja lost to the Samurai, but their advanced methods of training and thinking have survived. The new millenium is now approaching, and with it the impersonal world of computers. Ninjutsu provides us with an alternative. It is an exciting and refreshing concept in general eastern thinking as well as a highly effective self-defense system. That given, it seems that it will live on for much longer.