WEBVTT - What are ninja? 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.800 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.480 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:16.360 from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.240 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is always as 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:23.280 Charles W. Bryant. Hi, Josh Chuck. I'm gonna tell you 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:25.799 something that you might not know about me. Oh boy, 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:31.520 as a youth. As a youth youth, a an older 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.879 boy in the neighborhood named Tommy Roper trained me as 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.040 a ninja, an altar boy or older older Yeah, so 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.680 I'm gonna train ninja right? Yeah? This Uh, this encompassed 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.440 generally sitting on top of a storage shed in my 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.960 backyard quietly for hours on end, waiting for somebody to 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.360 walk past, uh, so that we could find out whether 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.760 or not they noticed us. Then that's where you started 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.360 smoking because you were bored. Now, yet that came like 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.960 a year or two later. Yeah, you did not adhere 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.720 to the bushito. No, I don't know if smoking is 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:09.600 is outlawed by the bushido. I just meant the way 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:13.200 of the ninja. No, that's the samurai. Well, no, the 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:18.120 ninja though, shun the bushido, right, Okay, I got what 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.240 you say on the same page, So, Chuck, I thought, 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.480 you know, I kind of carried that with me my 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.280 whole life. I'm sure i'd see a throwing star every 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:27.640 once in a while and be like, I know how 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:29.559 to throw that, you know? Did you have any of those, 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.960 Tommy did? I've never had any of those? Are big 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:35.480 in the eighties for little nerves to collect totally um. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.240 I found out though, when I read how Ninja's work, 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.160 I am nothing more than a dultant. Really, yeah, I 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.560 was surprised to find that out. I believe you said ninja, 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:47.880 so that is not correct, right, No, it is. It's ninja. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.160 It's like fish or deer. I know we've been drilling 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.360 that into each other's head and I'm still saying Ninja's yeah, 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:58.080 So if we slip up, then give us a break, So, Chuck, Josh. 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.000 One of the first things I noticed from this article 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:05.400 was that um Ninja, although Japanese in nature and origin, 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.280 actually can trace its roots back to the Chinese. Yes, 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.120 very much, because of kind of what I was just 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:15.960 talking about with the Bushido was the Samurai code, where 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.919 you very respectfully would face one another, face your enemy 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.240 one on one and do battle, and the Ninja subscribe 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.760 more to the art of war school of thought right 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.519 as espoused by Sun Zu, which was a little sneakier, right, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.000 and smarter if you ask me, it is smarter. And 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.320 I mean that's how the American colonists won the War 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:40.520 for Independence. The British were all like, hey, we've got 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.079 a bunch of Hessians here and they're ready to fight 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.040 you on this field, and our guys were, yeah, jumping 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:49.919 out of trees and bayoneting them. Yeah, very Ninja, asked 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.200 very sun sue he wrote the Art of War back 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:56.560 in the fourth or fifth century BC, and uh, yeah, 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.240 it kind of went against the grain, as it were, Yeah, 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.239 big time where you could uh. I think there's a chapter, 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:07.480 chapter thirteen, where he specifically said that you should use 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:12.079 people to spread confusion in the ranks and paranoia, um, 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:17.080 through sabotage, spying, spying, um yeah, espionage, that kind of stuff. 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:21.799 Pretty cool, Yeah, just basically underhanded stuff. Disguise was okay, yeah, deception, 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.799 I love it, right, So that is actually where it's 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.080 That's pretty much the basis of ninja, isn't it. Yeah, 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.200 from what I gather and and what is it? The 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:36.520 art of ninja, the art that ninja's practice. Yeah, ninjutsu 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:38.680 and it is not a martial art, but it is 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.000 an art of war, is what they call it. It 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.800 sounds like a martial arts. Yeah, but it's not. Okay, 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.240 that's because utsu sounds like jiu jitsu. Right, So, okay, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.840 we've got this first seed of the ninja planet by 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.640 sun Su right, um and uh it takes a little 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.600 while to catch on. And actually, strangely enough, we