WEBVTT - The Ninja, Part 3 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:07.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.239 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:16.440 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.000 And I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part three 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:23.000 in our series on Ninja. Now, if you haven't heard 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.439 the first two parts of this series, this is a 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:27.840 case where you really should go back and listen to 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.400 those before you listen to today's episode, because we lay 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:35.480 a lot of groundwork, especially about the tricky historical questions 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.519 about the sort of accuracy of a lot of the 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.200 received knowledge about the ninja. And so if you are 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.839 wondering about like how the ninja fit into real history 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:52.080 versus pop culture and then sort of subsequent lore and legend, 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.320 we talk more about that in the previous episodes. Today 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.720 we're going to be focusing more on just some of 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.720 the great bits of tech mixture and the anecdotes from 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.080 that historical lore and legend, the stories of individual ninjas, 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.120 the stories of the stories of tools and techniques and 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:11.520 equipment and so forth. 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.440 Yeah, I mean, you basically can think of it this way. 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.440 The ninja existed, true statement, the ninja are a myth 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.400 and never existed. True statement depends on how you tease 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.280 it apart, you know, and likewise a lot of this too, 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.400 Like we'll get into specific examples of ninja tools or weapons, 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.120 and you can say this never existed, and then you 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.679 can also say, but I can buy one at the 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.119 mall today, and so it's like, well it exists now, right, 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.000 So it's it gets complicated. 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:42.880 This is a great time, I think, to discuss some 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:47.039 of the various ninjutsu manuals that were published beginning in 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:52.600 the Edo period, beginning under the Tokugawa Shogunate, that are 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.360 the source of a lot of the ninja lore that 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.400 we have today. So you can think about sort of 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.520 like multiple stages of development of the ninja lore over 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:07.240 the centuries. This is going way back. It's questionable whether 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.519 some of the things reported in these manuals were actually 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:15.600 used in the earlier periods, But these seventeenth eighteenth century 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.160 texts have lots of great stuff in them that I 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.880 think later gets picked up by authors, say in the 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:27.720 twentieth century, and reprocessed and turned into the pop culture 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.880 idea of the ninja. So there are multiple ninjitsu manuals, 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.520 and I'm just going to list some common characteristics of them. 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:42.600 So they will teach techniques of espionage, stealth, and intelligence gathering, 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.600 including everything from how to infiltrate a building using different 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.880 kinds of ladders to how to gag a prisoner. So 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:54.720 they're full of descriptions of techniques. They pass along practical 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.680 knowledge about real subjects, such as pharmacology like using herbs 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.360 to achieve an effect in the body, and how to 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:05.240 use gunpowders, so there is some amount of chemistry knowledge, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.160 at least as it was understood in the seventeenth century. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.720 In some of these books, they describe and illustrate tools 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.799 and equipment such as cow drops. You know, these spiked 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.079 spiked objects that would be used. You know, you'd throw 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.200 them on the ground to slow the advance of an 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.480 enemy or to deny them access to an area. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.799 Yeah, makabishi, I believe, is the term for these. And 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.639 these are interesting on their own terms because if you've 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:32.640 played Dungeons and Dragons, you may have used these. You know, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.560 these are pretty common way to slow down an enemy. 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.440 But apparently when you get into the history of their 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:45.000 use in shnobi activities, like some examples of them may 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:48.680 have been essentially organic or found items like essentially like 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.480 throwing nuts, you know, or today's version would be like 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.000 spreading legos all over the floor. That's not quite like 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.840 a nature fact or a found item, but you know, 0:03:57.880 --> 0:03:59.720 you get the idea and then that you could progress 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.560 from them into potentially like metal objects that are spiked 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.920 and so forth. And speaking of those ladders, yes, ladders 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.760 are absolutely a tool of the ninja. And if you 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:12.080 are in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign and you're playing 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:14.720 a rogue, go ahead and equip that ladder, bring that 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.200 ladder with you, and dare your dungeon master to make 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.640 you roll a dexterity check whilst climbing it. Ladders are great, 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:22.160 trust the ninja on this. 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.920 My current rogue has a real affinity for climbing. He's 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.280 got the I don't know it's level three or level 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:29.960 four or wherever it is. You get to pick one 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.560 of the feats, and he's got second story work where 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:34.799 you know, you can climb at the same rate you 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:35.400 can you can run. 