WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Ninja, Part 3 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.799 Hello, and welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. It's Saturday, 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:11.840 so we are heading into the vault for an older 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.840 episode of the podcast. This is part three of the 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.200 series that Rob and I did on the Ninja. This 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.480 originally published August first, twenty twenty four. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.159 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:37.839 is Robert. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.600 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:44.680 three in our series on Ninja. Now, if you haven't 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.280 heard the first two parts of this series, this is 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.680 a case where you really should go back and listen 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.120 to those before you listen to today's episode, because we 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:56.680 lay a lot of groundwork, especially about the tricky historical 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:01.240 questions about the sort of act curacy of a lot 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.720 of the received knowledge about the Ninja. And so if 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.720 you are wondering about like how the Ninja fit into 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:12.440 real history versus pop culture and then sort of subsequent 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.760 lore and legend, we talk more about that in the 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.880 previous episodes. Today we're going to be focusing more on 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.679 just some of the great bits of texture and the 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.600 anecdotes from that historical law and legend. The stories of 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:31.240 individual ninjas, the stories of the stories of tools and 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:33.440 techniques and equipment and so forth. 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:36.360 Yeah, I mean, you basically can think of it this way. 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.399 The ninja existed, true statement, the ninja are a myth 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.320 and never existed true statement depends on how you tease 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.240 it apart, you know. And likewise a lot of this too, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.320 Like we'll get into specific examples of ninja tools or weapons, 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.080 and you can say this never existed, and then you 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:56.640 can also say, but I can buy one at the 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.160 mall today, and so it's like, well it exists now, right, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:01.920 So it gets complicated. 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:04.800 This is a great time, I think to discuss some 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:09.000 of the various ninjutsu manuals that were published beginning in 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:14.560 the Edo period beginning under the Tokugawa Shogunate, that are 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:18.320 the source of a lot of the ninja lore that 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.320 we have today. So you can think about sort of 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.480 like multiple stages of development of the ninja lore over 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.160 the centuries. This is going way back. It's questionable whether 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.440 some of the things reported in these manuals were actually 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.680 used in the earlier periods. But these, you know, seventeenth 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.799 eighteenth century texts have lots of great stuff in them 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.639 that I think later gets picked up by authors, say 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.960 in the twentieth century, and reprocessed and turned into the 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.320 pop culture idea of the ninja. So there are multiple 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.760 ninjitsu manuals, and I'm just going to list some common 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:03.240 characteristics of them. So they will teach techniques of espionage, stealth, 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.400 and intelligence gathering, including everything from how to infiltrate a 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.000 building using different kinds of ladders to how to gag 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:15.239 a prisoner. So they're full of descriptions of techniques. They 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:19.560 pass along practical knowledge about real subjects, such as pharmacology, 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.120 like using herbs to achieve an effect in the body, 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.920 and how to use gunpowders. So there is some amount 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.600 of chemistry knowledge, at least as it was understood in 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.239 the seventeenth century. In some of these books, they describe 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:36.480 and illustrate tools and equipment such as caltrops. You know, 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.600 these spiked spiked objects that would be used. You know, 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.960 you'd throw them on the ground to slow the advance 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.400 of an enemy or to deny them access to an area. 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.720 Yeah, makabishi, I believe is the term for these. And 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.560 these are interesting on their own terms because if you've 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.600 played Dungeons and Dragons. You may have used these, you know, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.520 these are pretty common way to slow down an enemy, 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.200 but a pair when you get into the history of 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:06.800 their use in Shinobi activities, like some examples of them 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.480 may have been essentially organic or found items, like essentially 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.240 like throwing nuts or you know, or today's version would 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.279 be like spreading legos all over the floor. That's not 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.560 quite like a nature fact or a found item, but 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:21.280 you know, you get the idea, and then you could 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.040 progress from there into potentially like metal objects that are 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.240 spiked and so forth. And speaking of those ladders, yes, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.560 ladders are absolutely a tool of the ninja. And if 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:33.720 you are in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign and you're 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.520 playing a rogue, go ahead and equip that ladder, bring 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:38.960 that ladder with you, and dare your dungeon master to 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.160 make you roll a dexterity check whilst climbing it. Ladders 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.120 are great. Trust the ninja on this. 