May 26, 2026 • 42 mins
Why did so many ninjas walk around with crickets? Why did they like to keep pocket change on them? And what does it mean when a ninja sends you a packet of dried fish? Today Will and Mango look to the past to distinguish ninja truths from ninja fiction!
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This episode originally aired on November 2, 2018.
Illustration of an 18th century ninja via Wikimedia Commons.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Guess what, well, what's that mango?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
So I was thinking about this old story I read
in Esquire where this NBA player was talking about how
he talked trash and to make the experience even worse
for his opponents, he would eat raw onions before a game,
so not only was his like mouth smelly, but his
entire body would just reek of onions. And obviously people
(00:24):
wouldn't want to get as close to him.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I mean, as if the trash talking wasn't bad enough
to have to deal with that smell. And actually, I
feel like it would almost be even worse if instead
of talking, he just kind of went near them and
just was.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Like breathing like quick class to them. But anyway, that's
so weird.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It is gross and ridiculous. But you know, I was
reading off on ninjas and Ninja diets on Atlas Obscure,
and this is the total opposite of that. So Ninjas
would actually avoid eating any smelly foods because they were
supposed to be completely undetectable even by smell, So think
about things like garlic, leeks, onions. Those were all off
the table. Also, since they had to be super agile.
(01:02):
You know, Ninjas had this ironclad ruled that they couldn't
weigh more than one hundred and thirty pounds. And because
they'd be lurking in shadows, you know, just waiting for
the right opportunity, they'd take these homemade hunger pills with them,
That's what they'd called them, so that their you know,
stomachs wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Start growling and give them away.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And one of these pills was made from yams, also
a bit of cinnamon rice, lotus pips. And there was
another snackball made of pine bark, ginseng and white rice.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
And why I don't think.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Anyone's gonna go on the ninja diet anytime soon exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Reading about this did make me wonder, like what else
don't we know about ninjas? Why did so many of
them keep crickets as pets, Like why were they staring
into cat's eyes?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Why do they keep pocket change on them?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
You know?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And and also does the ninja shark live up to
its reputations?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So let's take in, Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(02:14):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer And on
the other side, of the soundproof glass Mango. All week,
I've been excited to see what Tristan would be doing.
I thought maybe he would be hidden and we wouldn't
see him the entire episode pulling off the Ninja thing.
But instead he's showing off his Pirate costume again.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
For some reason.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. I'm not
really sure what's going on here because today's show is
all about Ninja's Do you think he just missed the
memo or what?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I asked him earlier and he said he's just showing
his love for the team. You know. I guess when
it comes to this eternal debate over who's cooler Pirates
or Ninja's, Tristan is apparently team Pirate all the way.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Oh wow, Well, we'll have to see if today's show
brings him around at all, because I'm just gonna come
out and say that I am team Ninja all the
way here.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah me too. You know, Pirates are cool, but to me,
they feel like loud mouths. You know, they're like brash,
and you know, like Ninjas are so calm and collected
and stealthy, and they use like smart tricks like misdirection.
You know, it feels like the two camps couldn't be
any more different.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
No, I agree completely, But you know, if pirates and
ninjas do have one thing in common, it's that both
groups are pretty misunderstood. You know, in our Pirate episode,
we talked about how most of what we know about
pirates really comes from popular fiction instead of things like
historical accounts, And it's actually the same story when it
comes to ninjas, Like we know them mostly as these
(03:43):
masked characters that Chuck Narris fights off in his movies,
or I don't know, as these pizza loving mutant turtles.
But you know, I hate to disappoint you, those portrayals
are not actually rooted in reality. So for today's episode,
we thought it'd be fun to peer into the shadows
surrounding ninja history and really kind of see if we
can get a better idea of what these legendary warriors
(04:05):
were really like. So we'll talk about where ninjas came from,
what kinds of missions they carried out, as well as
some of the coolest ninja skills, and you know, the
equipment you've probably never heard about.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So why don't we start with why ninjas are so
mysterious in the first place, and why it's likely that
they always will be. One thing I noticed while researching
is that even when ninjas were at their peak in Japan,
and this was in the early sixteenth century, nobody really
knew that much about them. And it makes sense because
ninja's were spies for the most part, so of course,
you know, they had to keep a low profile. They
(04:38):
didn't talk about their work, you know, especially with anyone
outside their klan. But rumors still swirled about these secretive warriors,
and as a result, ninja's became steeped in superstition pretty
much from the start. For instance, some Japanese folklore claims
that ninja's descended from a demon that was half men
and half cro and most villagers during the Ninja age
(04:58):
believed that ninjas possessed all sorts of supernatural powers, like
everything from shape shifting to invisibility to the.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Power to walk through walls.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And if you think about it, those kind of superpowers
are pretty easy to arrive at when you look at
some of the methods ninja's used, like they'd often disguise
themselves on missions. They were masters of concealment. They could
break into an enemy's house or infiltrate a fortress with ease,
and with a little bit of imagination, you've got a
ninja that can shape shift or walk through walls.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It makes sense.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, and it actually sounds a lot like what happened
with pirates, like the way all these embellished stories and
tall tales kind of sprang up right alongside them and
then later became just the accepted truth.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Because Ninja's capitalized on their own legends the same way
pirates did. Like Ninja's actually encouraged all these rumors because
they knew the inaccurate reports would make them seem more
dangerous to enemies, and it was also a great way
to muddy the waters and further conceal who they were
and how they functioned. Of course, there's a downside to that,
and that's that no one actually corrected the falsehoods, and
(06:00):
as a result, even written accounts from the era tend
to be exaggerated, which makes it tough to distinguish between
fact and fiction. You know, we only had three or
four manuals supposedly written by Ninja masters, and this was
shortly after their fall from power in the late sixteenth century,
and because they were ridden after the fact, it's possible
those are inaccurate as well.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But just like with pirates, there are at least a few
things we know that you know, we're true about ninja history.
For instance, we actually know a good bit about where
ninja practices first came from, and surprisingly much of that
philosophy comes from China, not from Japan. And in the
fourth or fifth century BCE suns who wrote his famous
Battle Guy The Art of War, which includes this section
(06:41):
extolling the virtue of stealth and surprise, which are of
course the backbone of ninja training.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So just to make sure I have what you're saying
is right. You know, you're saying that a lot of
the ideas of what it is to be in ninja
actually come from Chinese philosophy, but the Japanese were the
ones who actually put them into practice.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, that seems to be the case.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
And you know, most historians now agree that ninja practices
originated in central Japan during the early Middle Ages, and
that was a period when the country was really being
picked apart by warlords. Now luckily for would be ninja's.
The warlords were mostly interested in the more developed areas
of Japan, and that meant that the rural regions often
went overlooked and were typically warlord free. And so those
(07:24):
two factors combined to create these prime conditions for the
birth of ninjas.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Is that another reason why ninjas are still such a mystery,
Like not only did they keep their practice as a secret,
but they kind of developed in isolation.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
And you know, to be specific on this, they developed
in two such regions. There was Ega and Coga. Now
both of these were especially remote and almost completely undeveloped,
so there were no warlords there, and that's exactly how
the people liked it, so much so that the villages
began to organize themselves like these self defense communes. And
(07:59):
because they had neither the numbers nor the weaponry award
off invaders with any sort of real force, the rest
it's focused instead on these survival techniques, things like stealth, disguise, evasion, misdirection,
you know, all the basic ninjas.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Basic ninja stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, And so as their skills developed, these travelers started
telling stories and pretty soon these early ninjas were being
hired as mercenaries all over the country.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, and I think the mercenary role is really worth
lingering on for a second, because one of the biggest misconceptions,
at least I had about Ninja's is that there were
some kind of elite fighting force. And the truth is
that Ninja's mostly acted as medieval secret agents. They were
like hired by lords to spy on their enemies and
report back with intel or sometimes assassinated target, but they
(08:47):
occasionally acted as bodyguards. Still, they were mostly providing spy
work for the battlefield. But you know, they were never
traditional soldiers or warriors, and in fact, Ninjas didn't even
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Speaker 3 (11:48):
All right, So what about those classes that people take
where you learn to defend yourselves, you know, supposedly like
a ninja ninjitsu.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think it's called isn't that a martial art?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
It's not really a tradition martial art. You know, all
that came well after the Ninjas fell from power, and
it was never part of their real training. In fact,
most ninjas learned self defense during childhood from their family members,
but from there adult training would really focus more on
infiltration techniques, gymnastics, as well as these more esoteric topics
(12:19):
things like chemistry, weather, psychology. You've got to remember, ninjas
were mostly hired to gather information and survive long enough
to report back, and the whole point was not to
be seen and not to get caught, So fighting wasn't
actually a big part of the playbook, like most of
that was kind of a last resort in case.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Things went wrong.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well that makes sense, you know, since we're talking about
the importance of not being seen. I do want to
mention another common misconception that most of us have, which
is what ninjas wore on their mission. So you know
how ninjas are always depicted, you know, in these all black,
skin tight uniforms and sure kind of the ones with
hooded mask where you can really just see their eyes. Well,
(12:59):
it turns out that the Ninjas didn't have standard uniforms
like that at all, so most of the time they
were just in normal civilian clothing like anybody else, and
that's because ninjas often had to go deep undercover for
their missions. So as an example, warlords would frequently hire
ninjas to infiltrate another organization, and to do so, the
(13:19):
ninjas would disguise themselves as you know, people like gardeners
or construction workers, just anybody who might blend in around
a palace and not draw attention to themselves, which you
know makes sense.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
But how did those ninja sneak back to their warlords
without blowing their covers?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I found this interesting because they would actually do this
by adopting a different cover, and the most popular choice
was to dress up like a monk, because monks were
actually one of the few groups who were allowed to
pass freely between these various warring states in Japan at
the time, So anytime a ninja needed to report back
to a different province, they just slip on their monk
(13:58):
disguise and cross over the order.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know. When I was in Tibet and studying about
Tibetan culture and stuff, Tibet was also one of these
very secretive regions and the only way spies would come
through and sort of catalog what was there was dressed
as monks, and they would use their rosaries to count steps,
so they knew like the steps to various places, you know,
and that's how they count distances and stuff. It's pretty
(14:22):
fascinating that. Yeah, the monk disguise is such a great disguise.