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.080 That's great. Yeah, but I feel like we've been kind 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.960 of just like a modern Ninja batmanification of our understanding 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:44.880 of what rogues should have. Batman never carried a ladder 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:46.480 but he probably should have carried a ladder. I think 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:47.039 that would be great. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.440 The bat ladder, I mean, the rope ladder, will you 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.360 gets you a lot of places. I guess batman doesn't 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.960 need a ladder because he has the unrealistic, the back 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.240 claw thing that you can just shoot and will zip 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:57.040 him up anywhere. 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.520 Absolute trust in the masonry the buildings he's interacting with. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.320 Yeah, but anyway, all the stuff I've mentioned so far, 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.560 that's the stuff you would imagine a ninjitsu manual to include. Right, 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.960 you know, techniques about stealth tools. You could use, knowledge 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.520 about pharmacology and gunpowder and things like that. But there 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.599 are also things you might expect less. These manuals often 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:27.680 emphasize spiritual and philosophical elements of the shnobi lifestyle, like 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.159 some during the Edo period promote Confucianism with a strong 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.080 emphasis on loyalty, which of course was favored by the 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:40.120 Tokugawa shoguns. They sometimes also include moral discourses that serve 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:44.760 as justification for shnobi activities, like it's okay to use 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.440 lies and deception and trickery because they will help you win. 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.720 They're what you have to do to win, and what's 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.920 ultimately right is to be loyal to your masters and 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.919 to help win in the conflict. And so so you know, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.320 you got to deliver that intelligence. It doesn't matter if 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:03.000 you have to lie to do it. They sometimes also 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:07.920 include more esoteric guidance, like the use of astrology or divination. 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.240 They are often falsely attributed to a great hero or 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:18.200 legend from history. They do not depict shnobi in black 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:23.440 costumes and masks. They are not generally concerned with assassination, 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:27.440 nor do they usually describe hand to hand combat or 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.359 sword fighting techniques, as would come to be the calling 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.479 card of Ninja in later movies. Once again, they are 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:40.039 most often concerned with intelligence gathering, psychological warfare, and sabotage. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.480 And to this point, one of the manuals I'll mention 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.920 in a minute actually specifies that your shinobi your spies 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:50.640 should be selected based on intelligence and not physical strength, 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.919 because these people were not primarily thought of as fighters, 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.599 but as tricksters and observers gatherers of information. 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.799 Yeah, I mean, when you think about it, like your shnobi, 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:04.719 are they going to be able to throw down with 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.640 a samurai, an armed samurai like you know, one to 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.880 one in some sort of a battle. I think there's 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.040 a strong case to be made. No, the trickery if that, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.560 if that's sort of violent encounter where to occur, the 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.120 trickery is going to make the difference, not the martial arts. 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.480 I'm guessing that's right. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.400 As we talked about in the last episode, the idea 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:30.560 of shanoby as instigators of daring individual violence and hand 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:33.840 to hand combat, that is more of the later movie 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:37.200 ninja thing. The earlier emphasis is though there all there 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.160 are lots of sort of shinobi warfare activities in shnobi attacks, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.640 sneak attacks by night. Most of the time, these manuals 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:49.160 and early ideas of shinobi are are more focused on spying. 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.400 For just one example of how these older military manuals 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.880 might focus more on espionage strategy than on the type 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.880 of combat focused ninja behavior we think of today, there 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:06.560 was a sixteenth century military manual called the Kinetsushu, and 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.440 this text was from earlier than the major ninjutsu manual. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.080 So this is not I want to be clear, this 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.560 is not one of the ninjutsu manuals I'm talking about. 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.320 This is a general warfare manual from a little bit earlier, 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:22.520 and its focus is broadly on strategy and warfare, but 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:26.840 it contains a sub section on espionage techniques, and it 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.360 recommends things like the following. It says, before you go 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.240 on a military campaign, send spies into the area that 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:38.080 you're targeting to pose as merchants and craftsmen. And these 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.720 spies should make maps of local topography and try to 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.240 figure out the morale of locals, for example, by listening 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.920 to whether people sing sad songs or happy songs. And 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.120 you can also try to split loyalties within the region 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.800 by doing things like have your spies make donations to 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.960 local temples and shrines to win over the approval of 0:08:59.000 --> 0:08:59.920 the priests class. 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.560 And I'm guessing you had to be kind of selective 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.800 about how you do it, Like, don't immediately set up 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:06.839 shop and be like, hey, what do you think of 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:11.120 the latest Lena del Rey album. You know, tease it 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.080 out a little bit, make sure you have enough lead 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:18.079 time to really immerse yourself in the local community. 