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.880 My current rogue has a real affinity for climbing. He's 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.240 got the I don't know his level three or level 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:51.880 four or wherever it is. You get to pick one 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.520 of the feats, and he's got second story work where 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:56.360 you know, you can climb at the same rate you 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:57.320 can you can run. 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:59.960 That's great. Yeah, but I feel like we've been kind 0:04:59.960 --> 0:05:03.919 of it's like a modern Ninja batmanification of our understanding 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.839 of what rogues should have because Batman never carried a ladder, 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.400 but he probably should have carried a ladder. I think 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:08.960 that would be great. 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.640 The bat ladder, I mean, the rope ladder will get 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.440 you a lot of places. I guess Batman doesn't need 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.480 a ladder because he has the unrealistic the batclaw thing 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:18.919 that you can just shoot and will zip him up anywhere. 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:24.560 Absolute trust in the masonry the building that he's interacting with. Yeah. 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.159 But anyway, all the stuff I've mentioned so far, that's 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.480 the stuff you would imagine a ninjitsu manual to include, right, 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:36.880 you know, techniques about stealth tools. You could use, knowledge 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.440 about pharmacology and gunpowder and things like that, but there 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:44.560 are also things you might expect less. These manuals often 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:49.599 emphasize spiritual and philosophical elements of the Shinobi lifestyle, like 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.080 some during the Edo period promote Confucianism with a strong 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.000 emphasis on loyalty, which of course was favored by the 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:02.080 Tokugawa shoguns. They sometimes also include moral discourses that serve 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.680 as justification for shnobi activities, like it's okay to use 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.400 lies and deception and trickery because they will help you win. 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.640 They're what you have to do to win, and what's 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.880 ultimately right is to be loyal to your masters and 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.880 to help win in the conflict. And so so you know, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.280 you got to deliver that intelligence. It doesn't matter if 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.920 you have to lie to do it. They sometimes also 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:29.839 include more esoteric guidance, like the use of astrology or divination. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.159 They are often falsely attributed to a great hero or 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:40.159 legend from history. They do not depict shnobi in black 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:45.359 costumes and masks. They are not generally concerned with assassination, 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.400 nor do they usually describe hand to hand combat or 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.279 sword fighting techniques, as would come to be the calling 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.400 card of ninja in later movies. Once again, they are 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:02.000 most often concerned with intelligence gathering, cycle, logical warfare, and sabotage. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.400 And to this point, one of the manuals I'll mention 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.880 in a minute actually specifies that your shnobi your spies 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:12.600 should be selected based on intelligence and not physical strength 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.880 because these people were not primarily thought of as fighters, 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:20.520 but as tricksters and observers, gatherers of information. 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.800 Yeah. I mean, when you think about it, like your shnobi, 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:26.640 are they going to be able to throw down with 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.440 the samurai of an arms samurai, like you know, one 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.600 to one in some sort of a battle. I think 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.640 there's a strong case to be made. No, the trickery 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.119 if that, if that's sort of violent encounter were to occur, 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.040 the trickery is going to make the difference, not the 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:44.080 martial arts. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.240 I'm guessing that's right. As we talked about in the 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:50.080 last episode, the idea of shnobi as instigators of daring 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.400 individual violence and hand to hand combat, that is more 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.120 of the later movie ninja thing. The earlier emphasis is 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.520 though there all there are lots of sort of shinobi 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:05.160 warfare activities in shinobi attacks, sneak attacks by night. Most 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.480 of the time, these manuals and early ideas of shinobi 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:13.160 are more focused on spying. For just one example of 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.320 how these older military manuals might focus more on espionage 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:22.120 strategy than on the type of combat focused ninja behavior 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.800 we think of today, there was a sixteenth century military 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.800 manual called the Kinetsushu, and this text was from earlier 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.240 than the major ninjutsu manual, So this is not I 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:34.599 want to be clear, this is not one of the 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.120 ninjutsu manuals I'm talking about. This is a general warfare 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.240 manual from a little bit earlier, and its focus is 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:46.119 broadly on strategy and warfare, but it contains a subsection 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:50.240 on espionage techniques, and it recommends things like the following. 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.240 It says, before you go on a military campaign, send 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:57.400 spies into the area that you're targeting to pose as 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.880 merchants and craftsmen. And these spies should make maps of 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.959 local topography and try to figure out the morale of locals, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.120 for example by listening to whether people sing sad songs 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.400 or happy songs. And you can also try to split 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.040 loyalties within the region by doing things like have your 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.920 spies make donations to local temples and shrines to win 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.120 over the approval of the priest class. 