can 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:04.000 trace back um to some of the first ninja stories, right, right, 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.119 some people who were thought to be among the first 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.600 ninja in Japan. We've moved over to Japan now, by 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.280 the way, yes, right, tell me about Prince Yamato. Yeah, 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:18.279 Prince Yamato, Uh is in some halls called the first 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.640 ninja because he was the first person that we know 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.600 of to blatantly use deception and disguise by addressing as 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.720 a woman and uh to attract. This is where it 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:35.280 gets sottlehinky to literally physically attract to barbarian chieftains. So 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.000 apparently he was a good looker as a woman, or 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.520 at the last he actually gained their confidence and uh 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.280 lull them into a sense of security. A false sense 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.640 of security and killed them. Yeah, then he withered them. 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:52.400 Yeah yeah, uh that's um not a bad one. Frankly, 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.800 I like that first Ninja story. I like yours though. 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.200 The thirteen year old kid, yeah, Kuma Waka Yeah, he 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.800 um was a little I guess, kind of a little shrimpy, right, 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:04.760 but he had some pretty good legs on him. He 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.920 traveled a really far distance to visit his father who 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.320 was ailing. Um, but his father was being held prisoner 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:13.520 by a monk and his family. Apparently monks did that 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.919 back then. I didn't know that what we do now, right, Um. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.880 So a little thirteen year old Kuma Waka um was 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.080 turned away after traveling this long distance wanting to see 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.600 his father who's dying. And before he gets a chance 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.240 to see him, his father dies. So the kids like, 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.320 you know what, I swear vengeance right here and now, right, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:37.040 little thirteen year old vengeance? Right? So I think Um, 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.600 possibly not so much that he'd read the Art of war, 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:44.440 but just that being thirteen, you know, he wasn't aware 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.920 of pitch battles or really didn't care about him. And 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:48.280 he was like, you know what, I'm going to use 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.600 a little bit of deception myself. He was doing't big 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.400 enough to just fight them straight upright right he Um. 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.640 He started kind of I guess, staking out the monks home, 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.400 and this kid was awesome. He he opened a window 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.359 to the monk's bedroom and let a bunch of moths in, 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.560 and they flocked to a lantern, blotting out all the light, 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.120 whereupon he snuck into the room, got the monk's sword, 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.479 and butchered him. Yes, have you noticed that most ninja 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.599 stories end in butchery. Yeah, that's a good point. Um. 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:25.800 The story is not over though, right, I don't think so. Well. 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:27.440 You should also point out, though he was actually in 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.840 their home, he faked an illness. Remember that's how we 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:31.880 got in there. That's right. He faked like he was sick, 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:33.719 so they brought him in and took care of him, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.280 and he gained their trust, and then did the old 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.479 moth trick, right, the old moth trick. That's that's like 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.080 Ninja one oh one right there. Um. So, after he 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.440 butchers the monk, he flees and he's being pursued, so 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.880 he climbs up a huge length of bamboo until it 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.839 tips over a river and he jumps off the other 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.359 side and he's gone into the annals of ninja history. 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:58.839 That is serious ninja stealth right there. Yeah, a little 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.640 thirteen year old, right, how many times can I say 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.440 a little thirteen year old? I don't know. We could 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.160 go back and count. So yes, even though these are 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.160 cool stories and they are thought of as maybe practicing 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.720 the first ninja practices, they aren't really believed to be 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.080 the first ninjas, right, No, I mean they're kind of 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.480 legend exactly, and there's a lot of lore surrounding ninja. 