In the Kirana Koto project we studied Japanese Culture and how it differs from US culture. We learned about their social structure, values and history. Eventually we created presentations to teach our classmates about something in Japanese culture or history. We also learned a bit of Japanese: Ohayo Gozaimasu!
Presentation Script:
Kireina Koto Script
Ninja
Connor Jennings
Piper Hallack
Coach Clark
9th grade humanities
piper
connor
both
Ninja, known in Japan as Shinobi, were spies saboteurs and assassins. The name of ninjas have changed over time and depending on the place they will be called something different. The Ninjas job was split up into two main categories performing espionage and strategy. The act of performing espionage and strategy is Ninjutsu. Espionage is the the equivalent of a modern day spy. During the sengoku jidai the standard samurai's code of honor was set in stone, and forbade many sneaky tactics that might ultimately give a clan the edge in battle. To get around this peasants would be sent to do the samurai's dirty work. The ninjas would gather information about the enemies weaknesses and they would not use weapons to kill people that they were not hired to kill. The sneaky tactics employed by the most successful of these early Ninja were so helpful to a war effort that it wasn’t long before the Iga and Koga clans began to specifically train members in the ways of Ninjutsu behind the safety of the mountains that surrounded their provinces. Ninjutsu wasn’t a martial art, but was instead a set of survival techniques. The ninja of the Iga and Koga clans were mercenaries for hire, they didn’t obey any of the samurai's rules and do whatever was necessary to complete the task they were hired to do. If a ninja was successful, no one would know who or where they were, so detailed records of ninja’s employed in indirect combat are few, but there were enough successful ninja to warrant extreme countermeasures from the clans the ninja were paid to harass. The Iga and Koga clans were destroyed, and individual clans began to train their own ninja. Forts, castles and strongholds were built with ninjas in mind, the pathways were narrow and maze like, the floorboards were purposely creaky and bells were strung around the whole building designed to ring loudly at the slightest disturbance. However, ninja still managed to carry out assassinations and cause mayhem even with these measures in place. Ninja continued to turn the tides of wars until the end of the warring states period in Japan. Once Japan was properly unified, ninja and samurai alike weren't useful to daimyo so none were trained. While the samurai were open about their techniques, ninja were not and after many years many strategies, tactics and techniques utilized by ninja faded to myths and legends.
In the modern world ninja are often portrayed as warriors, one man armies of sorts that run and gun their way through giant robots and evil henchmen. While this is far from the truth, the fact that ninja have this identity in pop culture is unsurprising. Even in feudal Japan, the capabilities and skills of ninja was vastly misinterpreted. Commoners might think that ninja could turn invisible, control fire with their minds, or even fly. This was what the ninja intended. Their use of scare tactics and arson was designed to cause a constant state of panic in their enemies, and while their actual methods were and are often unknown, this mythical status has kept up very well. Many people have come forward to know the full art of ninjutsu, but due to the lack of reliable records taken at the time it is impossible to know if they truly know the art or are simply skilled martial artists attempting to recreate this forgotten art. Even if they did know the art, merely the act of telling the world that they are ninja disqualifies them from the title, because what good is an agent of darkness if everyone knows their face. If there are true ninja still operating to this day, nobody has reported any of their activities, but then again, if the legends are true, ninja could be all around us, hiding in plane sight, waiting for the chance to strike.
Lesson:
While even records from the time period of inconsistent on what skills a ninja possessed, all sources agree on one thing, they were absolutely silent. It is assumed that ninja would walk in a similar manner to martial arts, with your feet shoulder with the part, your body low to the ground and keeping on the balls of your feet to allow for quick, steady movement. Today we have brought in a model of what ninja would be up against, Uguisu-Bari, or nightingale floorboards. The floorboards were designed to make a ton of noise what walked over, alerting any guards to the location of a ninja. As you can see, simply walking slowly won’t cut it on the nightingale floors, they make a lot of noise. (demonstrate) However, if we use the ninja technique it is possible to feel out the imbalances in the floor and step accordingly. (demonstrate) That was very difficult, and remember, a ninja would have to keep up their stealth in maze-like castles for hours on end, all the while avoiding castle guards. It isn’t hard to see how commoners might assume the ninja had superpowers.