But you know, it is a shame to me that
these ninjas didn't put on like their black cloaks and
just sneak back in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, if Tristan had done his homework, he probably
would be dressed up as a monk today instead.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Of a pirate.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And I will say, I mean, I want the ninja
uniform to be true as much as you do, but
it does seem like history is not on our side
with this one.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Oh No. That being said, ninjas.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Did go on plenty of these one night missions, and
when they did, what they were was not all that
dissimilar from what we liked to imagine. I mean, there
are a couple of key differences. First was that those
real stealt ninja outfits were not skin tight. I mean,
the ninjas had to perform all these acrobatics to get
in and out of these buildings without being seen, so
(15:07):
it was better to have clothing that breathed a little
bit and would allow for a good degree of movement.
And then second, black wouldn't have been their color of choice,
not only because it would have been difficult to achieve
because of the dyes that were available at the time,
but black also tends to reflect moonlight, which would definitely
be a no no on these night missions. So instead,
(15:28):
historians believe ninjas wore dark brown or navy blue clothes
when they were doing these late night scouting missions.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I like that they were both fashionable and practical.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Funny too, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
One thing I've been thinking about is that people usually
think of ninjas and samurai as polar opposites, and to
a certain extent, that makes sense. Like, Samurai had really
bold personalities. They were pretty renown for their toughness and
their bravado. Plus they dressed really, really colorfully. And meanwhile,
Ninja's were secretive and mostly out for themselves elves. They
(16:01):
practiced deception and stealth and avoided combat whenever possible. You know,
the demeanor and tactics of the two groups couldn't have
been more far apart. But at the same time, that
disparity actually turned off a lot of Japanese citizens. They
were used to the explicit bravery and the undying loyalty
of the samurai. I mean, that was their measure of
(16:21):
a warrior, not this like stealthy, underhanded stuff that ninjas
were doing.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So did people not think much of ninja's at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Not at first, apparently, like they eventually came around over time,
samurais and warlords both kind of realized the value of
these covert operations and that it was useful for winning
battles or whatever. But you know, it wasn't uncommon to
see ninjas and samurai on the same side of the battlefield,
and some people even practice both professions, Like you'd have
(16:50):
a samurai by day and ninja by night, which just
feels like a great business card.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Well, and even though what they wore was drastically different,
samurai ninjas did use some of the same equipment, didn't they.
Like I read somewhere that they both use that same
kind of sword, like the katana, I think, right.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Mm hmm, that's right. So the main difference was that
samurai wore the swords on the hips, while ninjas carried
them on their backs, which obviously seems like the way
to go for someone who's always like climbing on walls
and jumping across rooftops. And you know, the katana was
a part of some Ninja missions, but mostly they preferred
to carry shorter and less conspicuous blades.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Actually, I kind of want to stick with this subject
and talk a little bit more about some of the
lesser known gear that Ninja carried around with them. But
before we do that, let's take a quick break. You're
(17:50):
listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the
surprising truths behind the Ninja legend. All right, Mango, So,
I know one thing we were both scared to find
out this week, I mean really scared to find out
is whether or not Ninja's actually used throwing stars.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I know we talked about this as we were pregnant
for the episode, and uh, I feel like I've been
mentally preparing all week in case you decide to ruin
my life by telling me that Ninjas didn't use throwing stars.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Well, I've got good news, because yes, Ninja's absolutely use
throwing stars. They you know, those pointed stars were used
to seeing We're part of a broader class of weapon
called shurikin, and it's a term that covers any kind
of throwing weapon, including stars or flat knives, darts, wooden sticks,
or actually even coins.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Wait do you say coins, like like people could just
take coins out and throw them at their enemies.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well, I mean it sounds like they did this.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And you know, this is actually where reality maybe differs
a little bit from the fictional ninjas, because real ninjas
didn't really use these like an offensive weapon all that often,
so instead they would take these shurikins as kind of
a distraction or delaying tactic. So let's say you've got
a ninja that's hiding in the shadows and a nearby
(19:06):
guard was getting a little too close, so he might
be able to throw a coin or a knife in
the opposite direction and get the guard to follow. That
sound so yeah, of course, if a ninja was discovered,
then these could also be used more defensively. You know,
for example, if a guard charged toward them, ninjas could
buy some time by forcing their enemies to dodge or
block a bunch of projectiles, and those few seconds could
(19:29):
be just what the ninja needed to either mount a
stronger attack or in most cases, you know, plot an
escape route.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's interesting, and I think I like the explanation even
better than just throwing a fist full of coins at someone.
But yeah, I am curious, like, why would they bother
with something as unwieldy as a throwing star if the
intention is just distraction? Right, Like, I mean, the other
stuff you mentioned makes sense, But throwing stars have a
ton of sharp points. They kind of feel like a liability,
(19:58):
Like if I was reaching into my pocket, I'd be
I worried I'd be cutting my finger.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Every time I reach for one. And that's why you're
not an ju.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
But I mean, you know, I can tell you that
these throwing stars were considered actually a little bit easier
to throw than some of the other Sure it can,
like you know, the flat throwing knives, And that's because
the stars have these multiple points that spin when they're
in flight, and it actually makes it a little bit
easier to aim these things and throw these things. And
(20:25):
plus it likely didn't hurt that a bunch of spinning
blades makes for a pretty menacing site when it's coming
right at you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, that makes sense, you know, I know, we wanted
to talk about some of the weirder skills and gadgets
that Ninja's had at the disposal, but really quickly, I
did want to mention a few other blades that Ninja's
put to good use. So first up, there's the kusaragama,
which was this small sickle with a chain on the
end of the handle. And this was especially helpful for
ninjas who were undercover because this is actually a farming tool,
(20:54):
so if a Ninja was caught with one, he could
just claim to be a gardener. And then the other blades,
like I wanted to talk about, where the kunai, and
these are little daggers which were borrowed from another sort
of harmless trade masonry in this case, and they were
shaped like trowels, only a little bit sharper, and the
ninja used this for scaling walls rather than fighting like
(21:14):
they would infiltrate a castle by pulling out their kunai
and then climbing way up the wall by digging holes
into the plaster as they went.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
That's pretty neat, And you know, it was really surprising
when we found out just like all of the unusual
or unique things that they would find to be able
to use as tools and their utility belt. But I
know we both found a lot of stuff that Ninja's
relied on that honestly feels even stranger than that. And
there's one I definitely want to talk about, and it's
a particularly helpful Ninja skill, and it's the ability to
(21:45):
tell time from looking into a cat's eyes.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Now, something I would.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Never do, but I respect this skill. And this is
a real thing. I'm not making this up. It's called
Nikomei jutsu, and it's based on the fact that cats
have these especial sensitive eyes, including these pupils that can
drastically change in size throughout the day and response to
changing light. And so Ninja's would spend a lot of
time apparently staring into cat's eyes because they were able
(22:13):
to determine the time of day down to the exact
hour just by looking at these cat's pupils.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That is so weird. Yeah, I know, it really is.