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.600 Exactly right. Oh, and I should say, by the way, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:22.440 I mentioned it in the last couple of episodes, but 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.640 just to flag again one of my major sources here. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.240 Also on the general facts about these ninjasu manuals is 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:32.720 a book by a British historian named Stephen Turnbull called 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.400 Ninja Unmasking the Myth from twenty seventeen, and so he 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.679 highlights several important ninjasu manuals that I wanted to talk 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.760 about for a moment here. These later manuals in the 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:48.520 seventeenth century onward were more directly focused on ninjitsu, and 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:53.079 they include texts such as the Gunpo Geoshu, which was 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.280 published in the sixteen fifties, and the famous mansen shu 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.600 Kai or benson Shukai from around sixteen seventy six, the 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.800 latter of which has in some instances been referred to 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.360 as the Ninja Bible, though this is probably a misleading 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:13.080 way to characterize it. Mens In Chuki or bens in Chukai. 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:17.199 The title means ten thousand rivers flowing together into an ocean, 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.200 and in particular this one is the source of a 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:25.680 lot of modern ninja lore. It contains details about ingenious 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:30.480 ninja gadgets and equipment. It also contains different philosophies about 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.520 spying and infiltration. It makes an interesting distinction between what 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:39.200 it calls yonin and enin yonin meaning open infiltration, So 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.880 this would be sneaking into somewhere by wearing a disguise, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.240 or being accepted by the target community, so you are 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:52.200 within view, but you are disguising your intentions in some way. Meanwhile, 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.120 en means invisibility or hiding, so this would be infiltration 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.320 by sneaking by night or hiding under floorboards. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.120 And that's where we get into some of these the 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:06.640 elements of patients and endurance that we mentioned in the 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.160 last episode. I believe like if you're going to have 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.400 to hide under the floorboards for let's say forty eight hours, 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.520 you know you're going to have to use some schanobi patients. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:17.400 That's right. 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.520 And that's one reason that there may not be as 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:25.000 much difference between the idea of practicing endurance or patients 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.360 and practicing stealth as you might originally think, like a 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:31.520 lot of stealth is patience. In fact, you could even 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.160 argue that the patience is very important when you are 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.000 just being accepted within a target community or in disguise. Right, 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:39.920 you've got to play the part for a long time 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:41.520 to sort of make people comfortable. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.240 Yeah, yeah, you got to actually run that business, Like, 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.199 don't offer like really deep discounts. They're going to be suspicious. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:50.840 Don't act like you're not interested in making a profit 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.640 one way or the other. Yeah, become a part of 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.320 the community and then betray them. 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:59.360 Another interesting thing about these ninjitsu manuals is the thing 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.960 that makes them really tempting to interpret is that sometimes 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.199 they might include explanations and references that seem kind of circumspect, 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.440 like they don't give all the details of what they're 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.240 talking about. And then sometimes they'll have a note like 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:16.440 additional information is only to be passed on by word 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:16.920 of mouth. 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.000 Oh boy, that sounds very shanobi. 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.400 Yeah. One random detail that I love, by the way, 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.320 just came across this in the book. This is about 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:32.080 the gun pogoshu. It's the claim that in the ancient past, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.880 men of the regions Ega and Coca, which are places 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.360 in Japan that are they have long been claimed as 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:43.240 national headquarters of shnobi training. So the claim is that 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.920 these these ninja from Ega and Coca would travel as 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:52.000 secret agents, and while doing so, they would pose as yamabushi, 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:56.960 which means street performers such as monkey tamers. So like 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.040 the next time you see a busker playing a Goo 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.160 Goo Dolls song on the sidewalk, or you see a 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.160 guy dressed up as Superman in Times Square, you might 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.480 wonder is this a ninja? Is this person gathering intelligence? 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.720 Another interesting fact about the gun Pogoshu in particular is 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.560 that some of its espionage advice is given in the 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.640 form of a collection of poems, poems about spying. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.520 Wow. Wow, that's fascinating that. Yeah, this goes hand in 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:24.280 hand with some of the things we've been talking about 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:28.920 about disguising yourself blending in. But I guess sometimes like 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.560 being the obnoxiously obvious person is also a way of 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:36.040 blending into the background, Like nobody suspects the like the 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.800 Time Square Elmo of Well, you may suspect the Times 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.680 Square Elmo of things, but probably not espionage, right. 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:56.040 Exactly anyway, So, with all the caveats we've previously established 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.680 about the historicity of what's in these manuals that, you know, 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.520 we might regard them with some historical skepticism. Nevertheless, they 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:07.760 do describe a lot of fascinating alleged tricks and tools 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.559 of ninjasu. So I think we should just dive right 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.359 in and talk about some alleged ninja techniques. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.280 Yeah, I want to pick up talking a little a 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:20.440 bit about the female shanobi or the kuno ichi, which 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:22.960 I believe we mentioned in passing in the first episode. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.480 You know, the idea that we could have have both 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:31.000 male and female ninja, and this does really stress the 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:36.520 the reality that that that shinobi activities would have covered 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.680 a lot of ground that isn't just concerned with assassination 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.640 or military and military and you know, direct military adjacent 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.960 combat adjacent activities, but get into all these areas of spycraft. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.240 And there is apparently, according to Yoda and Alt in 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.760 their book on Ninja's that I that I cited in 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:58.160 the previous episodes, there's no evidence that female shanobi ever 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.240 engaged in combat, though of course there are historic examples 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:06.200 of Japanese women serving as warriors, such as tome Gozen 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.600 of the late twelfth century. So again not saying they 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:13.880 weren't female warriors in Japanese history, and even that there 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:18.240 weren't female shannoby operatives who engaged in combat, but there's 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:23.880 no evidence of such, but there are writings about female 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:28.120 shinobi operatives, and this makes sense for reasons we already 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.840 stress like if you were going to engage in spycraft, 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.320 you're you're going to take advantage of whatever tools are 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.200 at your disposal. And there are going to be certain 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.720 segments of society through which females are going to be 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:42.760 able to travel with a little more ease or a 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:47.520 little less notice and there, and as we mentioned last time, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:52.800 there is at least one named female ninja Mochizuki chi Yojo, 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.760 and this individual is still somewhat of a mystery. There 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.760 are some arguments that she didn't exist at all, but 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.720 to an all lister existence as confirmed, so I guess 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.600 there is a certain amount of evidence on one side 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.960 of the argument to say that this person did exist 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.800 in some form. Assuming she did exist, however, she would 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.800 have been like a poet, a noble woman, and it's 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.320 said that she was affiliated with the Takata samurai clan 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.480 and to have presided over a team of the uruki 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.240 miko or walking maidens, so she would have kind of 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.320 like been a spymaster of female shanobi and so on 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.720 the realistic end of things. If there's truth to any 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.640 of this, whether we were dealing with the specifics of 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.440 this individual or just the general idea that there were 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:42.360 female spy operatives in Japan during the Warring States period, 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.680 just as there have been female spy operatives in pretty 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:47.600 much every culture. I think every culture, I think we're 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.840 going to be a safe assumption these would have been 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:56.840 female operatives who could travel around, often as Shinto holy women, 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:02.560 as entertainers, or perhaps prostitutots. Now on the legendary end 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.159 of the spectrum, however, female shenobi were often imbued with 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:10.160 various powers that were linked to female sexuality and reproduction, 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.919 and a lot of this has much in common with 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.560 various witchlike belief systems from around the world, you know, 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:20.679 even getting into ideas of like the monstrous feminine, you know, 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:23.760 the the other ing of of the female and taking 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.600 aspects of reproduction and sexuality and tweaking them into the 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.040 you know, the demonic realm and so forth. But this 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:34.800 also put me very much in mind of the benajesrit 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:39.000 from Frank Herbert's done as well as their later series counterparts, 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:43.359 the Honored Matre, were kind of like a splinter of 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.840 the benajestert who are their opposition. So I wanted to 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.080 run through some of the powers and abilities attributed to them, again, 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:55.280 we're dealing very much with the legendary supernatural end of 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.400 the of the the ninja pop cultural world here and 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.680 not his reality. Though perhaps you know, if you read 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.720 between the lines, you can sort of see like realistic spycraft, 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.120 you know, at the heart of some of these legends. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.040 So according to Joda and All, there were several abilities 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.880 that were said to be linked to conception, such as 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.719 the power to remove an unborn child from the womb, 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.720 change its features, and then return it to the womb. 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.399 Also the transfer of an unborn child from one woman 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.800 to another, and the ability for female shinobi to choose 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.679 to have a baby with any partner they've slept with 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.840 over the last ten months. This last one I found 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:41.840 pretty interesting because some organisms actually do engage in female 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:45.160 sperm storage, a form of sexual selection by which sperm 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:47.959 cells are retained by the receiving female for a period, 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.800 sometimes a prolong period of time before using said sperm. 