Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan [Hardcover]

Dr Zoughari's book on the Ninja is certainly well footnoted and he has gone to a lot of effort to track down sources but at the end of the book I still felt like I did not know what a ninja was. The author showed that the ninja was not the assassin of the popular imagination but that a ninja was a good guard against another ninja who may have been tasked to carry out an atypical assassination mission. I just felt that the book gave me a lot of facts but that it did not not provide the big picture. He did have coherent themes running through the book and he did discuss the possible origins of the ninja, including foreign connections, as well as how their role changed from military intelligence gatherers to something akin to a secret police during the Tokugawa Shogunate but to me the history of the ninjas did not come through.

He discussed the Iga and Koga prefectures and how they were the traditional homes of the ninja clans but he also talked about ninjas and shinobi from other clans, assessing that other clans also taught ninja techniques. He described Iga and Koga prefectures as isolated and rugged so being the perfect training areas for the ninja but why just those two areas, why not other rugged and isolated parts of Japan.

While Dr Zoughari provided some examples of ninja or shinobi uses I could not see where he gave his view on where they fitted into the martial structure of Japan, which was what I was after. Were ninja's assigned to clans or were they used as a resource of the shogun thus allowing him to control all information. If the ninja were an integral part of the samurai armies then why is there no mention of their work in Korea during Hideyoshi's invasion of 1592-98? Is this dearth of knowledge a result of their effectiveness or because daimyos wanted to claim all credit for themselves and their clans, or have we still not understood what ninjas did and who they were?

The author's background in ninjutsu probably made him less critical on some aspects of ninjutsu but that did not distract from the book. He was also not pushing the ninja as a superman. He also clearly showed that while some of the WW2 spy training used at the Nakano was similar to ninja training, those aspects as well as others were probably also similar to spy schools across the globe due to the nature of the work. He also pointed out that ninja training was family based and not a mass training regime such as a military uses.

I suspect that if you are a practitioner of ninjutsu then you will still get much worthwhile information out of the book, especially the later chapters on the essence on ninjutsu and the secret text of ninjutsu. If you are trying to understand what the ninja's or shinobi were and how they fitted in to Japanese warfare model then you will get a lot from the book but I think you will still be left with a lot of questions unanswered.

Dr. Kacem Zoughari took on a difficult task in "The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan," He attempted to combine in one short book two aspects of ninja; the historical spy and castle-breaker of ancient Japan, and the modern spiritual warrior path of Hatsumi Masaski. But the two halves are not given equal treatment. Zoughari is himself a martial artist, a licensed instructor of ninjutsu, and his bias towards the martial arts aspect of ninjutsu is readily apparent.

The first three chapters deal with history. Zoughari defines ninjas, then writes about the public and private histories of Japan's most mysterious and legend-shrouded figures. His efforts here are the least successful part of the book. Even in their own time, it was hard to separate fact from fiction regarding ninja, and Zoughari doesn't even attempt it. Instead, he just presents details without interpretation, gives lists of dates and names that are soon read and soon forgotten. I really had to slog through this part of the book, and almost gave up due to the bland and lifeless writing. Zoughari uses lots of one-sentence paragraphs and gives dates and names without context. The writing was so poor that I wondered in perhaps Zoughari was not a native English speaker and perhaps this book was just a poor translations.

But then with chapter four, "The Essense of Ninja," Zoughari opens up, showing us where his passion truly lies. The prose becomes fluid and almost poetic as he talks about ninjutsu as a martial art, as the battle of ego against body, and compares the strict kata forms of karate and judo with the adaptability of ninjutsu's kamae poses. Clearly, this was the book Zoughari wanted to write, not the dry, factual accounts of historical ninja.

One of the big problems is that both aspects of ninja, the historical and modern, have been written about better. Historian Stephen Turnbull's Ninja: The True Story of Japan's Secret Warrior Cult is a fantastic account of the historical ninja, one that diligently separates the fact from fiction and accounts the creation, evolution, and eventual destruction of the Iga and Koga tribe of assassins and spies for hire. Turnbull's account of historical ninja is superior in every way to Zoughari's brief chapters. One the topic of the modern ninja and the martial art of ninjutsu, Hatsumi Masaaki has written his own books (The Way of the Ninja, Ninja Secrets from the Grandmaster), which detail the philosophy, training and tradition that he represents.

Another problem is that Zoughari also devotes about a third of "The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan" to a detailed appendix, written in tiny print that is difficult to read. An academic, I understand why Zoughari used this method but for a popular book on ninja he would have done better folding the appendix notes into the main text, telling us the story of ninjas rather than just lists of facts.

There is good information here, and when Zoughari gets writing about Hatsumi's teacher Takamatsu Toshiitsugu the book really comes alive. I found myself wishing Zoughari had written a biography of Takamatsu rather than a book about ninja, and judging from the way the writing changes Zoughari probably thinks so too.

Unfortunately, this is the book he wrote. "The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan" does fill a need I suppose, for those who know nothing about ninja and want a crash course in the ancient and modern. But anyone looking for a solid, throughout historical account of ninja would be better off with Turnbull's book, and anyone looking for insight into modern ninjutsu would be better off with one of Hatsumi's books.

This book is not for the adrenaline crazed person, who just came of a movie theater hoping to become a ninja over the weekend. This is a serious book with an interesting research in the ninja and ninjutsu history. I have two kinds of books. Ones I read, and pass along (or throw away). Other I keep as reference. This one, I will keep for a long, long time.

Reader beware, it has a very heavy bujinkan slant to it, and it does not apologies for it. Actually, it is very opened about it. If this is ok with you, you'll love this book. If you have an anti-bujinkan feeling, The first section of the book is still valuable to you. But you may find the second part boring.

My personal view on this? Even if you don't like the Bujinkan, this gives a good view in the hearth of what the Bujinkan was meant to be and why. An excellent study book, a must for any serious student of the art.

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