It is.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And you know, for all of our more cat and
clying listeners out there that want to give this a
shot and report back, you should know that a cat's
pupils start out super round in the early morning, and
then they begin to narrow to like more of an
oval shape as the sun climbs higher in the sky,
and then the pupils reach their narrowest at noon, when
they basically look like those thin straight lines we sometimes
(22:45):
picture as cat eyes, and they gradually start to widen
as the afternoon goes on. And so if you really
want to get precise about this, you can search online
for cat's eyes sundial and become a nakomi jutsu master yourself.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's funny.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So you could actually, like look at a cat print
advertisement un tell exactly when it was shot by looking
at the That's very crazy, you know. I feel like
telling the time for your cat's eyes is somehow both
the dorkiest and kind of the most impressive thing I've
heard about ninja's today, I think so. So this next
skill doesn't involve seeing like a cat. It is more
(23:22):
about moving like one. It's called tai hen jutsu, and
it's basically the art of quieting your movements because obviously
ninjas had to sneak around a lot, and that's kind
of a big part of the job, so they grew
adept at all kinds of noise canceling practices like absorbing
their falls or rebounding off something quietly, or just softening
(23:42):
their footsteps by walking on the outsoles of the feet
and keeping their knees bent as they did. You know,
Ninja's had become such masters of quiet movement that it
really freaked out warlords, and warlords started building houses with
these floors that were prone to squeaking, just so ninja
couldn't sneak up on them. And that wasn't all either, Like,
(24:03):
some warlords hired these bodyguards to watch them sleep every
night and even demanded that all members of the household
wear baggy clothes so that they would drag along the
floor and just make noise wherever they went.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, you know, these guys sound pretty paranoid for a
bunch of warlords.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
It's a little strange.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
But you know, I actually came across another technique that
ninja's used to mask their movements, and this one's pretty
ingenious if you ask me so. Apparently, when ninjas needed
to travel silently through a forest or make their way
through an enemy camp, they would actually bring along with
them a small box or jar of live crickets, and
so the noise from the chirping crickets would help cover
(24:42):
the sound of the ninja's footsteps and prevent their location
from being given away by any stray sounds like snapping
twigs or crunchy snow. But ninjas couldn't afford the deal
with uncooperative crickets, so they actually use these special chemical
mixtures that would either entice the crickets to chirp or
compel them to stay silent, depending on what the situation
(25:03):
called for.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's pretty amazing, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I was gonna say insects and birds usually go quiet
when they sense a predator is near, so I'd imagine
crickets wouldn't always feel like chirping when they're strapped to
a ninja. So it is interesting that they've got a
way to make them chirp.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, it's true, and it's actually another good reason why
ninja's carried these crickets, because, if you think about it,
if all the animals in an area suddenly went quiet,
that might tip off the guards that there would be
a ninja nearby. And so if the ninja has a
bunch of these drug induced chirping crickets at his side,
the noise could actually keep the other animals from blowing
his cover.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Drugged up crickets.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
It's crazy, Yeah, it is amazing how resourceful these ninjas were,
like that they just saw these crickets and realized they
could make use of them.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
That's amazing, Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And you know, speaking of being resourceful, you know, ninja's
use different powders to blind their opponents. I feel like
you've seen a little bit of this and things like movies,
but I read their containers of choice for this were
hollowed out eggshells, which was something I had not seen before.
So apparently they would poke a needle in a chicken
egg and then drain out the contents of that egg
(26:13):
through the hole, and then they would refill it with
some sort of blinding agent. And this could be anything
from sand or salt to iron filings or pepper powder,
I mean pretty much anything guaranteed to bring some tears
and irritate the respiratory system. So in a fight, ninjas
would smash the trick eggs into their opponent's eyes, incapacitating
(26:35):
them and giving the ninja a chance to plan his
next move.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
That is so weird.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So my cousins and I used to fill eggs with
sand like that as a kid and then just drop
them off. The first story of my grandma's house as
kind of spy bombs, and I had no idea that
it was actually a ninja technique we were using.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Also, take that back what I said earlier, maybe you
were actually a ninja. You know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know this sounds so much weirder, But can you
imagine how thrown off you'd be if like you were
in the middle of a fight and the ninja just
pulled out a chicken egg and then tried to jam
it in your face, Like, I'm so confused. You know.
I didn't come across any examples of ninja food fights, unfortunately,
but I did find a few cases where they used
(27:18):
food is a way to pass along secret information. So
one example of this is something called goshiki mi, and
it roughly translates to five colored rice. The ninjas would
take a bunch of grains of rice and they'd paint
them five different colors like red, blue, yellow, black.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
And purple.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
And then whenever ninja had something to report while undercover,
you could just like go to the side of the
road or some out of the way place and scatter
a bunch of grains for other ninjas from the same clan.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Defined so I guess this was based on some sort
of code system that they all knew or what was this?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Definitely, so, the number of grains they dropped and the
different color combinations all had their own specific meanings, and
none of it would mean much to an enemy or
even a random path or by. But in Ninja with
the know how, would be able to you know, read
over one hundred different codes using this method. Also, just
as a side note, it was safe for birds. Supposedly,
(28:10):
the paint would tip them off that the rice wasn't
grain or seeds, and they'd steer clear of it on
their own. But what's really wild is that gushikimai wasn't
even the only kind of food code that Ninja's used.
According to a text from this eighteenth century Japanese writer,
Ninja's also sent pieces of fish to communicate an important date,
like if an undercover Ninja hit upon like the perfect
(28:32):
day for reinforcements to storm a castle. For example, he
could send his clan some fish, and the size of
the fish and the number of pieces indicated the month
and the day he had in mind. Oh wow, yeah,
it's stunning, you know. The way the fish was prepared
also mattered. So if it was dried fish, that meant
you were planning to commit arson. Salted fish meant that
you had some sort of treachery in the works. But
(28:55):
it wasn't just rice and fish. According to Apples Obscura,
Ninja's also used sweetcake to call for reinforcements and red
rolls to call for forces to attack the enemy from
the rear. They also had a rice case code, which meant,
I guess a request for provisions.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I kind of want to do something like this, but
like just indicating what time a meeting will start, like
rather than sending around, you know, I need invitation Electronically,
We're going to send each other like some fish or
maybe some of those like granola bars, and depending on
you know, whether they're unwrapped.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I don't know. I need to think of the code.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yes, I'll keep you guys posted, and that's going to
be how we indicate what time meetings start.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
But anyway, one of the things I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
About is how Ninja's went mainstream and really take a
look at how their legacy is holding up today. But
before we get to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Okay, Well, so today we know that ninja's has become
pretty iconic figures of pop culture. They show up in
video games, comics, cartoons, this pretty much an entire genre
of action films devoted to them. But of course it
wasn't always like this, And actually it wasn't until the
nineteen sixties that ninja's really made their splash in the
Western world, roughly three hundred years after the heyday of
(30:23):
real life ninjas.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
So what happened in the.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Sixties, Well, as weird as it sounds, James Bond happened.
So more specifically, the movie You Only Live Twice happened,
and when the movie version debuted in nineteen sixty seven,
it featured Bond on a mission in Japan where he
was supposed to be trained as a ninja by this
Japanese secret agent named Tiger Tanaka. And for many people
(30:47):
in the West, this was the first exposure to ninja culture,
or at least what passed for it in the movies.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And I'm guessing probably not the most accurate portrayal though,
right no.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
In fact, just listening to this quote from the British
travel Right Now and historian named John Man, this is
what he wrote. Quote the Bond movie popularized the idea
of ninja among people who are not interested in martial arts.
It's quite strange, really, the idea of the ninja spread,
but in the film they're not represented as ninja at all,
more as commandos. Nevertheless, that's what made the term popular
(31:18):
in the West. I blame James Bond, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Actually I just pulled up the IMDb page for You
Only Live Twice, and this is super interesting. But it
actually looks like we can also blame Role Dahl because
he apparently wrote the screenplay for this movie.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
That is really weird. I feel like I've read Rolldal's
entire catalog and I had no idea that he worked
on a James Bond movie.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, this is what it says, and he strayed pretty
far from the source material with the whole ninja plot.
