How to Stay Calm like a True Ninja

Ninjas were known to be very calm and used this to focus during their missions. This is an important skill that anyone can develop and use it to set free your ninja spirit. There was a way of life these ancient warriors followed and this is what made them look as if to possess supernatural powers something which wowed many a fan, then and still today.

Now you don’t have to envy those ninjas and wonder how come they could be so calm and perceptive even in the face of danger. You can learn and surprise your family and friends with your skills.

The first thing you need to learn is the art of staying calm. Martial art has more to do with knowing your body than anything else. Learn to relax either through meditation or taking long breaths and breathing fully.

Learn to let go of the negativism people spread especially about you. Life is hard; life can even be harder if people constantly put you down. Worse is if you choose to believe them. To be a ninja warrior, you have to believe in yourself. Learning to love yourself is the biggest thing you can ever do for yourself. It prepares you to be anything and everything you want to be.

Learn to respect yourself and extend it to the others who come across your path. Don’t fear anything as fear means you are stretching your limits and that is a good thing for anyone who wants to get better.
Learn to focus on things that make you a better person and add value to your life. Nothing is more important to you in this life than yourself. Avoid wasting your energy and time on things that make you angry or constantly upset you.

Never showing emotion is one ninja characteristic that makes them stand out. Showing emotion only lets other people manipulate you and ninjas knew better than that. If you want to be a real warrior you have to learn to be cool at all times neither showing happiness or sadness or anger. This prevents people from knowing how you react and using it against you.

Becoming a ninja is a journey you are going to love and if you are ready to start, grab your cool ninja gear here.

Ninja Code of Conduct

The ninja also known as Shinobi had a set of rules which defined the way they operated and helped maintain their high stature and position in the feudal Japanese system. The code of conduct was important in helping the warriors keep their cool and not endanger the mission unnecessarily. The most important thing was for the Shinobi to be instrumental in achieving glory for their village or country. Everything else came after that.

Some of the rules are:

1.       A shinobi must put their mission first. Nothing else could be prioritized than the mission. Family and personal gratification came second to the glory of successful mission.

2.       Never shed tears. The ninja ideal was to achieve the emotionless and show of any emotion was considered a major weakness.

3.       Commander’s instructions were to be followed to the latter. For every successful mission, there must be a leader to keep everyone else in check. Once a leader issued instructions, it wasn’t in the best interests of the ninja to defy them.

4.       Seeing hidden meanings with hidden meanings is a must for the ninja. Have you ever watched the inception? It can give you a glimpse of how a ninja was supposed to think and pay attention so they don’t miss any clues. One has to remember that ninja operations involved high levels of secrecy and thus a sort of code language had to be developed. Any ninja worth his skills wouldn’t miss a clue that leads to another clue.

5.       Ninjas must prepare before they have to. Just like the scouts, a ninja had to be always prepared. Attacks can happen anytime and being ready for the worst can help save your skin.

6.       Warriors must never show a weakness. Just like the second rule where warriors never shed tears, any show of weakness was frowned upon. Ninjas were to work on making themselves emotionless as it made them more effective warriors.

Find more rules here.

While these rules were important to any student who wanted to become accomplished in nunjitsu, they were not infallible. Ninjas were still human and expelling all their emotions might be the Shinobi ideal, possible but not achievable to many.

These warriors were also to know that these rules could bend to fit the occasion. For example a female ninja could use her emotions to manipulate men and fool them to their own destruction.

The last rule that made you a true ninja was this: never giving up!

Popular Ninja Fiction

If you are a fan of popular ninja stories, you would be excused for having bought into some ninja fiction which are perpetuated in our societies either due to misinformation, entertainment and just for fun.
You might have heard about some deeds which would rank these elite warriors up there with the super humans. In this post, I am going to share with you some of the fictitious stories that have been responsible for the ever growing ninja legend.

Ninjas originated from demons
Stories from ancient Japan narrated how the ninja originated from a demon that was half man and half crow. The truth however is that this is just a story told to keep the children healthy and happy. The real ninjas were humans like you and me who just practiced ninjitsu for self-preservation. They weren't even nobles and came from the lower classes of villagers and farmers.

The warriors were evil assassins for hire.
This is entirely untrue and the warriors observed a strict code of honor. They were mountain people who being harassed by the ruling class of the samurai developed their way of fighting for self-defense. Their evil assassin-like nature is the product of 20th and 21st century movies.

