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Bajutsu (馬術):"equestrianism",
also known as jōbajutsu (乗馬術 : じょうばじゅつ, jōbajutsu), is the term used in
Japanese martial arts to refer to horsemanship. |
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Boryaku (謀略)
is one of the 18 fundamental skills of the Togakure-ryū school of ninjutsu.
Alongside more orthodox and mainstream measures, Boryaku includes use of
unorthodox strategies and tactics, as well as manipulation of politics and
exploitation of other current events to assist in subtle influence of the
opponent. |
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Chi-mon (地門)
is the Ninja discipline of geography. The ninja of medieval Japan would
spend many days in classrooms learning the geography of Japan and memorizing
its major rivers and their tributaries.
In addition, ninja would learn botany,
entomology, geology, and zoology in order to determine their location, based
on their natural surroundings.
Other skills include familiarizing themselves with the major imports and
exports of surrounding provinces: knowledge which could be used for
sabotage. |
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Choho (諜報),
literally meaning "secret information" or "intelligence", is the art of
espionage, and one of the 18 fundamental skills of the Togakure-ryū school
of ninjutsu. It was one of the most significant as the main duties of the
ninja were spying and sabotage. |
Hensōjutsu (変装術)
was a Japanese martial art skill involving disguise, impersonation, and
infiltration. In some ninja clans it was known as the "Shichi Ho De" (七方出,
"Shichi Ho De"?) or, "seven ways of going" (one form of ninjutsu that has a
person play a role much like an actor does in impersonating people).
A ninja had to appear either as a priest, samurai, merchant, craftsman,
performer, puppeteer, or farmer. To accomplish this, the ninja was a well
studied sociologist observing people in other towns for long periods of time
until (just like actors) ninja blended into the crowd. They acted like
either one of the major classes to spy on people. Ninja thus sometimes
carried one or two costumes to look like the other classes.
This is different from other methods in that the ninja needs only to appear
like someone else for a short period of time. Ninja typically must learn the
character traits of another class quickly and then impersonate the members
of that class. For instance, if workers were walking in large numbers toward
a worksite, using this skill the ninja observes the worker, copies the same
clothing and walking style of the workers, then follows the crowd in just
like the other workers. A good ninja ought to be able to impersonate anybody
in terms of appearance.
A ninja would often have dark clothes stitched onto the inside of a normal
looking peasant's outfit, so that he would simply reverse the clothes and
immediately have his camouflage garb. For hiding in brush or bushes, elastic
fibers on the ninja's clothes allow for branches and grasses to be attached,
helping break up the ninja's outline.
Animal morphing: Part of this was to tie carved wooden pads to the feet to
lay tracks of animals or children so the ninja couldn't be tracked easily.
Tonpo: Hensojutsu is a sub-category of the "thirty methods of becoming
invisible/escape" - it is a part of the Jintonpo (人遁法, Jintonpo) - or "Use
of People Method of attaining invisiblity".
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Intonjutsu
(隠遁術) (the art of escape and concealment)
is the Ninja art of "disappearing". It comprises such techniques as Gotonpō
(hiding using the five elements), and Shinobi Aruki (silent movement). These
techniques are practised on occasion by practitioners of Ninjutsu. |
Kayakujutsu (火薬術)
(literally the art of gunpowder in Japanese) is the use of firearms,
gunpowder and explosives especially by Ninja. The history and mythology
surrounding ninjutsu and kayakujutsu are similar to the history of chemistry
and the mythology surrounding Alchemy. Thus kayakujutsu mysticism refers to
elements like the Earth (Chi) to develop Ka (Fire) just as alchemy referred
to elements just as air, earth, fire and water.
Ninja typically used bamboo, egg shells, small bottles, and wooden boxes.
Egg shells glued with either rice or wax were used either like a form of
pepper spray or create thick clouds of smoke, to confuse attackers
(metsubushi).
Bamboo was more used for ambushes along roadways usually like claymore
mines. Small bottles were used more in the city, mainly as a noise maker,
often to startle horses, or distract people. Wooden boxes were used more to
attack castles or fortifications to create openings in the castle defenses. |
Sui-ren (水練)
was the training that ninja underwent for techniques involving water. Some
ninja were tasked to either deal with opponents in the water, disguise
themselves in it, or to cross it. Ninja water techniques fall into 5 major
categories.
Boats: Ninja sometimes used rafts or portable collapsing boats to follow
convoys in the water, or to cross rivers, or in the ocean. These boats,
however, were not made to last very long.
Water as a weapon: Ninja used water as a weapon, destroying bridges, dikes,
or otherwise contaminating water sources, or withholding water from
captives. They would weaken the bridge or dikes support beams and when an
enemy walked over it would collapse. Special water explosives were even used
to splatter water and create a distraction.[citation needed]
Tools: A ninja could use a breathing tube that looks like a reed to stay
underwater for a long period of time. These tubes sometimes were used to
blow darts at unsuspecting opponents from the water.
Stealth: In old Japan it was not uncommon for ninja to use water urns,
wells, and rivers to hide and watch people. Using the method of breathing
through a reed they went into the well filled with water to better conceal
themselves. One attack used was hiding in a mostly empty well that was owned
by an enemy and when a servant pulled up water the ninja would jump out and
take the servant as a hostage.[citation needed]
Survival: Ninja had to know how to find, purify, and transport water over
distances. As a survival skill some ninja could find water in unlikely
places.
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Ten-mon (天門)
is the ninja art of understanding and using meteorology as a strategic
weapon. It allowed ninja to foresee weather changes and to use them as an
advantage. By knowing nature's changes, animal behaviour, or atmospheric
signs, one could use rainy weather or a hot sunny period as strategic
elements to weaken and defeat the enemy |
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