Culture

A ninja organization would be headed by a jonin literally high ninja. Under jonin would be several chunin - literally middle ninja. Under chunin would be several genin - literally low ninja. Upon receiving a mission from daimyo, the jonin would use the chunin to select necessary personnel from among the genin. Some ninja groups would be smaller and may have been less structured. Other groups may have been structured more like an army and the leader may instead have been called sho or general.

While ninja are often depicted as male, females were often ninja as well. A female ninja may be called kunoichi; the characters are supposedly derived from the strokes that make up the kanji for woman. Though sometimes depicted as experienced prostitutes who learned the secrets of an enemy by seduction, they rarely used that method. Most prostitutes in medieval Japan were in brothels and few would take their chance with a freelance prostitute; in many places, it was illegal to do so.

The ninpo - literally "laws of ninja", or simply okite - literally "rule", is the law that ninja followed. It had many rules and the most important rule is of keeping the secret of ninja themselves and of the daimyo who gave them the order. The severest crime is leaving a ninja family without authorization and never coming back. He or she would be called nukenin and his or her family members would be tasked to bring him back, dead or alive.