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.080 Human beings do not do this, but you do find 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:57.560 some organisms that do. 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.200 I recall reading about sharks. 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:05.320 Yes, yes, sharks are a great example, and yeah, sometimes 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:10.000 this involves post copulatory cryptic female choice. I believes the 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:15.640 terminology via various methods. So it is interesting that, yeah, 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:20.119 this is a supposed ability of legendary mythic female ninja, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.439 but you have to go into the animal world to 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.640 find examples of it in reality. Now, it should also 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:28.720 come as no surprise, given the sort of fem fatale 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.879 nature of female ninja and pop culture, that some of 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:36.040 their weapons are related to seduction and sex. If go 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.040 ahead and maybe skip fifteen seconds of this if you 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.879 just want to skip the very mild details here, but 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.720 here they are. They include death by orgasm, death by 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:51.160 reversing the male's reproductive ejection, shall we say, back into 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.520 his body, killing him in the process. And then there's 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:58.240 the technique where they seduce a man so hard that 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.720 he's mentally turned into an infant. Hmmm, great trick if 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:02.360 you can put it off. 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:03.760 Yeah. 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.480 Now, I'm not sure that Frank Herbert was directly inspired 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.280 by any of this, and if I had to guess, 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:10.480 I would say he was probably not. But I have 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:13.600 read that he did study Japanese and Chinese culture, among 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.439 you know, so many other things, so it's not impossible 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.920 that he got some inspiration from all of this, and 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:24.680 certainly like some of these the detailed classifications of spycraft. 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:28.679 We do see these reflected in the Dune series. You know, 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.720 it's just thinking earlier about the Hearkenans hiding somebody away 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:38.880 in the walls in Araken as as an assassination attempt 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:40.960 on the royal household. You know, there's somebody who was 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.600 like locked up for days or whatnot. You know, so 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.320 who knows, maybe he was inspired by it, maybe not. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.600 Now for other magical arts attributed to the ninja, well 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:55.480 we've already mentioned the fictional phantom toad summoning of Juriah, 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:58.800 but there are some other interesting ones as well, and 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.119 Yoda and all mentions these, and again not all of 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.800 these are definitely classified as ninja or shnoby, but a 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.760 lot of them are kind of shinnobi adjacent. And then 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.160 again you have to think about the fact that as 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:15.920 ninja myths in the popular culture kind of coalesce, they're 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.920 going to draw in multiple things. So one figure worth 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:25.040 looking at is sixteenth century sage Kashin Kogi. Not a ninja, 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.719 more of a wizard attributed with various acts of illusion 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:33.080 and shape shifting, so he would do things like allegedly 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:36.640 throw leaves into the water and make them turn into fish. 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.640 Various other entertaining illusions that are maybe not that far 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:44.240 removed from the idea of somebody doing little illusionary tricks 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:46.520 on the sidewalk or in a subway station. 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:47.960 Oh that's interesting. 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:51.639 Yeah, but yeah, he was according to legend, he was 0:21:51.680 --> 0:21:55.600 something of a trickster for sure. For instance, there's this 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.840 story that he painted a detailed illustration of the torments 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:01.600 of Hell that when you looked at it, it seemed 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.080 animated to the naked eye, So you know, do with 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:07.560 that way you will. Maybe it was just like really detailed. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.239 Maybe there was some sort of effect involved, or it 0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.560 was magic. You know, he's a magical painter, and it 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:16.960 looks like it moves like, you know, Harry Potter style 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.639 or something, and everybody was really impressed by it, and 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:22.240 in fact, the powerful daimyo some called him the demon 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:27.440 Daimyo Nabunaga, insisted on buying it, and the negotiations apparently 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:31.560 included at least one assassination attempt on the artist, and 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:36.000 you know, but Cogie stuck to his guns and finally 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:38.399 agreed to sell it for just a crazy sum, just 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:41.880 I don't know how much, but a lot, at which 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:46.720 point the art suddenly lost its animated magic, and Nabonica 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:49.960 is like, what happened? Why is it not moving anymore? 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.240 Why is it not you knows as amazing as was previously, 0:22:53.560 --> 0:22:56.320 And He's like, well, it used to be priceless, but 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:58.640 then we agreed on a price, and so the quality 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.000 of the piece adjusted to that sounds like a great 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:03.679 way to get beheaded. But I don't know. You know, 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:06.320 that's the thing about being a trickster, daring, trickster wizard. 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:07.880 You can pull these things off. 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:11.720 I guess artists in the audience remember this negotiating. 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:14.200 Technique again, Yeah, yeah, try and pull that one off. 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:16.960 So Koji again not a ninja, but a figure that 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:21.119 crosses over with some of the attributed magics of the ninja, 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:24.199 and as a pop culture figure, he does pop up 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.000