WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Ninja, Part 4 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:09.160 Hey, it's Robert Lamb. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.000 It is Saturday, so we have a vault episode for you. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.760 This is going to be The Ninja Part four. It 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.880 originally published eight six, twenty twenty four. Let's dive right. 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:26.040 In Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:33.800 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.800 My name is Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.559 And today we're back with part four of our series 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.919 on the Ninja. Now, if you haven't heard the previous 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:45.640 three episodes, you should probably go back and check those 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.600 out first, but for a brief refresher. In the previous parts, 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.760 we talked about the origins of the term ninja and 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.120 its functional equivalent shanobi no mono, meaning a person who 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:02.840 practices sneaking secrecy, invisibility or in an alternate reading patience, 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.280 or endurance. We talked about the alleged historical origins of 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:12.080 the shinobi nomono as practitioners of espionage and undercover warfare 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.959 in Singoku era Japan, which covered parts of the fifteenth 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:19.840 and sixteenth centuries and was characterized by frequent uprisings and 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:24.560 civil wars, but we also discussed the complicated historical question 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.679 of to what extent the people who practiced spying, sabotage, 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.320 and sneak attacks during this period can actually be said 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.560 to connect to the modern literary archetype of the ninja, 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.720 which has evolved over several centuries and is almost certainly 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.920 composed in large part of legendary development and invented tradition. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.639 We talked, especially in the first part of this series, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.120 about how the ninja entered international pop culture in the 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:56.320 twentieth century and the characteristics of the pop culture ninja 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.720 and how those don't really match up with much of 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.880 even the historical legendary version of the ninja. We talked 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:07.640 about some individual shanobi warriors from legend and history, including 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.520 stories of ninja esque sorcerers who could ride on spectral toads, 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.080 and in the last episode, we talked about some of 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:19.840 the fantastic tools and techniques described in popular ninjitsu manuals 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:23.000 that were compiled and published beginning in the seventeenth century, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.720 including everything from the use of gunpowder and pharmacology to 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.560 the so called water spider device that wouldn't allow you 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.239 to do something in water questions remain. 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:38.960 That's right. And so we're back here for the final installment, 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:43.359 Part four, and as is often the case with our series, 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.639 part four is kind of and the rest. So we're 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.440 going to have examples of content that match up with 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.120 everything we just highlighted from the previous episodes. So like 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.120 a little bit more of everything we've been talking about, 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:58.240 I think getting into some I know some things that 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.520 were probably you know, pinging in your mind as you 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:03.120 listen to the first three, like when are they going 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:04.880 to talk about throwing stars? 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:09.560 That's right. One of the inanimate objects most closely associated 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.000 with the ninja in modern movies and storytelling is the 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:17.320 shuri can at the throwing star aka the ninja star. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.840 This is of course one of the big ninja weapons 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.400 of pop culture, and one of the things is just 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.760 instantly attractive about the ninja that you can't help but 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.280 want to throw a shuri caan at somebody or at 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.600 the wall. Even when my family when we were in Japan, 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:37.800 one of the hotels that we stayed at in Tokyo 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:42.480 had a ninja theme, and when your families were checking in, 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.640 they would give the kids like pretend suri can to 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:47.720 throw at a target on the wall. 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.440 Yes, I was reading about how shuri caan ranges are 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.640 like a common stop on sort of like ninja tourist offerings. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:04:01.720 Yeah. Yeah, so literally it basically means a blade in 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.240 the hand. And yeah. These are typically depicted in Japanese 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.960 ninja media as something you sling out rapid fire, like 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.240 kind of like you're dealing cards, throwing cards or something, 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.600 while a lot of Western ninja tails tend to present 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.480 them as these kind of deadly one shots. I think 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.000 we've all seen a movie in which a ninja throws 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.039 a shuri can and it gets somebody right in the 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:26.920 forehead and somehow kills them dead. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.360 Rob correct me if you have a different impression. But 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.960 I feel like a lot of ninja movies emphasize a 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.800 theme with the shuracan that's almost like in fact, you 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:40.120 mention another Western movie that borrows from a Japanese origin, 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.520 in The Magnificent Seven, there's that scene where there's you know, 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.800 James Coburn brings a knife to a gunfight and he 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.560 beats the gunfighter by throwing the knife faster than the 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.000 gunfighter can draw his gun. Of course, that movie is 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:57.560 based on seven Samurai originally, but there is I think 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.479 a similar thing going on with the Shura can and 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:01.880 a lot of these movies. It's like the blade, the 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.839 bladed Star beats technology every time. 