http://iganinja.jp/en/about/ninja.html
http://www.ninjutsu.org.uk/the-18-skills-of-the-togakure-ryu-ninja.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20135674
http://www.way-of-the-samurai.com/Japanese-martial-arts-history.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol9no2/html/v09i2a06p_0001.htm
https://archive.org/stream/TheOriginOfTheNinja/ChineseOrigin_djvu.txt
Ninja
Connor Jennings
Piper Hallack
Coach Clark
9th grade humanities
piper
connor
both
Ninja, known in Japan as Shinobi, were spies saboteurs and assassins. The name of ninjas have changed over time and depending on the place they will be called something different. The Ninjas job was split up into two main categories performing espionage and strategy. The act of performing espionage and strategy is Ninjutsu. Espionage is the the equivalent of a modern day spy. During the sengoku jidai the standard samurai's code of honor was set in stone, and forbade many sneaky tactics that might ultimately give a clan the edge in battle. To get around this peasants would be sent to do the samurai's dirty work. The ninjas would gather information about the enemies weaknesses and they would not use weapons to kill people that they were not hired to kill. The sneaky tactics employed by the most successful of these early Ninja were so helpful to a war effort that it wasn’t long before the Iga and Koga clans began to specifically train members in the ways of Ninjutsu behind the safety of the mountains that surrounded their provinces. Ninjutsu wasn’t a martial art, but was instead a set of survival techniques. The ninja of the Iga and Koga clans were mercenaries for hire, they didn’t obey any of the samurai's rules and do whatever was necessary to complete the task they were hired to do. If a ninja was successful, no one would know who or where they were, so detailed records of ninja’s employed in indirect combat are few, but there were enough successful ninja to warrant extreme countermeasures from the clans the ninja were paid to harass. The Iga and Koga clans were destroyed, and individual clans began to train their own ninja. Forts, castles and strongholds were built with ninjas in mind, the pathways were narrow and maze like, the floorboards were purposely creaky and bells were strung around the whole building designed to ring loudly at the slightest disturbance. However, ninja still managed to carry out assassinations and cause mayhem even with these measures in place. Ninja continued to turn the tides of wars until the end of the warring states period in Japan. Once Japan was properly unified, ninja and samurai alike weren't useful to daimyo so none were trained. While the samurai were open about their techniques, ninja were not and after many years many strategies, tactics and techniques utilized by ninja faded to myths and legends.
In the modern world ninja are often portrayed as warriors, one man armies of sorts that run and gun their way through giant robots and evil henchmen. While this is far from the truth, the fact that ninja have this identity in pop culture is unsurprising. Even in feudal Japan, the capabilities and skills of ninja was vastly misinterpreted. Commoners might think that ninja could turn invisible, control fire with their minds, or even fly. This was what the ninja intended. Their use of scare tactics and arson was designed to cause a constant state of panic in their enemies, and while their actual methods were and are often unknown, this mythical status has kept up very well. Many people have come forward to know the full art of ninjutsu, but due to the lack of reliable records taken at the time it is impossible to know if they truly know the art or are simply skilled martial artists attempting to recreate this forgotten art. Even if they did know the art, merely the act of telling the world that they are ninja disqualifies them from the title, because what good is an agent of darkness if everyone knows their face. If there are true ninja still operating to this day, nobody has reported any of their activities, but then again, if the legends are true, ninja could be all around us, hiding in plane sight, waiting for the chance to strike.
Lesson:
While even records from the time period of inconsistent on what skills a ninja possessed, all sources agree on one thing, they were absolutely silent. It is assumed that ninja would walk in a similar manner to martial arts, with your feet shoulder with the part, your body low to the ground and keeping on the balls of your feet to allow for quick, steady movement. Today we have brought in a model of what ninja would be up against, Uguisu-Bari, or nightingale floorboards. The floorboards were designed to make a ton of noise what walked over, alerting any guards to the location of a ninja. As you can see, simply walking slowly won’t cut it on the nightingale floors, they make a lot of noise. (demonstrate) However, if we use the ninja technique it is possible to feel out the imbalances in the floor and step accordingly. (demonstrate) That was very difficult, and remember, a ninja would have to keep up their stealth in maze-like castles for hours on end, all the while avoiding castle guards. It isn’t hard to see how commoners might assume the ninja had superpowers.
http://iganinja.jp/en/about/ninja.html
http://www.ninjutsu.org.uk/the-18-skills-of-the-togakure-ryu-ninja.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20135674
http://www.way-of-the-samurai.com/Japanese-martial-arts-history.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol9no2/html/v09i2a06p_0001.htm
https://archive.org/stream/TheOriginOfTheNinja/ChineseOrigin_djvu.txt