But that's not even the strangest thing on IMDb, apparently,
while scouting locations in Japan, the movie's entire chief production
team actually narrowly escaped death and this was all thanks
to a bunch of ninjas. So apparently the team was
(32:00):
invited to this last minute ninja demonstration and they missed
their flight as a result. But the plane that they
would have been on it actually wound up crashing and
killing everybody on board.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That is really horrible. It also feels like I got
misled there. I thought the Ninja's like swooped into Save
to Day and said they just had the performance, that that's.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
What they did.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, they just had to put on a show. But
you know, in terms of accuracy, the portrayals only got
less connected to reality as ninja's became more and more popular.
So by the time the nineteen eighties rolled around, ninjas
really had cemented themselves as these characters and children's programming,
you know, right up there with like cowboys and spacemen
and of course pirates. So ninja characters started popping up
(32:45):
in Gi Joe, like in their toy line. I actually
vividly remember this, and Batman's Origin even got a rewrite
to include a stint where he underwent ninja training before
he you know, pulled it all together. And there was
actually this full blown ninja cret all through the eighties
and well into the nineties, right in the prime of
our childhood. And that's only in the last decade or
(33:08):
so that that ninja fever has cooled a bit and Now,
they mostly show up in places like anime series and
internet culture, and they're really usually more portrayed in a
playful light, I guess, but it feels like they don't
get as much respect as you would think they would have,
given how impressive their history is. And I guess that's
probably the cost of Ninja's having kept so much of
(33:30):
their practice a secret.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, I mean, that sounds right to me.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
But the good news is that the Ninjas of the
past probably wouldn't be too bothered by that. I mean,
I'm not saying they'd appreciate the implication that a bunch
of teenage muton turtles could do their job, but ninjas
did go along with plenty of far fetched legends in
their day, and they'd probably consider it a far worse
tragedy if we'd figured out everything about them and sort
of ruined their mystery.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'm curious, though, are there any real ninjas left in
the world, Like, I know, there's the whole ninjitsu martial
arts community, but it sounds like that's kind of its
own thing, doesn't really have much basis in tradition. But
are there, you know, any of the old clans still around.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yes and no.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
So there are actually two men who could reasonably claim
the title of Japan's last ninja because they're both leaders
of surviving ninja clans, the Bond Clan and the Toga
Kure Clan. The head of the Bonklan is this guy
named Jinichi Kawa Kami, and he's pushing seventy but still
teaches ninjasu classes and also runs a ninja museum. And
(34:32):
the other Ninja master is Masaki Hasumi, and he's about
a decade older than the other guy, and he was
actually the martial arts advisor on that Bond film. Today's
semi retired, but he still teaches ninja history part time
at a Japanese university.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
All right, So these guys are like the real deal,
like they actually know the techniques handed down from that
golden age of ninja's way back in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
I mean, that's definitely the claim. But both men come
from families with strong ninja heritage. They have a lot
of history, and once they became masters, they were supposedly
granted access to these secret scrolls and tools of their
respective clans dating back as far as five hundred years.
Of course, no one else has seen or likely will
see those artifacts, so it is hard to verify their
(35:18):
authenticity or even their contents.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
I mean, it feels like someone will eventually see this stuff,
right Like, I assume these guys have been busy training
successors so the clans. You know, they won't die out
completely once they're gone, at least you'd hope not. That's
what I thought as well, But it turns out that
both men are in agreement that neither will appoint anyone
to take over for them as ninja grand masters. This
(35:42):
is what mister Kawakami explained in an interview a few
years back.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
In the age of civil wars, ninja's abilities to spy
and kill or mixed medicine may have been useful, but
we now have guns, the internet, and much better medicines,
so the art of ninjitsu has no place in the
modern age. We can't try out murder or poisons. Even
if we can follow the instructions to make a poison,
we can't.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Try it out.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
You know, I was really feeling for the guy right
up until the part where he lamented not being able
to try out murder.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
I think that's I think that's where I lost it.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It is frustrating for true ninjas. But you know, this
is the quote from mister Hatsumi when he was asked
about his decision to not select an air This is
what he told reporters. Quote, my students will continue to
practice some of the techniques that were used by ninjas,
but a person must be destined to succeed the Klan,
and there is no such person.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Well, that is a definitive answer, if nothing else, I guess,
but still still kind of a sad one.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
I think.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah, I think you're ultimately right that ninjas would appreciate
that their mystique is still intact after all these years.
But I just hope that, along with all the cartoon
ninjas and the cheesy Chuck Norris films, that we still
find ways to remember the real thing. I mean, there
was a time when ninjas were very bizarre but very
real force in the world, and be ashamed to forget
(37:02):
that completely.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Well, I think between the two of us we probably
got some unforgettable Ninja facts for the fact off, So
let's just dive in.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
And twenty ten, Bloomberg News reported that security agents at
a Japanese airport made Steve Jobs throw away his ninja
stars before he boarded his private plane. I guess he'd
picked up these objects and wanted to bring them home
with them. They're really beautiful things, and of course he
was doubly irritated when he had to leave them, because
the logic was that he might use the throwing stars
(37:43):
to hijack his own plane, and so Apple later downplayed
and even refuted the incident, but Bloomberg stuck with their story.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
I like this idea of like Steve Jobs, being a
ninja fanboy.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
It is very amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
You know. Apparently ninja's aren't just land based creatures. There's
also a ninja of the sea, the ninja lantern shark,
and apparently most lantern sharks who dwell deep in the
sea glow from their bellies, but this newly discovered ninja
shark doesn't. They're totally black, and they do have this
faint blue glow that emerges from their heads. But you
(38:19):
don't have to be too scared of them. Mental Flaws says.
They're only really the size of a ferret. But the
best part of the ninja shark to me is how
it got its name. So the lead scientists on the study.
Vicky Vasquez let her four kids, who were aged eight
to fourteen, decide on the name, and what they lobbied
for was the super Ninja, but she dialed it back
(38:40):
to just plain ninja. Also, I know it's so cute,
but the shark's Latin name is e bench Lady, which
is a tribute to Peter Benchley, the author of JOSS.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
And even if they are the size of ferrets, I'm
pretty sure i'd still be scared if I saw something
that was called a ninja shark.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
I mean, I'm scared to ferret. So, oh right, that's
a good point too. I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
All right.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Well, if you're headed to Tokyo this year, you can
visit the newly open Ninja Museum, which is the brainchild
of the Japan Ninja Council. So this is this group
of scholars and townships that have banded together to increase
enthusiasm for ninjas around the world. But here's what's fascinating
to me. It's that the Ninja Council is very focused
on shedding light on how well rounded these ninjas were.
(39:27):
So according to Smithsonian, the Ninja Council notes that quote,
Ninjas often did their work not by executing insane flips
and perching on rooftops, but by making friends and working
their social connections. The art of the ninja includes things
like social skills, conversation techniques, mnemonics, food, astronomy, and weather. So,
(39:48):
I mean, honestly, it kind of feels like they're trying
to make ninjas so much less interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
It also feels like they're opening up the definition of
ninja to anyone, Like, yeah, like food, you could be
a ninja. Do yeah, exactly about the weather, you could.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Be a ninja. You're a ninja.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
So, speaking of ninja, did you know that four thousand
women have been actively training to become ninja and iran
for over twenty years now. Oh, there's this club that
has over twenty four thousand members, supposedly, and the women
practice everything from backflips to weapons training to trying to
blend into the landscape. Of course, as the group's leader states,
vetting the women who are interested in the program is
(40:24):
a top priority. This is what he says, quote, I
must be very sure that my students will not use
the techniques of ninjasuit to hurt anyone or sneak into
someone else's house.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
All right, Well, here's one that I honestly think is
going to be hard to top. I've been saving this
one for very last. According to the site Consequence of Sound,
in nineteen ninety one, Axel Rose was late to a
Guns n' Roses concert in Tampa because he was watching
the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles two Secret of the Ooze,
so he refused to go on stage until the movie
(40:56):
was finished. And when the management at the venue kept
pleading why he wouldn't go on, here's what his manager said,
Axel's attention is one hundred percent on the movie right now,
and he should not be bothered.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
You know, I had been trying to find a good
Mutant Ninja Turtle fact, but I didn't. But the fact
that you brought Axel Roses to the mix too, I
feel like you earned the trophy. That's it for today's
part time Genius. If you've got a great ninja fact
we missed, be sure to share it to our Facebook
or Twitter. And from Gabe Tristan Willemy, thank you so
much for listening.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Hey Mango, look Tristan's gone.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works,
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
and Eves.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Jeffcote gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Do we forget Jason?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Jason who
Guess what, well, what's that mango?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
So I was thinking about this old story I read
in Esquire where this NBA player was talking about how
he talked trash and to make the experience even worse
for his opponents, he would eat raw onions before a game,
so not only was his like mouth smelly, but his
entire body would just reek of onions. And obviously people
(00:24):
wouldn't want to get as close to him.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
I mean, as if the trash talking wasn't bad enough
to have to deal with that smell. And actually, I
feel like it would almost be even worse if instead
of talking, he just kind of went near them and
just was.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Like breathing like quick class to them. But anyway, that's
so weird.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
It is gross and ridiculous. But you know, I was
reading off on ninjas and Ninja diets on Atlas Obscure,
and this is the total opposite of that. So Ninjas
would actually avoid eating any smelly foods because they were
supposed to be completely undetectable even by smell, So think
about things like garlic, leeks, onions. Those were all off
the table. Also, since they had to be super agile.