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.520 And I'm guessing you had to be kind of selective 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.720 about how you do it, Like don't immediately set up 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.800 shop and be like, hey, what do you think of 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:33.040 the latest Lena Delray album? You know, like tease it 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.000 out a little bit. Make sure you have enough lead 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:40.000 time to really immerse yourself in the local community. 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.520 Exactly right. Oh, and I should say, by the way, 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.360 I mentioned it in the last couple of episodes, but 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.560 just to flag again one of my major sources here 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.520 also on the general facts about these ninja two manuals 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.400 is a book by a British historian named Stephen Turnbull 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.199 called Ninja Unmasking the Myth from twenty seventeen, and so 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:02.360 he highlights several important ninjitsu manuals that I wanted to 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.599 talk about for a moment here. These later manuals in 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:10.120 the seventeenth century onward were more directly focused on ninjitsu, 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:14.920 and they include texts such as the Gunpo Jeoshu, which 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:18.960 was published in the sixteen fifties, and the famous mansen 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:23.520 Shuki or bensen Chukai from around sixteen seventy six, the 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.720 latter of which has in some instances been referred to 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.319 as the Ninja Bible, though this is probably a misleading 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.880 way to characterize it. Mens In Chuki or bensen Chukai 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.120 the title means ten thousand rivers flowing together into an ocean, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.120 and in particular this one is the source of a 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.640 lot of modern ninja lore. It contains details about ingenious 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:52.400 ninja gadgets and equipment. It also contains different philosophies about 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.440 spying and infiltration. It makes an interesting distinction between what 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:01.120 it calls yonin and enin Yonin meaning open infiltration. So 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.800 this would be sneaking into somewhere by wearing a disguise 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.200 or being accepted by the target community, so you are 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:14.120 within view, but you are disguising your intentions in some way. Meanwhile, 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.400 in en means invisibility or hiding, so this would be 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.280 infiltration by sneaking by night or hiding under floorboards. 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.080 And that's where we get into some of these the 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.559 elements of patients and endurance that we mentioned in the 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.120 last episode. I believe, like, if you're going to have 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.360 to hide under the floorboards for let's say forty eight hours, 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.640 you know you're going to have to use some chenobi patients. 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.120 That's right. And that's one reason that there may not 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:46.320 be as much difference between the idea of practicing endurance 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.680 or patients and practicing stealth as you might originally think, 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.040 like a lot of stealth is patience. In fact, you 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.800 could even argue that that patience is very important when 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.080 you are just being accepted within a target community or 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.120 in disguise. Right, you've got to play the part for 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.439 a long time to sort of make people comfortable. 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.160 Yeah, yeah, you got to actually run that business. Like, 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.160 don't offer like really deep discounts. They're going to be suspicious. 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.800 Don't act like you're not interested in making a profit 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.559 one way or the other. Yeah, become a part of 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:17.280 the community and then betray them. 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.320 Another interesting thing about these ninjasu manuals is the thing 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:25.880 that makes them really tempting to interpret is that sometimes 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:30.120 they might include explanations and references that seem kind of circumspect, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.400 like they don't give all the details of what they're 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.160 talking about. And then sometimes they'll have a note like 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.360 additional information is only to be passed on by word 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:38.880 of mouth. 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.920 Oh boy, that sounds very shanobi. 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.360 Yeah. One random detail that I love, by the way, 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.280 just came across this in the book. This is about 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:54.000 the gun pogoshu. It's the claim that in the ancient past, 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.800 men of the regions Ega and Coca, which are places 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:01.319 in Japan that are the have long been claimed as 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:05.160 national headquarters of shinobi training. So the claim is that 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.840 these these ninja from IgA and Coca would travel as 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:13.960 secret agents, and while doing so, they would pose as yamabushi, 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:18.920 which means street performers such as monkey tamers. So like 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.000 the next time you see a busker playing a Goo 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.079 Goo Dolls song on the sidewalk, or you see a 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.120 guy dressed up as Superman in Times Square, you might 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.439 wonder is this a ninja? Is this person gathering intelligence? 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.640 Another interesting fact about the gun Pogoshu in particular is 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.480 that some of its espionage advice is given in the 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.560 form of a collection of poems, poems about spying. 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.480 Wow. Wow, that's fascinating that. Yeah, this goes hand in 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.240 hand with some of the things we've been talking about 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:50.880 about disguising yourself blending in. But I guess sometimes like 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.480 being the obnoxiously obvious person is also a way of 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.960 blending into the background, like nobody suspects the like the 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.000 Times Square Elmo of well, you suspect the Times Square 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.880 Elmo of things, but probably not espionage. 