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.120 Yeah, and it helps to have those rapid fire cuts too, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.440 because of course, the way you typically do a knife 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.880 throw or a surer can throw in cinema is you 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.720 just like cut two or pan over to where the 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.040 that the fake surrokin or the fake blade is already 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:24.760 like stuck in the person, so you know it's lightning fast. 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:26.920 It's like bam, there it is. It's like magically appeared 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:27.560 in their forehead. 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:30.760 Now, I think we mentioned in a previous episode. If not, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.039 I'll go ahead and mention now that one thing that 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:37.000 is quite surprising is that suri can actually do not 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:41.920 feature in any of the classic ninjitsu manuals that we 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.760 were talking about from beginning in the seventeenth century in 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.520 the last episode. Though that doesn't mean they did not 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.839 exist at all. There are some historical artifacts that can 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.000 sort of fit in this box. It's just the historically 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.359 until I'll get to this in a minute, until basically 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.160 the twentieth century, they were not particularly associated with ninja 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:02.880 or shanobi. 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:05.720 Yeah, and it's it's interesting to sort of tease to 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.840 the history of like just the the weapon itself. I 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.159 was reading about this in Heroko Yoda and Matt Alts 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.600 Ninja Attack, which again is an excellent little illustrated book 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:21.039 that covers all the all these highlights. But they point 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.159 out that not all of these various designs of the 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:28.159 shurican that we we do have would have been thrown. 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:32.560 Some of them were simply small handheld blades. And that's 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.320 interesting too, because when in ninja media, I can't think 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.719 of an example of anyone doing anything with a shurcan 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.920 other than throw it. You know, I don't think I've 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.640 ever seen anybody like whittle with one, or open open 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.200 a soda pop with one, or anything. You know. They're 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.599 just for throwing. And apparently of the ones that were thrown, 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.039 what the more likely scenario here is that they would 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.800 have been a close range nuisance or distraction weapon, as 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.200 opposed to that stale the one shot kill. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.080 Yeah, that very much squares with my understanding. So I 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:10.000 was reading about the origins of the association between shurikan 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.000 and ninja in a book that I've been referencing throughout 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.000 this series. It's a book called Ninja Unmasking the Myth 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.200 by a historian named Stephen Turnbull, which goes a lot 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:25.360 into the complicated questions the historicity of the ninja tropes 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.960 that exist today, and so in order to understand the 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:37.320 association that emerged between shurikan and ninja, it's apparently important 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.440 to understand a particular Japanese martial artist and author who 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.920 lived in the twentieth century named Fuji ta Seiko, who 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:49.320 was a practitioner and claimed to be a preserver of 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:54.960 the Ninjasu tradition of the Coca region of Japan. Fuji 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.679 to Seko lived from eighteen ninety eight to nineteen sixty six, 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:03.360 and fujits the writings were influential in creating the image 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.720 of the ninja that emerged in the mid twentieth century 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.560 after the conclusion of World War Two. I'm not going 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.600 to completely cover his biography, but I will say that 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.840 he is a fascinating and somewhat controversial figure worth reading 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.640 more about, just to hit some of the top lines. 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.720 In nineteen thirty six, he published a book called Ninjutsu Hiroku, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.840 which means something like Secret Notes on Ninjutsu which is 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.000 allegedly based on the secret Koca traditions that had been 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:37.120 passed down to his family through direct instruction without being 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.520 published for a general audience, and he claimed that he 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.800 was publishing this information about ninjutsu to help Japan win 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:49.480 its war against China. However, actually a lot of the 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:52.720 information that he includes in this book does come from 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.800 other pre existing ninjitsu manuals like the ones we talked 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.040 about in the last part of this series, like the 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.120 mans in Chukai or the bens in Chukai. So the 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.679 Ninjitsu Heroku reframes a lot of information from these previous 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.040 ninjasu manuals of the Tokugawa period, But apparently it does 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:15.000 things like rationalize a lot of magical sounding claims. For example, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.800 techniques that originally were presented as ways of transforming magically 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.199 into a rat are instead presented as making a noise 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:27.920 like a rat to confuse and distract guards, Or like 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.400 the idea that one could potentially turn invisible is rationalized 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.960 as well. You can walk in a certain way so 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.360 that you cannot be seen, thus causing the impression that 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:39.840 you've become invisible. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:40.680 Okay. 