(01:02):
You know, Ninjas had this ironclad ruled that they couldn't
weigh more than one hundred and thirty pounds. And because
they'd be lurking in shadows, you know, just waiting for
the right opportunity, they'd take these homemade hunger pills with them,
That's what they'd called them, so that their you know,
stomachs wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Start growling and give them away.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And one of these pills was made from yams, also
a bit of cinnamon rice, lotus pips. And there was
another snackball made of pine bark, ginseng and white rice.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
And why I don't think.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Anyone's gonna go on the ninja diet anytime soon exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Reading about this did make me wonder, like what else
don't we know about ninjas? Why did so many of
them keep crickets as pets, Like why were they staring
into cat's eyes?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Why do they keep pocket change on them?
Speaker 4 (01:46):
You know?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And and also does the ninja shark live up to
its reputations?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So let's take in, Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(02:14):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer And on
the other side, of the soundproof glass Mango. All week,
I've been excited to see what Tristan would be doing.
I thought maybe he would be hidden and we wouldn't
see him the entire episode pulling off the Ninja thing.
But instead he's showing off his Pirate costume again.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
For some reason.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. I'm not
really sure what's going on here because today's show is
all about Ninja's Do you think he just missed the
memo or what?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I asked him earlier and he said he's just showing
his love for the team. You know. I guess when
it comes to this eternal debate over who's cooler Pirates
or Ninja's, Tristan is apparently team Pirate all the way.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Oh wow, Well, we'll have to see if today's show
brings him around at all, because I'm just gonna come
out and say that I am team Ninja all the
way here.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah me too. You know, Pirates are cool, but to me,
they feel like loud mouths. You know, they're like brash,
and you know, like Ninjas are so calm and collected
and stealthy, and they use like smart tricks like misdirection.
You know, it feels like the two camps couldn't be
any more different.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
No, I agree completely, But you know, if pirates and
ninjas do have one thing in common, it's that both
groups are pretty misunderstood. You know, in our Pirate episode,
we talked about how most of what we know about
pirates really comes from popular fiction instead of things like
historical accounts, And it's actually the same story when it
comes to ninjas, Like we know them mostly as these
(03:43):
masked characters that Chuck Narris fights off in his movies,
or I don't know, as these pizza loving mutant turtles.
But you know, I hate to disappoint you, those portrayals
are not actually rooted in reality. So for today's episode,
we thought it'd be fun to peer into the shadows
surrounding ninja history and really kind of see if we
can get a better idea of what these legendary warriors
(04:05):
were really like. So we'll talk about where ninjas came from,
what kinds of missions they carried out, as well as
some of the coolest ninja skills, and you know, the
equipment you've probably never heard about.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
So why don't we start with why ninjas are so
mysterious in the first place, and why it's likely that
they always will be. One thing I noticed while researching
is that even when ninjas were at their peak in Japan,
and this was in the early sixteenth century, nobody really
knew that much about them. And it makes sense because
ninja's were spies for the most part, so of course,
you know, they had to keep a low profile. They
(04:38):
didn't talk about their work, you know, especially with anyone
outside their klan. But rumors still swirled about these secretive warriors,
and as a result, ninja's became steeped in superstition pretty
much from the start. For instance, some Japanese folklore claims
that ninja's descended from a demon that was half men
and half cro and most villagers during the Ninja age
(04:58):
believed that ninjas possessed all sorts of supernatural powers, like
everything from shape shifting to invisibility to the.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Power to walk through walls.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And if you think about it, those kind of superpowers
are pretty easy to arrive at when you look at
some of the methods ninja's used, like they'd often disguise
themselves on missions. They were masters of concealment. They could
break into an enemy's house or infiltrate a fortress with ease,
and with a little bit of imagination, you've got a
ninja that can shape shift or walk through walls.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
It makes sense.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, and it actually sounds a lot like what happened
with pirates, like the way all these embellished stories and
tall tales kind of sprang up right alongside them and
then later became just the accepted truth.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Because Ninja's capitalized on their own legends the same way
pirates did. Like Ninja's actually encouraged all these rumors because
they knew the inaccurate reports would make them seem more
dangerous to enemies, and it was also a great way
to muddy the waters and further conceal who they were
and how they functioned. Of course, there's a downside to that,
and that's that no one actually corrected the falsehoods, and
(06:00):
as a result, even written accounts from the era tend
to be exaggerated, which makes it tough to distinguish between
fact and fiction. You know, we only had three or
four manuals supposedly written by Ninja masters, and this was
shortly after their fall from power in the late sixteenth century,
and because they were ridden after the fact, it's possible
those are inaccurate as well.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
But just like with pirates, there are at least a few
things we know that you know, we're true about ninja history.
For instance, we actually know a good bit about where
ninja practices first came from, and surprisingly much of that
philosophy comes from China, not from Japan. And in the
fourth or fifth century BCE suns who wrote his famous
Battle Guy The Art of War, which includes this section
(06:41):
extolling the virtue of stealth and surprise, which are of
course the backbone of ninja training.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So just to make sure I have what you're saying
is right. You know, you're saying that a lot of
the ideas of what it is to be in ninja
actually come from Chinese philosophy, but the Japanese were the
ones who actually put them into practice.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, that seems to be the case.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
And you know, most historians now agree that ninja practices
originated in central Japan during the early Middle Ages, and
that was a period when the country was really being
picked apart by warlords. Now luckily for would be ninja's.
The warlords were mostly interested in the more developed areas
of Japan, and that meant that the rural regions often
went overlooked and were typically warlord free. And so those
(07:24):
two factors combined to create these prime conditions for the
birth of ninjas.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Is that another reason why ninjas are still such a mystery,
Like not only did they keep their practice as a secret,
but they kind of developed in isolation.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
And you know, to be specific on this, they developed
in two such regions. There was Ega and Coga. Now
both of these were especially remote and almost completely undeveloped,
so there were no warlords there, and that's exactly how
the people liked it, so much so that the villages
began to organize themselves like these self defense communes. And
(07:59):
because they had neither the numbers nor the weaponry award
off invaders with any sort of real force, the rest
it's focused instead on these survival techniques, things like stealth, disguise, evasion, misdirection,
you know, all the basic ninjas.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Basic ninja stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, And so as their skills developed, these travelers started
telling stories and pretty soon these early ninjas were being
hired as mercenaries all over the country.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, and I think the mercenary role is really worth
lingering on for a second, because one of the biggest misconceptions,
at least I had about Ninja's is that there were
some kind of elite fighting force. And the truth is
that Ninja's mostly acted as medieval secret agents. They were
like hired by lords to spy on their enemies and
report back with intel or sometimes assassinated target, but they
(08:47):
occasionally acted as bodyguards. Still, they were mostly providing spy
work for the battlefield. But you know, they were never
traditional soldiers or warriors, and in fact, Ninjas didn't even
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Speaker 3 (11:48):
All right, So what about those classes that people take
where you learn to defend yourselves, you know, supposedly like
a ninja ninjitsu.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think it's called isn't that a martial art?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
It's not really a tradition martial art. You know, all
that came well after the Ninjas fell from power, and
it was never part of their real training. In fact,
most ninjas learned self defense during childhood from their family members,
but from there adult training would really focus more on
infiltration techniques, gymnastics, as well as these more esoteric topics
(12:19):
things like chemistry, weather, psychology. You've got to remember, ninjas
were mostly hired to gather information and survive long enough
to report back, and the whole point was not to
be seen and not to get caught, So fighting wasn't
actually a big part of the playbook, like most of
that was kind of a last resort in case.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Things went wrong.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well that makes sense, you know, since we're talking about
the importance of not being seen. I do want to
mention another common misconception that most of us have, which
is what ninjas wore on their mission. So you know
how ninjas are always depicted, you know, in these all black,
skin tight uniforms and sure kind of the ones with
hooded mask where you can really just see their eyes. Well,
(12:59):
it turns out that the Ninjas didn't have standard uniforms
like that at all, so most of the time they
were just in normal civilian clothing like anybody else, and
that's because ninjas often had to go deep undercover for
their missions. So as an example, warlords would frequently hire
ninjas to infiltrate another organization, and to do so, the
(13:19):
ninjas would disguise themselves as you know, people like gardeners
or construction workers, just anybody who might blend in around
a palace and not draw attention to themselves, which you
know makes sense.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
But how did those ninja sneak back to their warlords
without blowing their covers?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I found this interesting because they would actually do this
by adopting a different cover, and the most popular choice
was to dress up like a monk, because monks were
actually one of the few groups who were allowed to
pass freely between these various warring states in Japan at
the time, So anytime a ninja needed to report back
to a different province, they just slip on their monk
(13:58):
disguise and cross over the order.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You know. When I was in Tibet and studying about
Tibetan culture and stuff, Tibet was also one of these
very secretive regions and the only way spies would come
through and sort of catalog what was there was dressed
as monks, and they would use their rosaries to count steps,
so they knew like the steps to various places, you know,
and that's how they count distances and stuff. It's pretty
(14:22):
fascinating that. Yeah, the monk disguise is such a great disguise.
