As Stephen Hayes wrote about the ninja, it started popping up in fiction, setting off excitement all over the world. Also, he released Taipei
Martial Arts Supplies to certify his name with the series of real ninja gear and among them was a straight
ninja sword as well. The folks in Hong Kong started making several movies and often used the straight ninja sword as written by Hayes.
The concept of ninjas got popular in the early 80s and the idea of ninjas carrying a straight blade sword was accepted by numerous people. Stephen Hayes frequently wrote about ninjas as sorcerers who were intimidated by the government and for that reason, they learned how to fight with stealth for their survival. Some part of the ninja story calls them underclass of mystic warriors who didn’t have any resources other than using battle ready swords as their weapons.
A perfect example of ninja myth is depicted in the Akira Kurosawa film Kagemusha where two of your opponents are fighting a battle and you send a few men dressed as farmers to see what’s happening and report back. They carry a kusarigama which is a sickle with a connected chain. This was an ideal fighting equipment as it can easily disassemble into farmer’s tools. Though it also talks about men carrying shuriken, which are the throwing stars, it’s not evident how they are used.
Contradicting history...
Another side of the ninja story does not consider them a separate class of the society neither as oppressed. Instead, they were known as a bunch of tribes who were specialized in warfare. They were highly skillful and well-paid for their expertise.
More confusion comes from the
Ninjutsu history and traditions which claim that ninja used straight full tang battle ready swords. However, the book was put together using a number of Hatsumi’s Japanese books and none of the books mention ninjas using straight swords, as most of this information comes from movies. They could afford katanas swords and usually dealt with the Rokkaku family to carry out negotiations regarding the status of their land.
It is interesting to see that there is no reference of ninja using straight swords in several folk books such as Koyama Ryutaro and Nawa Yumio. When they mention swords used by ninja, they commonly talk about square guards. Also, they mention the sageo cord, which is typically longer than a standard sword but shorter than a katana sword.
Conclusion
Putting this altogether leads to a conclusion that the idea of the ninja using straight swords is more about likeness as portrayed in movies. There is a lot of conspiracy bent, though watching many history channel programs who speaks about alien visitors in history might provide you with some authentic theories. Yet, there is always an element of exaggeration, especially in the thrilling plays and films. Other than that, most agree that there is no proof of ninja carrying a straight sword and therefore we can put this idea for the bedtime. If you are a ninja fan, don’t miss out reading
Top 10 Ninja Deadliest Weapons and get equipped with your favorite item.