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.920 A lot of this book also concerns self glorifying claims 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.440 of practices of physical endurance and austerity. For example, he 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.199 claimed that, you know, as part of his practice, he 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.560 could like break glass bottles over his own head to 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:58.120 prove his toughness. He says he can do forty glass 0:09:58.120 --> 0:09:58.960 bottles in a row. 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.960 Oh, do not do not attend that, no idea. 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:04.680 I'm going to mention a few other things. Don't do 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.880 any of this, please. This is not a good training regime. 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.360 Even if you want to be a ninja, he says. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.520 The shanobi must be able to withstand torture without giving 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.640 up information. So he says, I have stabbed myself with 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.679 hundreds of needles. Here's a picture of me with all 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.640 the needles in me, and I have eaten roof tiles, 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:27.320 glass bricks, and rat poison. Again questionable whether he actually 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:29.520 did some of that. I think people did claim that 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.200 they saw him eating glass. I don't know about the poison, 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.280 but don't do any of this. He also apparently claimed 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.920 that he like knew dog language and thus could like 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.480 communicate with dogs to like call them for help if needed, 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.440 or make maybe make them fight each other. 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.920 Well, aside from the making them fight each other Please 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.719 feel free to experiment with this one. You can talk 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:52.640 to dogs. 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:57.240 Yes, better than eating poison and glass. Yeah. But one 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:03.400 of Fujiita Seko's most enduring contrabbutions to the ninja mythology 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.560 of today is his attachment of the shuriken in its 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.959 current form to the ninja legend. So I'm going to 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.520 try to get into that. Steven Turnbull in his book 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.320 actually as a whole chapter just on where the shuriican 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:22.319 comes from and how it connects to ninjitsu. So there 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:27.640 are references to the word shuriken in seventeenth century ninjitsu manuals, 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.679 but they are apparently referring to completely different objects than 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.080 we have in mind. We picture the ninja star that's 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.600 got you know. It's a star shaped, vaguely circular object 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.720 made of metal that has points all around so you 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:44.960 can throw it in the spinning fashion and wherever it 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.160 hits somebody, it's going to stab into them. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.120 That's right, And again we've seen this in movies time 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.720 and time again. I actually looked back at the James 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.920 Bond film that we talked about being pivotal in the 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.520 history of introducing the idea of the ninja to international 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:04.240 audience only live twice. And look, I didn't watch the 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.480 film in full, but I did find some YouTube clips 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.760 of it official on the James Bond YouTube page. Okay, 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.199 And there is a scene late in the film where 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.200 someone I think it's Bond himself throws a shuri can 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:19.160 at Blofeld and Blowfelt has a pistol, hits him in 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:20.720 the hand, knocks a pistol out of his hand. 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.200 This is actually a common thing in the movies where 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.760 the ninja will use it to disarm an opponent who 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:27.200 has them at a loss. 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:32.080 Yeah, and I guess, again, issues of accuracy and power aside. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.600 You know, I guess that's more realistic than the instant kill. 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.640 Yeah. I'm going to get to the likely use of 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.600 it in a second, to the extent it's even being 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:43.079 recommended to a ninja. But so, okay, what is this 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.080 If the shuracan referenced in the seventeenth century in ninjuitsu 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.520 manuals is not what we have in mind, what is it? Well? 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.840 One of the earliest references, according to Turnbull, is in 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:57.280 a is in a text called the gun Po Geoshu 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:02.040 of sixteen fifty three, and in this case, the shurcan 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.160 is said to be quote a torch made from split 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.640 wood and fitted into a metal base with a spike. 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.280 So that's interesting a torch. But the idea here is 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.040 you're a sentry up on a castle wall, and you 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.960 know it's nighttime, surrounded by darkness, and you need to 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.280 see what's happening down on the ground below at the 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:28.800 base of the castle wall, so you throw down this shuriken. 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.960 This object is a sort of combination torch lawn dart, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.280 and the metal spike sticks into the soil and the 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.360 torch illuminates the ground around the base of the wall. 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.040 All right, seems reasonable, seems practical. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:46.840 Yeah, that's a totally logical sounding tool. And it's interesting 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.080 because again, this sort of crosses that boundary that keeps 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:54.239 getting blurred in the history of ninja lore between weapons 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.680 intended for direct violence and things that are just tools 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:03.079 used to gather information. However, when it comes to direct references, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.920 there is another early reference to shuricken that is also dissimilar, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.880 dissimilar to what's the word there, disimilar to or dissimilar from. 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.679 It's not the same as a ninja star. This is 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.880 the bow churicken mentioned in some seventeenth century texts, which 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.480 is a bar or rod shaped object that could be 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.840 thrown by hand. So essentially this is just a large 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:25.800 steel dart. 