But you know, it is a shame to me that
these ninjas didn't put on like their black cloaks and
just sneak back in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
You know, if Tristan had done his homework, he probably
would be dressed up as a monk today instead.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Of a pirate.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And I will say, I mean, I want the ninja
uniform to be true as much as you do, but
it does seem like history is not on our side
with this one.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Oh No. That being said, ninjas.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Did go on plenty of these one night missions, and
when they did, what they were was not all that
dissimilar from what we liked to imagine. I mean, there
are a couple of key differences. First was that those
real stealt ninja outfits were not skin tight. I mean,
the ninjas had to perform all these acrobatics to get
in and out of these buildings without being seen, so
(15:07):
it was better to have clothing that breathed a little
bit and would allow for a good degree of movement.
And then second, black wouldn't have been their color of choice,
not only because it would have been difficult to achieve
because of the dyes that were available at the time,
but black also tends to reflect moonlight, which would definitely
be a no no on these night missions. So instead,
(15:28):
historians believe ninjas wore dark brown or navy blue clothes
when they were doing these late night scouting missions.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I like that they were both fashionable and practical.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Funny too, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
One thing I've been thinking about is that people usually
think of ninjas and samurai as polar opposites, and to
a certain extent, that makes sense. Like, Samurai had really
bold personalities. They were pretty renown for their toughness and
their bravado. Plus they dressed really, really colorfully. And meanwhile,
Ninja's were secretive and mostly out for themselves elves. They
(16:01):
practiced deception and stealth and avoided combat whenever possible. You know,
the demeanor and tactics of the two groups couldn't have
been more far apart. But at the same time, that
disparity actually turned off a lot of Japanese citizens. They
were used to the explicit bravery and the undying loyalty
of the samurai. I mean, that was their measure of
(16:21):
a warrior, not this like stealthy, underhanded stuff that ninjas
were doing.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
So did people not think much of ninja's at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Not at first, apparently, like they eventually came around over time,
samurais and warlords both kind of realized the value of
these covert operations and that it was useful for winning
battles or whatever. But you know, it wasn't uncommon to
see ninjas and samurai on the same side of the battlefield,
and some people even practice both professions, Like you'd have
(16:50):
a samurai by day and ninja by night, which just
feels like a great business card.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Well, and even though what they wore was drastically different,
samurai ninjas did use some of the same equipment, didn't they.
Like I read somewhere that they both use that same
kind of sword, like the katana, I think, right.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Mm hmm, that's right. So the main difference was that
samurai wore the swords on the hips, while ninjas carried
them on their backs, which obviously seems like the way
to go for someone who's always like climbing on walls
and jumping across rooftops. And you know, the katana was
a part of some Ninja missions, but mostly they preferred
to carry shorter and less conspicuous blades.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Actually, I kind of want to stick with this subject
and talk a little bit more about some of the
lesser known gear that Ninja carried around with them. But
before we do that, let's take a quick break. You're
(17:50):
listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the
surprising truths behind the Ninja legend. All right, Mango, So,
I know one thing we were both scared to find
out this week, I mean really scared to find out
is whether or not Ninja's actually used throwing stars.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I know we talked about this as we were pregnant
for the episode, and uh, I feel like I've been
mentally preparing all week in case you decide to ruin
my life by telling me that Ninjas didn't use throwing stars.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Well, I've got good news, because yes, Ninja's absolutely use
throwing stars. They you know, those pointed stars were used
to seeing We're part of a broader class of weapon
called shurikin, and it's a term that covers any kind
of throwing weapon, including stars or flat knives, darts, wooden sticks,
or actually even coins.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Wait do you say coins, like like people could just
take coins out and throw them at their enemies.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Well, I mean it sounds like they did this.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
And you know, this is actually where reality maybe differs
a little bit from the fictional ninjas, because real ninjas
didn't really use these like an offensive weapon all that often,
so instead they would take these shurikins as kind of
a distraction or delaying tactic. So let's say you've got
a ninja that's hiding in the shadows and a nearby
(19:06):
guard was getting a little too close, so he might
be able to throw a coin or a knife in
the opposite direction and get the guard to follow. That
sound so yeah, of course, if a ninja was discovered,
then these could also be used more defensively. You know,
for example, if a guard charged toward them, ninjas could
buy some time by forcing their enemies to dodge or
block a bunch of projectiles, and those few seconds could
(19:29):
be just what the ninja needed to either mount a
stronger attack or in most cases, you know, plot an
escape route.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
That's interesting, and I think I like the explanation even
better than just throwing a fist full of coins at someone.
But yeah, I am curious, like, why would they bother
with something as unwieldy as a throwing star if the
intention is just distraction? Right, Like, I mean, the other
stuff you mentioned makes sense, But throwing stars have a
ton of sharp points. They kind of feel like a liability,
(19:58):
Like if I was reaching into my pocket, I'd be
I worried I'd be cutting my finger.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Every time I reach for one. And that's why you're
not an ju.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
But I mean, you know, I can tell you that
these throwing stars were considered actually a little bit easier
to throw than some of the other Sure it can,
like you know, the flat throwing knives, And that's because
the stars have these multiple points that spin when they're
in flight, and it actually makes it a little bit
easier to aim these things and throw these things. And
(20:25):
plus it likely didn't hurt that a bunch of spinning
blades makes for a pretty menacing site when it's coming
right at you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, that makes sense, you know, I know, we wanted
to talk about some of the weirder skills and gadgets
that Ninja's had at the disposal, but really quickly, I
did want to mention a few other blades that Ninja's
put to good use. So first up, there's the kusaragama,
which was this small sickle with a chain on the
end of the handle. And this was especially helpful for
ninjas who were undercover because this is actually a farming tool,
(20:54):
so if a Ninja was caught with one, he could
just claim to be a gardener. And then the other blades,
like I wanted to talk about, where the kunai, and
these are little daggers which were borrowed from another sort
of harmless trade masonry in this case, and they were
shaped like trowels, only a little bit sharper, and the
ninja used this for scaling walls rather than fighting like
(21:14):
they would infiltrate a castle by pulling out their kunai
and then climbing way up the wall by digging holes
into the plaster as they went.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
That's pretty neat, And you know, it was really surprising
when we found out just like all of the unusual
or unique things that they would find to be able
to use as tools and their utility belt. But I
know we both found a lot of stuff that Ninja's
relied on that honestly feels even stranger than that. And
there's one I definitely want to talk about, and it's
a particularly helpful Ninja skill, and it's the ability to
(21:45):
tell time from looking into a cat's eyes.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Now, something I would.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Never do, but I respect this skill. And this is
a real thing. I'm not making this up. It's called
Nikomei jutsu, and it's based on the fact that cats
have these especial sensitive eyes, including these pupils that can
drastically change in size throughout the day and response to
changing light. And so Ninja's would spend a lot of
time apparently staring into cat's eyes because they were able
(22:13):
to determine the time of day down to the exact
hour just by looking at these cat's pupils.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That is so weird. Yeah, I know, it really is.