All ninjas were men
Again this is completely untrue. Female ninjas existed and were known as the kunoichi. They would use their coy nature to fool many men and would be send on missions disguised as concubines, dancers etc. They were pretty good at kicking ass too and sometimes would even be disguised as men without arousing suspicion.

Ninjas were supernatural 
This was one tactic that was used to frighten enemies and ensure a quick win for the warriors. It is true that some of the things they did would look like magic, but like good magic is, all they had was a well-practiced skill. Their art was passed through generations and its potency perfected to such heights that the average man couldn't imagine what they did to be a skill of the mortals.

Add that to popular folklore and you have the beginnings of a good myth that could be passed down without doubt.  Their secluded society also helped them hide their skills and thus the average human was always in the dark about what they were capable of and what they were not.

Ninjas always wore black
This is another popular ninja myth. Many of the movies you have watched might have shown a black clad hooded ninja, however the real warriors of their time wore uniform to fit the occasion and for purposes of camouflage. In fact ninjas would wear blue in the night as it would fit in well with the surroundings.

Ninjas caught swords with their hands
There is only one way to save yourself from a sharp sword, move out of the way. The swords of their times were so sharp they could cut a person into two halves. Ninjas were human and they were not immune to death from swords.

Most ninja stories that are perpetuated as popular fiction are just for fun and are not intended for informational purposes.

History of the Ninja- Fact from Fiction

From ancient Japan to modern day times the Ninja still continues to inspire and historians are still digging to find out the truth about them. Much has been found about the warriors whose martial arts techniques are still being adored centuries after the last real Ninja disappeared from the face of the earth.

From Japanese folklore, the first ninja known as the Shinobi is said to have descended from a demon. However, popular belief shows that ninja warriors just evolved like men and perfected their art through the generations of disciplined, well trained warriors.

The art of fighting of the Ninja is said to have come from China where most forms of organized martial art descended from. In 850 A.D the Chinese ruling class was in shambles and many people escaped to Japan. Some warriors made it here too and they brought with them skills of combat that had never been seen in Japan.

Blending with the Japanese indigenous forms of fighting, the warriors’ tactics and philosophies of war would become what is now known as nunjitsu. This form of fighting had set out rules that any aspiring learner had to master.

The samurai were indigenous to Japan and were polished in their art of fighting. Unlike the Ninja however, they had a strict code of discipline and honor. The latter however had loose rules and would rise to challenge the position and standards set by the Samurai.

Some ninja leaders known as the jonin opposed to the Samurai and not ready to commit the ritual suicide associated with rebelling, fled and started their own societies.
Ninjas were the usual folk like farmers and seldom came from the nobility. Learning fighting to them was a way of defending themselves and for self-preservation. Women could also make the cut and were known as the kunoichi, the female ninjas. They could easily infiltrate enemy territories under the guise of dancers, concubines etc. They could also be trusted to carry out assassinations as well.

The ninja warriors were for hire and were paid handsomely for their work. Samurai lords were their biggest clients and this system of hiring warriors from the lower classes served as a way of distributing wealth across the class divide.

The ancient warriors had their class system of society too. There was "high man," or jonin whose orders would be passed through the chunin, the middle man to the lowest class, the genin.

The modern book or movies depicts the ninja as always clad in a back hood with only the eyes showing. The facts are however different. These warriors dressed as fitted the occasion so as to disguise themselves with their enemies and enable smooth operations.

Ninja warriors were ordinary folks and this explains why they were usually hired to do the dirty work by the Samurais who were nobility. Such included spying, assassination, poisoning and other underhand methods of dealing with enemies.

One thing stands true for the Ninja though; they were highly polished and well trained to carry out their duties with the required finesse. It is out of the ability of these warriors to carry out their missions to success that the admiration they so deserve comes from.

The Ninja Weapon List

The Japanese ninja is legendary. In fact what we see on the movies today doesn't reflect the true abilities and successes of these ancient warriors. Their tales speak of bravery and advanced skills in the art of martial art, espionage, infiltration, assassination and open combat. The soldier of today would be probably considered a spineless wussy by ninja standards of his time. These fighters were ably qualified and had their job well defined for them. They were feared, revered and respected back then just as today.