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.160 It's really tough, as the grabster who wrote this article 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.400 pointed out, to kind of separate fact from fiction. And 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.160 in some cases, Japanese historians just have admitted ninja altogether 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.440 because they're so secretive, right, or uh, you know, exaggerated 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.760 and glorified it to the point that it's misinformation, right, 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.480 which is part of the whole ninja lore as well, right, 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.320 which apparently the ninja were perfectly fine with because it 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:46.200 freaked people out. We'll get to that in a minute, right, 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.600 the supernatural stuff. Yeah, okay, so Chuck, what was the 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.800 true birth of the ninja? Then? Well, they think that 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:57.160 the regions of IgA and Coca or is it Egaga 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.640 and coca. You know what, I think, I have no 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.240 idea for those two. But you were getting good at 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.720 the Japanese. And let me tell you you have what 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.240 is called pura pura pura, which means you're very fluent. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.280 It's Japanese for that describes very fluent. The Japanese is 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:14.440 a little easier to pronounce, I think than some because 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.480 it's usually just kind of pronounced like it reads. There's 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:19.440 just a lot of letters sometimes yeah, and there's a 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.560 lot of there's a lot of vowels together. It don't 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.080 make any sense, but we're doing our best. Yeah, you're 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.360 doing a great judge going with Ega and Koga, and 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.360 they are considered to be the birthplace of ninja as 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.760 a major force in warfare. And here's why. There was 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:36.720 a bunch of clans in these two regions, and the 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.520 guys Um who were members of the clans tended to 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:44.439 farm themselves out as mercenaries, which we've talked about before. Um, 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.920 and they actually adopted a lot of the Ninja attitude, 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:53.600 the Ninja, the Ninja tude, right nice Um. They they 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:58.120 adopted a lot of it Um serving as spies, saboteurs, 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.320 and assassins, right, love that word, by the way, saboteur. 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.320 It's a pretty cool word. That's why a firefly was 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.680 one of my favorite g I Joe's, which we'll get to. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.319 It's all coming around. Yeah. So in Ega and Coca, 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.880 right this basically this region, rather than um turning to 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:20.840 brewing or um grain production, they turned to ninja production, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.760 you know, and they protected They were hired out by 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:28.199 the daimio, which were what was another word for a lord, 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:32.839 a feudal feudal lord, and basically like mercenaries, they would 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.800 whoever had the most dough would get hired, so they 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:38.920 were not known as loyal. They would go where the 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:41.560 money was no, which, as you said, is completely contrary 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.240 to the Bushito code of the samurai. Who was I 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:47.440 guess you could probably make a case was a rival 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.400 faction in Japan at the time. If you wanted somebody 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.439 who would be willing to die for you, you had 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:55.800 your samurai. If you wanted somebody who you could pay 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.040 to go do horrible things for you, but then may 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.600 eventually come back and kill you through he was hired 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.000 for somebody else, you went with the ninja. Yeah, right, 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.600 good point. So one of the cool things that the 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.920 grabster mentioned was that the reason uh Ego and Koga 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:15.480 were I guess these hotbeds of activity for ninja was 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.800 that the the the art of ninja two yeah, was 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.800 passed on from father to son, generation after generation after generation. Right, 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.080 And we're talking sneaking around. Uh. From what I gather 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.080 from reading is that uh, the lowly ninja were the 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.840 ones that were slinging the swords around and the true 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.600 uh skilled ninja did not do a lot of face 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:39.600 to face fighting. They were sneaking around, They were gathering information. 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.640 Like you said, they were sabotaging, they were spying and 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.959 giving mis information. Right. And apparently since castles were they 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:53.680 figured so largely into feudal japan Um, the ninja became 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:58.840 especially a dept at um infiltrating castles and escaping from 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.120 castles that were undersea. There's the story of one ninja 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:07.560 who was hired by a damio um who owned a 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.080 castle that was under siege, and one night he slipped out, 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:13.960 went to the enemy encampment, stole their flag, and then 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:15.600 when they woke up the next morning they saw their 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:19.520 flag like on the embattlements of the castle, which you 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:24.120 can imagine you just like wa wa wa. We don't 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.600 we have that sound effect? I think so? Or did 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.880 they wake up and think, did we already capture this castle? 