It is.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
And you know, for all of our more cat and
clying listeners out there that want to give this a
shot and report back, you should know that a cat's
pupils start out super round in the early morning, and
then they begin to narrow to like more of an
oval shape as the sun climbs higher in the sky,
and then the pupils reach their narrowest at noon, when
they basically look like those thin straight lines we sometimes
(22:45):
picture as cat eyes, and they gradually start to widen
as the afternoon goes on. And so if you really
want to get precise about this, you can search online
for cat's eyes sundial and become a nakomi jutsu master yourself.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
That's funny.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So you could actually, like look at a cat print
advertisement un tell exactly when it was shot by looking
at the That's very crazy, you know. I feel like
telling the time for your cat's eyes is somehow both
the dorkiest and kind of the most impressive thing I've
heard about ninja's today, I think so. So this next
skill doesn't involve seeing like a cat. It is more
(23:22):
about moving like one. It's called tai hen jutsu, and
it's basically the art of quieting your movements because obviously
ninjas had to sneak around a lot, and that's kind
of a big part of the job, so they grew
adept at all kinds of noise canceling practices like absorbing
their falls or rebounding off something quietly, or just softening
(23:42):
their footsteps by walking on the outsoles of the feet
and keeping their knees bent as they did. You know,
Ninja's had become such masters of quiet movement that it
really freaked out warlords, and warlords started building houses with
these floors that were prone to squeaking, just so ninja
couldn't sneak up on them. And that wasn't all either, Like,
(24:03):
some warlords hired these bodyguards to watch them sleep every
night and even demanded that all members of the household
wear baggy clothes so that they would drag along the
floor and just make noise wherever they went.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, you know, these guys sound pretty paranoid for a
bunch of warlords.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
It's a little strange.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
But you know, I actually came across another technique that
ninja's used to mask their movements, and this one's pretty
ingenious if you ask me so. Apparently, when ninjas needed
to travel silently through a forest or make their way
through an enemy camp, they would actually bring along with
them a small box or jar of live crickets, and
so the noise from the chirping crickets would help cover
(24:42):
the sound of the ninja's footsteps and prevent their location
from being given away by any stray sounds like snapping
twigs or crunchy snow. But ninjas couldn't afford the deal
with uncooperative crickets, so they actually use these special chemical
mixtures that would either entice the crickets to chirp or
compel them to stay silent, depending on what the situation
(25:03):
called for.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That's pretty amazing, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
I was gonna say insects and birds usually go quiet
when they sense a predator is near, so I'd imagine
crickets wouldn't always feel like chirping when they're strapped to
a ninja. So it is interesting that they've got a
way to make them chirp.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, it's true, and it's actually another good reason why
ninja's carried these crickets, because, if you think about it,
if all the animals in an area suddenly went quiet,
that might tip off the guards that there would be
a ninja nearby. And so if the ninja has a
bunch of these drug induced chirping crickets at his side,
the noise could actually keep the other animals from blowing
his cover.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Drugged up crickets.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
It's crazy, Yeah, it is amazing how resourceful these ninjas were,
like that they just saw these crickets and realized they
could make use of them.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
That's amazing, Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And you know, speaking of being resourceful, you know, ninja's
use different powders to blind their opponents. I feel like
you've seen a little bit of this and things like movies,
but I read their containers of choice for this were
hollowed out eggshells, which was something I had not seen before.
So apparently they would poke a needle in a chicken
egg and then drain out the contents of that egg
(26:13):
through the hole, and then they would refill it with
some sort of blinding agent. And this could be anything
from sand or salt to iron filings or pepper powder,
I mean pretty much anything guaranteed to bring some tears
and irritate the respiratory system. So in a fight, ninjas
would smash the trick eggs into their opponent's eyes, incapacitating
(26:35):
them and giving the ninja a chance to plan his
next move.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
That is so weird.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So my cousins and I used to fill eggs with
sand like that as a kid and then just drop
them off. The first story of my grandma's house as
kind of spy bombs, and I had no idea that
it was actually a ninja technique we were using.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Also, take that back what I said earlier, maybe you
were actually a ninja. You know what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
You know this sounds so much weirder, But can you
imagine how thrown off you'd be if like you were
in the middle of a fight and the ninja just
pulled out a chicken egg and then tried to jam
it in your face, Like, I'm so confused. You know.
I didn't come across any examples of ninja food fights, unfortunately,
but I did find a few cases where they used
(27:18):
food is a way to pass along secret information. So
one example of this is something called goshiki mi, and
it roughly translates to five colored rice. The ninjas would
take a bunch of grains of rice and they'd paint
them five different colors like red, blue, yellow, black.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
And purple.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
And then whenever ninja had something to report while undercover,
you could just like go to the side of the
road or some out of the way place and scatter
a bunch of grains for other ninjas from the same clan.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Defined so I guess this was based on some sort
of code system that they all knew or what was this?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Definitely, so, the number of grains they dropped and the
different color combinations all had their own specific meanings, and
none of it would mean much to an enemy or
even a random path or by. But in Ninja with
the know how, would be able to you know, read
over one hundred different codes using this method. Also, just
as a side note, it was safe for birds. Supposedly,
(28:10):
the paint would tip them off that the rice wasn't
grain or seeds, and they'd steer clear of it on
their own. But what's really wild is that gushikimai wasn't
even the only kind of food code that Ninja's used.
According to a text from this eighteenth century Japanese writer,
Ninja's also sent pieces of fish to communicate an important date,
like if an undercover Ninja hit upon like the perfect
(28:32):
day for reinforcements to storm a castle. For example, he
could send his clan some fish, and the size of
the fish and the number of pieces indicated the month
and the day he had in mind. Oh wow, yeah,
it's stunning, you know. The way the fish was prepared
also mattered. So if it was dried fish, that meant
you were planning to commit arson. Salted fish meant that
you had some sort of treachery in the works. But
(28:55):
it wasn't just rice and fish. According to Apples Obscura,
Ninja's also used sweetcake to call for reinforcements and red
rolls to call for forces to attack the enemy from
the rear. They also had a rice case code, which meant,
I guess a request for provisions.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I kind of want to do something like this, but
like just indicating what time a meeting will start, like
rather than sending around, you know, I need invitation Electronically,
We're going to send each other like some fish or
maybe some of those like granola bars, and depending on
you know, whether they're unwrapped.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
I don't know. I need to think of the code.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yes, I'll keep you guys posted, and that's going to
be how we indicate what time meetings start.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
But anyway, one of the things I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
About is how Ninja's went mainstream and really take a
look at how their legacy is holding up today. But
before we get to that, let's take one more quick break.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Okay, Well, so today we know that ninja's has become
pretty iconic figures of pop culture. They show up in
video games, comics, cartoons, this pretty much an entire genre
of action films devoted to them. But of course it
wasn't always like this, And actually it wasn't until the
nineteen sixties that ninja's really made their splash in the
Western world, roughly three hundred years after the heyday of
(30:23):
real life ninjas.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
So what happened in the.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Sixties, Well, as weird as it sounds, James Bond happened.
So more specifically, the movie You Only Live Twice happened,
and when the movie version debuted in nineteen sixty seven,
it featured Bond on a mission in Japan where he
was supposed to be trained as a ninja by this
Japanese secret agent named Tiger Tanaka. And for many people
(30:47):
in the West, this was the first exposure to ninja culture,
or at least what passed for it in the movies.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And I'm guessing probably not the most accurate portrayal though,
right no.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
In fact, just listening to this quote from the British
travel Right Now and historian named John Man, this is
what he wrote. Quote the Bond movie popularized the idea
of ninja among people who are not interested in martial arts.
It's quite strange, really, the idea of the ninja spread,
but in the film they're not represented as ninja at all,
more as commandos. Nevertheless, that's what made the term popular
(31:18):
in the West. I blame James Bond, you know.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Actually I just pulled up the IMDb page for You
Only Live Twice, and this is super interesting. But it
actually looks like we can also blame Role Dahl because
he apparently wrote the screenplay for this movie.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
That is really weird. I feel like I've read Rolldal's
entire catalog and I had no idea that he worked
on a James Bond movie.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, this is what it says, and he strayed pretty
far from the source material with the whole ninja plot.