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:17.320 Right exactly anyway, So, with all the caveats we've previously 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:21.320 established about the historicity of what's in these manuals that 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.280 you know, we might regard them with some historical skepticism. Nevertheless, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:29.120 they do describe a lot of fascinating alleged tricks and 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:33.240 tools of ninjasu. So I think we should just dive 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.280 right in and talk about some alleged ninja techniques. 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:38.120 Yeah, I want to pick up talking a little a 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:42.400 bit about the female shinobi or the kuno ichi, which 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.880 I believe we mentioned in passing in the first episode. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:47.640 You know, the idea that we could have both male 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:53.040 and female ninja, and this does really stress the the 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:58.720 reality that that shinobi activities would have covered a lot 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:03.240 of ground that isn't just concerned with assassination or military 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.880 and military and you know, direct military adjacent combat adjacent activities, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.760 but get into all these areas of spycraft. And there 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.720 is apparently, according to Yoda and Ault in their book 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.720 on Ninja's that I that I cited in the previous episodes, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:21.320 there there's no evidence that female shanoby ever engaged in combat, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.160 though of course there are historic examples of Japanese women 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.840 serving as warriors, such as tome Gozen of the late 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.280 twelfth century. So so again not saying there weren't female 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:37.840 warriors in Japanese history, and even that there weren't female 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.760 shanoby operatives who engaged in combat, but there's no evidence 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:47.120 of such, but there there are writings about female shanobi operatives, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.600 and this makes sense for reasons we already stressed, like 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.840 if you were going to engage in spycraft, you you're 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.360 you're going to take advantage of whatever tools are at 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.160 your disposal, and there are going to be certain segments 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.880 of society through which females are going to be able 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:04.920 to travel with a little more ease or a little 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:09.640 less notice. There And as we mentioned last time, there 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:14.760 is at least one named female ninja, Mochizuki chi Yojo, 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:18.880 and this individual's still somewhat of a mystery. There are 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.160 some arguments that she didn't exist at all, but Yoda 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:26.520 and all lister existence has confirmed, so I guess there 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:28.600 is a certain amount of evidence on one side of 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.080 the argument to say that this person did exist in 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.840 some form. Assuming she did exist, however, she would have 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.200 been like a poet, a noble woman, and it's said 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.480 that she was affiliated with the Takata samurai clan and 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.800 to have presided over a team of the uruki miko 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.320 or walking maidens. So she would have kind of like 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.360 been a spymaster of female shanov and so on the 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.920 realistic end of things, if there's truth to any of this, 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.560 whether we were dealing with the specifics of this individual or 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.880 just the general idea that there were females spy operatives 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.760 in Japan during the Warring States period, just as there 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.359 have been female spy operatives in pretty much every culture. 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.040 I think, every culture, I think we will be a 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:15.400 safe assumption these would have been female operatives who could 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:21.040 travel around, often as Shinto holy women, as entertainers, or 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:25.479 perhaps prostitutes. Now on the legendary end of the spectrum, however, 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.640 female shanobi were often imbued with various powers that were 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.679 linked to female sexuality and reproduction, and a lot of 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:36.840 this has much in common with various witchlike belief systems 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.800 from around the world, you know, even getting into ideas 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.479 of like the monstrous feminine, you know, the other ring 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:47.680 of the female, and taking aspects of reproduction and sexuality 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.040 and tweaking them into the you know, the demonic realm 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.200 and so forth. But this also put me very much 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.000 in mind of the Beni Jesert from Frank Herbert's done, 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.920 as well as their later series counterparts, the Honored Matre 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.320 or kind of like a splinter of the Benijesterrit, who 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.440 are their opposition. So I wanted to run through some 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.280 of the powers and abilities attributed to them. Again, we're 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.280 dealing very much with the legendary supernatural end of the 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.800 of the ninja pop cultural world here and not historic reality, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.320 though perhaps you know, if you read between the lines, 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:30.439 you can sort of see like realistic spycraft, you know, 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:32.960 at the heart of some of these legends. So according 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.400 to Yoda and All, there were several abilities that were 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.560 said to be linked to conception, such as the power 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.040 to remove an unborn child from the womb, change its features, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:46.639 and then return it to the womb. Also the transfer 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.040 of an unborn child from one woman to another, and 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.159 the ability for female shinobi to choose to have a 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.359 baby with any partner they've slept with over the last 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.959 ten months. This last one I found pretty interesting because 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:05.160 some organisms actually do engage in female sperm storage, a 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.040 form of sexual selection by which sperm cells are retained 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.040 by the receiving female for a period, sometimes a prolong 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.040 period of time before using said sperm. Human beings do 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:19.480 not do this, but you do find some organisms that do. 