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:31.560 What were you doing here? That's what I would think 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:34.959 we already captured because their flag was flying, But apparently 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.920 it was a mocking thing and right, yeah, take the 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.559 wind out of their sales. And there was also another 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:45.040 story legend, Ninja lore of a group of Ninja's actually 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:49.120 a group of Ninja sorry um that captured the uh 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.520 I guess the badge of paper lantern badge which identified 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.959 like it identified with the castle and a damio Okay, 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.840 I'm gonna knock your socks off right here, chuck. So 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.040 they stole this lantern and reproduced it, reproduced the badge, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.520 put him on other lanterns, and then just walked right 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:11.480 into the castle, right, butchered everybody like they do, yeah, 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:15.000 and then walked back out. And when everybody woke up 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.600 the next morning and found the people who were not butchered, 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.160 found uh you know what was going on? Um? They 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:26.320 they had created uh paranoia, right, which, as we said, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:30.720 is another thing that Ninja liked to do, absolutely disruption. Yes, uh, 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.920 they were very skilled. Are your socks knocked off. These 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:38.000 are actually new socks and they are still on. You know, uh, 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:39.920 did you know that George Hamilton's once said that he 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:41.880 wore a new pair of socks every day. He never 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:43.600 wore the same pair of socks. I can see him 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.640 doing that. My good friend Andrew told me that once 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:49.319 moving on the ninja, Josh, you know what their their 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.199 main deal was you when they were best at assassination, Yes, 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.720 sneaking in and the dead of night and killing you 0:12:56.160 --> 0:13:00.280 in your sleep sometimes. And my favorite story was, and 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.280 this one is not verified, but the the legend of 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:07.360 the ninja who hid beneath the outhouse and you know 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:09.560 what goes on beneath the outhouse? Yeah, he hit in 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.280 the pit, hit in the pit, and then the the 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.319 daimio came in obviously sat down on the john and 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.080 then then just struck from below with the sword. But 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.120 which is just that's not a comfort. My favorite part 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.280 of the story though it says, uh, it's probably not 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.760 true because historical record show that the daimio in question 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.160 probably died of a stroke or brain aneurysm. But I 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:32.760 think maybe if you had a sword stuck up your butt, 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:34.480 then maybe you might have a stroke or brain and 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.760 I would have a stroke for sure, so maybe that 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.960 did happen. Plus also I could see his family trying 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.080 to keep that hush hush. Yeah, I would say so, 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.839 you know, but it made made the Daimio very paranoid, 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:46.840 right yeah. And actually they took a lot of measures 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.560 to protect against these ninja'sassiens that they always figured we're 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:55.280 coming for them. Like, um, there was one clan where 0:13:55.320 --> 0:14:00.760 at their castle everyone had to wear long um I guess, 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:05.120 bell bottoms basically that made noise whenever you walked, So 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.120 anyone who was in the castle had to wear these 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.160 kind of corduroy bell bottoms pretty much. And I can 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.840 only imagine that they had an ample supply for visitors 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.280 if everybody had to use them, you know, and not 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.520 everyone was walking around with bell bottoms. I imagine they 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.400 had them for you, right, like drop your keys in 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.880 the bowl and put on these bell pots. I'm gonna 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.200 stay here right. Uh. The other one, a cool one 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.560 was in Kyoto. They had a the Nie Joe Castle 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.480 had what they called nightingale floors, and they were purposefully 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:33.960 squeaky the way they made these wooden floors, so the 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.640 people counterbalance, right, so anyone walking on them, even in 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:41.480 Ninja could be heard. Yes, And also the Daimio would 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.760 spend more and more time away from their home at 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.360 what they called Secret Springs, basically a little hidden resorts 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.280 at natural Springs. So it sounds like out of Ninja 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:59.080 the vacation resort, bell bottom jeans and squeaky floors were born. Nice, 