In this post, I will show you some of the weapons ninjas used. The list many not be conclusive as it is impossible to know all the weapons that were available to them. Nevertheless I have striven to make it as thorough as possible.

Blow guns
Traditionally used for hunting blow guns were popular with Ninjas too. Ancient blow guns were made out of bamboo but recently they have been modernized with aluminum tubes and steel darts. Known as the fukiya, they were used to throw darts most of which were poisoned. As the ninja was sophisticated in the art of poisoning, this was a very effective weapon.

Ninja stars
Their original name is the Shuriken and were hurled at opponents especially when the ninjas had to flee and wanted to distract them for an easy escape. The stars could also be poisoned and turned into lethal weapons capable of taking out able men and women. However their ability to work against the user by hurting them as they were drawn out made poisoned shurikens unpopular and they could only be used with care and experience.

The Ninja Sword
A ninja sword was even better than a throwing star. They were made out of hardened steel and could easily slice an enemy into two killing them by an instance. They were known as the ninjato and were made of a sharp blade and a square hand guard. Not just for slicing, a ninja could stab you to death with it. This was even more popular than slicing as the result was more effective.

Poly-Fiber Combat Weapons
These were assorted weapons made out of a synthetic material and were used to replace metal weapons in high temperatures.

Throwing Knives
A throwing knife could in some situations work better than a sword especially when a ninja wanted to harm or kill an opponent from a distance. A thrown knife aimed at a vital organ like the heart can be very effective. They could even be made lethal through poisoning.

Throwing Spikes
Also known as darts, they were very effective especially when poisoned. A ninja could even hide it in his or her mouth and blow it on the victim’s face killing them or causing acute pain so they could easily attack and finish the job. Female ninjas were very good at this using their coy means to attack unsuspecting victims.

Most of this cool merchandise is available today and you can easily buy one and practice ninja warfare games at home. See more weapon lists here.

Ninja Poison

Whereas the Ninjas are known for the use of skilled martial art and sophisticated weapons considering their time, poison was their other strength. Ninja poison was especially effective when used with throwing spikes or darts. Many unsuspecting opponents were killed by coy female ninjas just by blowing a poisoned dart into their face without their knowledge. This was very effective especially at close quarters.

Poisoning was very successful and rarely backfired making it a choice for many. Most poisons were derived from animals and plants especially Fungi. Fungi taken out of the blow fish can be a very deadly weapon and chances of survival were next to zero.

Another type of poison was derived from a toad scientifically classified as bufo marinus. Used on spear tips, shurikens(throwing stars) or darts, it did its work perfectly.  Once the tip met its target, it was just a matter of time for a fatality to occur marking the success of the mission for the warrior.  These weapons carried very little risk to the Ninja unless he could somehow hurt himself when reaching for the weapons.

Cyanide was also an effective poison and was derived from common fruit like apple seeds cherry seeds among others sources. Due to its ready availability, it was widely sued. Cyanide renders a victim cells unable to use oxygen and can send a victim into a coma in a very short time. Tomato leaves and rhubarb were also another good source of organic poison. They lead to cardiac arrest.

Insects such as spiders and scorpions were also good sources of effective poison that was sure to wok against any victim. Sometimes there even no need to extract the poison as one could easily unleash a few spiders into the bed of the adversary and be assured of a clean job. A spider’s bite is very lethal and causes acute pain to the victim. If no antidote is administered muscle spasms occur and one can easily become unconscious.  Killing a victim in this state is relatively easy.

The mushroom amanita phalloides releases a very deadly poison that can even be more effective than cyanide. Modern research shows that it can even be ten times more potent than cyanide and the smart ninjas already had this knowledge. The mushroom could be added into a targets meal and finish them without arousing prior suspicion.

Not all of these ninjas poisons were used for the purpose of killing straight away. Some were used to immobilize the victims and enabled the ninjas have an easy entry into guarded places. In other cases a ninja would be aiming at causing a disability on the victim for example visual blindness or paralysis. Temporary immobilization of the victim could also help in covert operations whereby the warrior didn't want to arouse suspicion. For example a guard would be immobile so ninjas could spy without having to face the risk of reinforcements.

Though ninjas may not be famous because of their knowledge in chemistry and poisoning, it was still a very effective weapon and cannot be ignored or expunged from the warriors’ legend.