But that's not even the strangest thing on IMDb, apparently,
while scouting locations in Japan, the movie's entire chief production
team actually narrowly escaped death and this was all thanks
to a bunch of ninjas. So apparently the team was
(32:00):
invited to this last minute ninja demonstration and they missed
their flight as a result. But the plane that they
would have been on it actually wound up crashing and
killing everybody on board.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That is really horrible. It also feels like I got
misled there. I thought the Ninja's like swooped into Save
to Day and said they just had the performance, that that's.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
What they did.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, they just had to put on a show. But
you know, in terms of accuracy, the portrayals only got
less connected to reality as ninja's became more and more popular.
So by the time the nineteen eighties rolled around, ninjas
really had cemented themselves as these characters and children's programming,
you know, right up there with like cowboys and spacemen
and of course pirates. So ninja characters started popping up
(32:45):
in Gi Joe, like in their toy line. I actually
vividly remember this, and Batman's Origin even got a rewrite
to include a stint where he underwent ninja training before
he you know, pulled it all together. And there was
actually this full blown ninja cret all through the eighties
and well into the nineties, right in the prime of
our childhood. And that's only in the last decade or
(33:08):
so that that ninja fever has cooled a bit and Now,
they mostly show up in places like anime series and
internet culture, and they're really usually more portrayed in a
playful light, I guess, but it feels like they don't
get as much respect as you would think they would have,
given how impressive their history is. And I guess that's
probably the cost of Ninja's having kept so much of
(33:30):
their practice a secret.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, I mean, that sounds right to me.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
But the good news is that the Ninjas of the
past probably wouldn't be too bothered by that. I mean,
I'm not saying they'd appreciate the implication that a bunch
of teenage muton turtles could do their job, but ninjas
did go along with plenty of far fetched legends in
their day, and they'd probably consider it a far worse
tragedy if we'd figured out everything about them and sort
of ruined their mystery.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I'm curious, though, are there any real ninjas left in
the world, Like, I know, there's the whole ninjitsu martial
arts community, but it sounds like that's kind of its
own thing, doesn't really have much basis in tradition. But
are there, you know, any of the old clans still around.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yes and no.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
So there are actually two men who could reasonably claim
the title of Japan's last ninja because they're both leaders
of surviving ninja clans, the Bond Clan and the Toga
Kure Clan. The head of the Bonklan is this guy
named Jinichi Kawa Kami, and he's pushing seventy but still
teaches ninjasu classes and also runs a ninja museum. And
(34:32):
the other Ninja master is Masaki Hasumi, and he's about
a decade older than the other guy, and he was
actually the martial arts advisor on that Bond film. Today's
semi retired, but he still teaches ninja history part time
at a Japanese university.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
All right, So these guys are like the real deal,
like they actually know the techniques handed down from that
golden age of ninja's way back in the sixteenth century.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
I mean, that's definitely the claim. But both men come
from families with strong ninja heritage. They have a lot
of history, and once they became masters, they were supposedly
granted access to these secret scrolls and tools of their
respective clans dating back as far as five hundred years.
Of course, no one else has seen or likely will
see those artifacts, so it is hard to verify their
(35:18):
authenticity or even their contents.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
I mean, it feels like someone will eventually see this stuff,
right Like, I assume these guys have been busy training
successors so the clans. You know, they won't die out
completely once they're gone, at least you'd hope not. That's
what I thought as well, But it turns out that
both men are in agreement that neither will appoint anyone
to take over for them as ninja grand masters. This
(35:42):
is what mister Kawakami explained in an interview a few
years back.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
In the age of civil wars, ninja's abilities to spy
and kill or mixed medicine may have been useful, but
we now have guns, the internet, and much better medicines,
so the art of ninjitsu has no place in the
modern age. We can't try out murder or poisons. Even
if we can follow the instructions to make a poison,
we can't.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Try it out.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
You know, I was really feeling for the guy right
up until the part where he lamented not being able
to try out murder.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
I think that's I think that's where I lost it.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It is frustrating for true ninjas. But you know, this
is the quote from mister Hatsumi when he was asked
about his decision to not select an air This is
what he told reporters. Quote, my students will continue to
practice some of the techniques that were used by ninjas,
but a person must be destined to succeed the Klan,
and there is no such person.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Well, that is a definitive answer, if nothing else, I guess,
but still still kind of a sad one.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
I think.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah, I think you're ultimately right that ninjas would appreciate
that their mystique is still intact after all these years.
But I just hope that, along with all the cartoon
ninjas and the cheesy Chuck Norris films, that we still
find ways to remember the real thing. I mean, there
was a time when ninjas were very bizarre but very
real force in the world, and be ashamed to forget
(37:02):
that completely.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Well, I think between the two of us we probably
got some unforgettable Ninja facts for the fact off, So
let's just dive in.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
And twenty ten, Bloomberg News reported that security agents at
a Japanese airport made Steve Jobs throw away his ninja
stars before he boarded his private plane. I guess he'd
picked up these objects and wanted to bring them home
with them. They're really beautiful things, and of course he
was doubly irritated when he had to leave them, because
the logic was that he might use the throwing stars
(37:43):
to hijack his own plane, and so Apple later downplayed
and even refuted the incident, but Bloomberg stuck with their story.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
I like this idea of like Steve Jobs, being a
ninja fanboy.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
It is very amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
You know. Apparently ninja's aren't just land based creatures. There's
also a ninja of the sea, the ninja lantern shark,
and apparently most lantern sharks who dwell deep in the
sea glow from their bellies, but this newly discovered ninja
shark doesn't. They're totally black, and they do have this
faint blue glow that emerges from their heads. But you
(38:19):
don't have to be too scared of them. Mental Flaws says.
They're only really the size of a ferret. But the
best part of the ninja shark to me is how
it got its name. So the lead scientists on the study.
Vicky Vasquez let her four kids, who were aged eight
to fourteen, decide on the name, and what they lobbied
for was the super Ninja, but she dialed it back
(38:40):
to just plain ninja. Also, I know it's so cute,
but the shark's Latin name is e bench Lady, which
is a tribute to Peter Benchley, the author of JOSS.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
And even if they are the size of ferrets, I'm
pretty sure i'd still be scared if I saw something
that was called a ninja shark.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
I mean, I'm scared to ferret. So, oh right, that's
a good point too. I didn't think about that.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
All right.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Well, if you're headed to Tokyo this year, you can
visit the newly open Ninja Museum, which is the brainchild
of the Japan Ninja Council. So this is this group
of scholars and townships that have banded together to increase
enthusiasm for ninjas around the world. But here's what's fascinating
to me. It's that the Ninja Council is very focused
on shedding light on how well rounded these ninjas were.
(39:27):
So according to Smithsonian, the Ninja Council notes that quote,
Ninjas often did their work not by executing insane flips
and perching on rooftops, but by making friends and working
their social connections. The art of the ninja includes things
like social skills, conversation techniques, mnemonics, food, astronomy, and weather. So,
(39:48):
I mean, honestly, it kind of feels like they're trying
to make ninjas so much less interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
It also feels like they're opening up the definition of
ninja to anyone, Like, yeah, like food, you could be
a ninja. Do yeah, exactly about the weather, you could.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Be a ninja. You're a ninja.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
So, speaking of ninja, did you know that four thousand
women have been actively training to become ninja and iran
for over twenty years now. Oh, there's this club that
has over twenty four thousand members, supposedly, and the women
practice everything from backflips to weapons training to trying to
blend into the landscape. Of course, as the group's leader states,
vetting the women who are interested in the program is
(40:24):
a top priority. This is what he says, quote, I
must be very sure that my students will not use
the techniques of ninjasuit to hurt anyone or sneak into
someone else's house.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
All right, Well, here's one that I honestly think is
going to be hard to top. I've been saving this
one for very last. According to the site Consequence of Sound,
in nineteen ninety one, Axel Rose was late to a
Guns n' Roses concert in Tampa because he was watching
the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles two Secret of the Ooze,
so he refused to go on stage until the movie
(40:56):
was finished. And when the management at the venue kept
pleading why he wouldn't go on, here's what his manager said,
Axel's attention is one hundred percent on the movie right now,
and he should not be bothered.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
You know, I had been trying to find a good
Mutant Ninja Turtle fact, but I didn't. But the fact
that you brought Axel Roses to the mix too, I
feel like you earned the trophy. That's it for today's
part time Genius. If you've got a great ninja fact
we missed, be sure to share it to our Facebook
or Twitter. And from Gabe Tristan Willemy, thank you so
much for listening.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Hey Mango, look Tristan's gone.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works,
and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
and Eves.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Jeffcote gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Do we forget Jason?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
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Mangesh Hattikudur
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