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:03.000 pretty cool. You wrap that up very nicely, So chuck 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:07.760 um the whole Um. I guess Samurai soared up the 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:13.680 bottom story that that it was probably a legend because 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:18.000 the guy probably died of an aneurism or stroke. Right. Um, 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.800 that kind of reveals that lower that has surrounded Ninja 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.680 forever and one of the things that um, they've been 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.200 attributed with or bestowed with their like supernatural powers. Right 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:33.080 of course that's not true, No, but it's fun and 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.360 like you said, earlier than Ninja loved it. They were like, yeah, 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:39.320 we're seven feet tall, and we can fly and become invisible. 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.240 Those are three. They could also walk through walls, which 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.680 I imagine it would would really come in handy for 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.000 a Ninja, you know. But I mean, if you think 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.160 about it, if you're penetrating a castle that no one 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.720 else can get through. It probably seems a lot like 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.440 you can walk through walls. And then of course there's 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.920 the real basic go to one that there ghosts, yeah, 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.000 shape shifters. Did you ever read Um Commando comics? No? 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.440 There there was like they were from the seventies. I 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.800 think they were like just black and white comics set 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.240 in World War Two? Uh. And in one of them 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.360 that was this guy had to fight Ninja's in Burma, 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.600 Ninja and Burma and uh, it was pretty cool. Did 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:20.080 you ever say I was a little whiss boy with 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.040 the comics. I was like, I was into Archie and 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:28.560 Ritchie Rich what I know what awful and then stuff 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:30.600 like the Star Wars comics and stuff like that. But 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.960 I don't try to cool it up now it's awful. 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:35.840 What it was a big Archie guy. I was a 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:40.120 little Baptist boy and Richie Rich. Yeah, Ritchie Rich was great. Yeah, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.960 I like the cartoon. You never read the comic. Oh yeah, 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.680 I was a little wiss. Yeah, you were into ninja's 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.480 and stuff smoking cigarettes that I was reading Archie in 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.680 the Bible. Good for you. But here we are years later, 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:58.400 I know the same. We're both as twisted, alright, I've 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:00.880 been trying to get better, You've been trying to get worse. Yes, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.160 and we met in the middle. Where are we now? 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.280 With their gear, I would say we're writting inja gear 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.879 and Chuck, I should say, Chuck has a several large 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.560 print outs of pictures of ninja gear that are just bitching. Yeah, 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:18.000 let's go ahead and talk about some of these um ninja. Well, first, 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.960 let's talk about their clothes, their uniform, the ninja yori, 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.920 your roy your roy roy. It is also called ninja armor, 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.879 and it's like the black jacket, black trousers, hooted cowl, 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.320 and light sandals. Not a lot of protection with that 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:37.919 the right word. Well, they said some of them were 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.840 light armor under that, right, but it's not much trust me, No, 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.879 it's cloth. Well, because they wanted to be sneaky and 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:46.840 not make a lot of noise, so armor probably wasn't 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:48.960 the best way to get around. And traditionally the your 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.560 roy was um black, although apparently there is some historical 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.399 evidence that they wore all white your roy which is 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.280 pretty cool too in the snow if it were snowy. Yeah, sure, 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:01.800 they're like, oh, it's know, you gotta put on the 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:07.040 white Euroy today and go kill people. However, Josh, most 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.000 of this is uh fanciful lore. Although they did have 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.879 these costumes, what they mainly wore they wanted to blend in, 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:15.680 so they mainly just dressed like you and I. Yeah, 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:17.960 that's an excellent point too, Like if you're going to 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.760 be an assassin um and you're in a public place, 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.159 if you're dressed like a ninja, people are going to 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.359 be like, look out for that ninja. Right. So yeah, 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.119 a lot of times they they they were apparently masters 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.080 at um hiding in plain sight. Yeah, disguised as priests 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.280 and merchants and farmers, which is you know, makes sense 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:39.560 to me because what was it that Henry Hill said? 