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:21.160 I recall reading about sharks. 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:27.240 Yes, yes, sharks are a great example. And yeah, sometimes 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:31.960 this involves post copulatory cryptic female choice. I believe the 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:37.600 terminology via various methods. So it is interesting that, yeah, 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:42.040 this is a supposed ability of legendary mythic female ninja, 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.359 but you have to go into the animal world to 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.560 find examples of it in reality. Now, it should also 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:50.600 come as no surprise, given the sort of fem fatale 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:53.800 nature of female ninja and pop culture, that some of 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.960 their weapons are related to seduction and sex. If go 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.960 ahead and maybe skip fifteen seconds of this if you 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:04.000 just want to skip the the very mild details here, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.440 but here they are. They include death by orgasm, death 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.880 by reversing the male's reproductive ejections, shall we say, back 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:16.199 into his body, killing him in the process. And then 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.520 there's the technique where they seduce a man so hard 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.080 that he's mentally turned into an infant. 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:22.760 HM. 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:24.320 Great trick if you can pull it off. 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:25.680 Yeah. 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.400 Now, I'm not sure that Frank Herbert was directly inspired 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:30.200 by any of this, And if I had to guess 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.439 I would say he was probably not, but I have 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.560 read that he did study Japanese and Chinese culture, among 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:38.560 so many other things, so it's not impossible that he 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.600 got some inspiration from all of this. And certainly, like 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:47.560 some of these, the detailed classifications of spycraft, we do 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.800 see these reflected in the Dune series. You know, it's 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:56.080 just thinking earlier about the Hearkenans hiding somebody away in 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:00.760 the walls in Araken as an assass a nation attempt 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:03.000 on the royal household. You know, there's somebody who's like 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.120 locked up for days or whatnot. You know, so who knows, 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.199 Maybe he was inspired by it, maybe not. Now for 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.040 other magical arts attributed to the ninja, well, we've already 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.359 mentioned the fictional phantom toad summoning of Juriah, but there 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.320 are some other interesting ones as well, and Yoda and 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:23.080 all mentioned some of these, And again, not all of 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:26.760 these are definitely classified as ninja or shnobi, but a 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.720 lot of them are kind of shinobi adjacent. And then 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.120 again you have to think about the fact that as 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.840 ninja myths in the popular culture kind of coalesce, they're 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:41.840 going to draw in multiple things. So one figure worth 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:47.000 looking at is sixteenth century sage Kashin Kogi, not a ninja, 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.639 more of a wizard, attributed with various acts of illusion 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:55.000 and shape shifting. So he would do things like allegedly 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.560 throw leaves into the water and make them turn into fish. 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.560 Various other entertaining illusion instead are maybe not that far 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:06.160 remove from the idea of somebody doing little illusionary tricks 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:08.440 on the sidewalk or in a subway station. 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:10.960 Oh that's interesting, yeah. 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.879 But yeah, he was according to legend, he was something 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.959 of a trickster for sure. For instance, there's this story 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:20.879 that he painted a detailed illustration of the torments of 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:24.119 Hell that when he looked at it, it seemed animated 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:27.119 to the naked eye, So you know, do with that 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.480 what you will. Maybe it was just like really detailed. 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:33.200 Maybe there was some sort of effect involved, or it 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.520 was magic. You know, he's a magical painter, and it 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:38.920 looks like it moves like you know, Harry Potter style 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.560 or something, and everybody was really impressed by it, and 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.200 in fact, the powerful Daimyo some called him the demon 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:49.360 Daimyo Nabunaga, insisted on buying it, and the negotiations apparently 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:53.720 included at least one assassination attempt on the artist, and 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:57.960 you know, but Cogie stuck to his guns and finally 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:00.359 agreed to sell it for just a crazy son, just 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:03.800 I don't know how much, but a lot, at which 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:08.679 point the art suddenly lost its animated magic and Nabanaga 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.880 is like, what happened? Why is it not moving anymore? 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:15.600 Why is it not as amazing as was previously? And 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.760 he's like, well, it used to be priceless, but then 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:20.679 we agreed on a price, and so the quality of 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.920 the piece adjusted to that price sounds like a great 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:25.639 way to get beheaded. But I don't know. You know, 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:28.280 that's the thing about being a trickster, daring, trickster wizard. 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:30.240 You can pull these things off. I guess. 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.680 Artists in the audience remember this negotiating. 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:36.160 Tape again, Yeah, yeah, try and pull that one off. 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:38.879