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.400 Yeah, these these are really neat, and of course when 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:32.080 you start looking up weapons of the sort ninja weapons seeing, 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:33.560 you find there's a lot of drift. There's a lot 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:38.560 of like modernization and whether the weapon actually existed historically 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.440 or not somebody has made it now you can you 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.760 know again, buy it at the mall or something. But 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:45.880 these are pretty cool, and these are one of I 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.520 feel like just to dip back into Dungeons and Dragons 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.160 for a second. Anytime darts are are are mentioned, or 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:54.960 darts come up as a possible weapon in Dungeons and Dragons, 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.120 I feel like most people's mind, you know, given the 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:02.160 often sort of like Western eye fantasy setting of Dungeons 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.240 and Dragons, you often think of like a dart from 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:10.040 a pool hall, right, Yeah, dart board just small, you know, 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.480 basically a harmless weapon. And I would always want to 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.760 advise me, no, look up some bow shurikean and imagine 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:19.600 that for your character instead. It's still not going to 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.520 do a lot of damage in the game, but it 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:22.520 looks cooler. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.360 Yes, But coming back to the idea of not necessarily 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.760 needing to do a lot of damage. That actually connects 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:34.400 to where we get the first references too star shaped 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.280 churicken in an actual ninjitsu text, and that's in the 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.200 twentieth century. So here we're coming back to Fujita seiko 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.160 in Ninjitsu Heroku again, this is from the year nineteen 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.480 thirty six. He has a passage about shurikeen in his text, 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.160 and so I'm gonna hear read from Turnbull's featured translation. 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.800 So the author here writes, if you have to defend 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.200 yourself against a sudden attack by an enemy, puts some 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.640 distance between you to ensure your safety. In this case, 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.400 use the small weapon called a toby dogu, which means 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:12.000 throwing weapon, known to the author as shuriken. Samurai normally 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.760 despised these and other throwing weapons, but they are most 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.200 effective if used skillfully. The shuri caan can do great 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:23.680 damage if it hits someone's eye, So even in this 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.720 take from the nineteen thirties, the shuri caan is not 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.760 a primary weapon, but the idea seems to me to 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.800 be more like throwing sand in somebody's eyes. It's like 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.120 a trick you can use to buy time or advantage 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.480 if you're caught off guard or being chased. 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:43.320 Yeah, and in this scenario, especially keeping the samurai from 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.680 closing the distance between themselves and you, because that's life 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:49.320 and death at that point. If you can if you 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.840 can just keep the distance between yourself and the samurai, 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:54.800 then maybe you've got a chance to get away. 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.440 Right, It's the idea is throwing something to keep the 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.080 samurai out of sword range. 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.640 Yeah, this reminds me a little bit. We did, you know, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:03.880 a past episode of Stuff to Blow your mind. We 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:08.200 did a series talking about like throwing animals, throwing things, 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:12.520 and then we got for one episode into an overview 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:16.159 of like human history with thrown weapon objects, and you know, 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:18.760 they ranged from from well, I would say they range 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.680 from rocks to more complex weapons. But I remember, even 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.919 in talking about throwing rocks and stones as weapons, you know, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:27.680 there's a lot more to it. You know, there's a 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.400 lot of selection involved in picking up the exact correct object. 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:32.960 And this is a case where we get to that 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.000 next level of Okay, what have we crafted the items 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.159 that we wish to throw so that they could be 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:40.040 used more. 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:45.199 Optimally describing what devices to throw for this purpose. Fujiita advises, 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.680 for one thing, improvised hand thrown weapons such as knives 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.800 or hairpins, so it's like, if you know, throw whatever 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.159 you can get your hands on, but if you're going 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.520 to have a dedicated weapon to throw. He also illustrates 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.240 dedicated shurriken designs, and one of the illustrations is a 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.879 classic bo shurikan, a large steel dart. But he also 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.480 includes pointed metal stars, and so here we get our 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:14.719 first illustration of throwing stars in a ninjutsu text. So 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.720 one of the things he illustrates is cross shaped it 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:21.040 has four points, and another one is shown with eight points. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.479 This is in nineteen thirty six, the first ninja text 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.640 showing the star shaped shurican. However, it's clear that Fujiita 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:33.040 Seko did not invent this device from his imagination, because 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:37.120 even though earlier ninjitsu texts don't include them, we do 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:41.600 have evidence from earlier periods of vaguely star shaped blades 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.640 or cross shaped blades that did exist and could possibly 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.560 be thrown. So instead of looking for them in the 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.359 nunjitsu manuals, you can find them in the jiu jitsu 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:56.440 arsenals of the Tokugawa period, particularly associated with a martial 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.720 arts tradition called the Sego Reu. One of the documents 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.199 allegedly associated with this school of martial arts includes an 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.479 illustration of a weapon that is quite similar that is 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.240 described like two knife blades fastened in the middle with 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.880 a hinge. So the way I'm picturing this finder stand 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.600 it right, is it's like a pair of scissors, but 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.719 instead of one side of each blade being handles, it's 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:27.360 just blades on every point. Now, for several reasons, Turnbull 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.880 thinks that Fuji ta Seiko was probably not familiar with 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:36.040 this exact document that I just mentioned, and probably was 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:41.119 getting his knowledge of the star shaped throwing weapon just 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:45.680 from seeing these artifacts around. And there is other evidence 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:50.240 from history of people like having versions of these artifacts 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.680 even going back to the Tokugawa period. But they just traditionally, 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:56.719 it doesn't seem like they were super common, and they 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:00.000 weren't particular. They weren't associated as far as anybody knows, 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:04.320 with nujitsu until the twentieth century, and now that's all 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:05.320 they're associated with. 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.920 Yeah, I think we probably have to sort of try 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:13.240 and imagine that most likely more historically accurate vision of 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:20.080 Shanobi operatives as being you know, plain clothes espionage operatives 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.359 who you know, if you're going to carry items on you, like, 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:25.919 are you going to really commit to having these some 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.119 sort of a throwing star, sure, a can on your person, 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.600 something that again is I think going to be at 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:34.399 least in the modern understanding of it, is going to 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.639 be more obviously a weapon and therefore subject to you know, 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:42.760 I mean being judged in the illegal weapon or also 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.040 just being suspect in nature that you have it as 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.480 a and again, think about when you would supposedly use it, 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:52.359 like when the samurai are coming after you, or when 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.240 guards are coming after you, like really in the worst 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:58.600 case scenarios, and that might be a better place to 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.320 maybe depend on just throwing say, you know, found objects 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.200 like a bottle or some other item in your immediate vicinity, 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.520 as opposed to having some specialty device on your person instead. 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.360 There's one detail from Turnbull's chapter that is so interesting 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.400 I had to bring it up. It's about the design 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.000 that many people have probably seen of these basically swastika 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.359 shaped a throwing star that occurs in a lot of media. 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:29.280 This is a very familiar design for movies and stuff, 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.720 and apparently a lot of modern ninja books have featured 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:37.360 this design as if it were a traditional shuriken design, 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.960 but it is not, and in fact, there is an 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:45.240 anecdote from this chapter about how an actor who worked 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:51.880 on a nineteen sixties TV series in Japan called on Mitsukinschi, 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.199 which had a throwing star of this design, described that 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:00.359 really this design was created for the show because pause 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:04.719 these straight pointed throwing stars were deemed too dangerous on set, 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.960 so this was essentially a safety innovation that was later 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:13.600 misinterpreted as a real design of throwing stars as weapons. 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.640 Yeah, that's that's crazy, like basically a safety shit shuriken. 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:23.560 That's great. Yeah, I have another example of shurrokan inspired 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:27.480 fictional weaponry, and this one I thought was interesting because 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:29.800 it kind of stands, at least to my eyes, as 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:33.959 kind of like the ultimate in sci fi and fantasy 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:39.600 transformation of the ninja myth. So in the Warhammer forty 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.520 thousand universe, like a far future, you know, grim Dark scenario, 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:46.760 you have these. You have this species known as the 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:48.920 l Dar, and they're kind of like a sci fi 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.920 take on the elves. I mean, that's exactly what they are. 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:57.280 And they use pistols and rifles that use shurrocans as ammunition. 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:02.480 So these are said to be molecular, cutting edge weapons 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:06.359 fired in bursts from these guns and like they're so 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:09.720 sharp and they hit so it was with such velocity 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.479 that they just shred whatever they hit, be it a 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:17.480 mechanical foe or an organic foe. And again pretty far 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.000 removed from anything even remotely realistic we're talking about here, 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:22.919 but again I thought it was interesting. It's kind of 0:23:22.920 --> 0:23:25.920 like the extreme transformation of the shuriken in sci fi 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:29.880 and fantasy. I also, I didn't remember this at all 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.639 because I don't have a lot of memories regarding two 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:36.720 thousand and four as Alien versus Predator, But you might 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.800 remember that in other Predator movies he has this disc 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:43.719 that he throws that cuts people in half. And in 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:45.600