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.320 He said, when you get killed, it's it's somebody who's 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.920 coming at you with a smile. Who's your friend? That's 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.359 who kills you? Sure? Yeah, Henry Hill, he comes up 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.840 a lot. It's funny. Yeah. I never thought he would 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.840 come up in a ninja podcast. Uh. What else did 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.240 they use, Josh, the ninja to was the short sword. 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.600 Then they were back, which is pretty cool. Yeah, used 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.480 to butcher people. And then here's what I have the 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:08.160 pictures of the shook go is this cool little claw 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.240 hand it's like claws on your palm you would wear 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.639 as a glove. And it says you can use to 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.280 fight or to climb trees with. Tell me, tell me 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.280 rope her head one of those. Really Huh. He tried 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.040 to climb trees once in a while to us ever success. 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.840 Really he could when he didn't have those on, like 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.119 he could just climb a tree, but just climbing like that, 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.440 it didn't work. Uh. And this is the tiger claw. 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.800 Those are cool. Yeah, that looks like Freddy Krueger wolverine 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.359 or something. That's exactly what it looks like. And it 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.520 would butcher you if put to your jugular. And what 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:41.679 are these? And this is my favorite? These are the 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.880 cow trops and these were they look sort of like 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.760 little metal sharp origami razor things. I was just about 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:50.480 to say orgamy they do. You got to leave it 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.160 to the Japanese. They have great design with everything. Yeah, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.600 they're beautiful, including little tags meant to puncture your feet 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:58.359 and soles of your feet. Yeah, that's what you would do. 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.080 You would throw these on the floor, uh, for your 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:03.439 enemy to step on. And they apparently wore like the 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.800 sandals and the thin shoes, so that worked. And I 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.760 wish this were a video podcast because Chuck gave Jerry 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:10.960 and I had demonstration and what that would look like 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.879 when people were chasing the ninja. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:19.120 also used smoke bombs and what else. The coolest thing 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.840 small one person boats that were collapsible, so they were 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:27.080 highly portable, so ninja would just be running away from people. 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.080 He's thrown his tax whatever, the tax call again? Uh? 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.280 The cow drops, right, He's thrown his cow drops and 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.880 they didn't work. A couple of guys got around and 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.439 he's reached a river. There's no bamboo and site. He 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.479 just whips out of his little boat and sails across 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:42.439 like so long, chumps. Pretty cool. I'll be back to 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.639 kill you when you're sleeping. Uh. The other thing that 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.200 has been refuted by the MythBusters I read was the 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.520 Mizzou gumo and they were wooden shoes to walk on 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.280 water with. They kind of look like snow shoes, actually 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:58.600 big round things and your foot goes in the middle 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.720 to disperse the water. Those MythBusters guys said, yeah, this 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:04.920 doesn't work. Did they try it out themselves? Yeah, of 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.120 course they did. It doesn't disprove anything that they should 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.120 be too fat. We should call that show the fun 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.679 Killers instead of the Mythbuss. Yeah, all they do is 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.600 destroy fun. But they said they could work on marsh 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.720 is what they said, Like, we'll give him something. Yeah, 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.760 of course there's the throwing star a k a. The 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.399 sugar ken. Yeah, and I didn't know this. I thought 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:27.080 that you know, when you see in the movies they 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:31.239 clearly always fling knees and right into somebody's forehead right 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:33.800 between the eyes. Yeah, that's really not true, was it. No, 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.399 Apparently they were just kind of a distracting weapon, like 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:39.800 it was meant to look like it was about to 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:41.879 hit you right between the eyes, but the chances of 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.199 it actually hitting its target are pretty low. So they 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.320 would turn around when being chased, throw a star at 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.359 them to distract them, and then drop some cow trops 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:51.479 on the floor in a smoke bomb maybe, And then 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.760 he's a grappling hook and a rope ladder to escape. 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.800