Tools & Weapons

Most of the time, a ninja did not, for obvious reasons, dress in an all black suit (shinobishozoku). Ninja rarely dressed as such, since an important aspect of their work was in espionage. Some parallel to this over-dramatization can be drawn by comparing movie series of James Bond and actual works of a spy. In actual practice, ninja did not wear the commonly depicted all black suit. It was actually a shade of dark red, dark green, dark blue, or dark brown as it offered a better camouflage.

Common disguises of ninja included but were not limited to monks, yamabushi, waiter and waitress, traveling salesman, artist, and ronin. Disguises were selected based on their unobtrusiveness in a given environment. When disguised as a traveling salesman, a popular choice of product was herbal medicine. This let ninja have weapons like a dagger or a sickle for the self-defense without revealing that they were ninja. Because they were well disguised, some have even suggested Matsuo Basho, a traveling poet, was actually a ninja employed by the shogun to keep a watch over daimyo, and that haiku he published were really secret codes telling other ninja some unknown secrets. This is a view dismissed by almost all historians.

Ninja used several special weapons against their enemies, the shuriken (throwing stars) and handclaws (shuko, tekagi) probably being the most famous. Kunai was also a popular weapon as they could be hidden easily. The makibishi, a type of caltrop made of iron spikes, is also famous. It could be thrown on the ground to injure the chaser's feet or laid down on an enemy's escape path so that the targets could be cut down or shot down with bows and arrows while they looked for another escape route, but it could also be covered with deadly poison so the victim would die slowly. Occasionally, makibishi would be loaded with gunpowder to explode upon impact, further damaging a pursuer's foot. Ninja weapons could also be used cleverly as tools such as using the cord of their sword scabbard to construct a hammock between tree branches.

Ninja also employed a variety of weapons and tricks using gunpowder. Smoke bombs and firecrackers were widely used to aid an escape. They used timed fuses that would burn down on the target after they left. Ozutsu (cannons) they constructed could be used to fire fiery sparks as well as projectiles at a target. Even land mines were constructed that used a mechanical fuse or a lighted oil soaked string. These techniques were used to make fireworks in peacetime of Edo. Secrets of making desirable mixes of gunpowder were strictly guarded secrets in many ninja clans.

Many of ninja's tools were everyday tools that would not be conspicuous even when confiscated. It was through intelligence that ninja gained advantages. One known tool used by ninja is irogome, lit. "colored rice". Irogome was uncooked rice seeds colored in five or six different colors, red, black, white, yellow, blue, and sometimes brown. They would be placed on the ground or handed to a ninja from a ninja. Each combination carried certain meanings like "all clear" or "an enemy check point is ahead".

Contrary to popular beliefs, nunchaku were never used by the ninja, or indeed any mainland Japanese traditional martial art. Karate, judo, kendo, and most other martial arts were never practiced as well, as they were mostly formalized in late Edo period to Meiji period. Ninja practiced a variant of jujutsu and kenjutsu that could be summed up as ninjutsu.

Contrary to the marketing of sword manufacturers, there was no such thing as a ninjato or a sword that only ninja used. Typically "ninjato" is confused with the ancient chokuto. Using a sword with inferior strength, blade geometry, and cutting ability would not have been useful to a ninja's purpose. Even more baffling would be a ninja carrying a sword that could have automatically identified him as a spy. To be less conspicuous, ninja carried daisho since many were of the samurai class. For deception, some ninja would carry a wakizashi in a katana saya to allow faster drawing of the sword and cause the opponent to miscalculate.

On assassination missions ninja were more likely to use cheaper weapons. There was always the possibility that weapons would need to be disposed of if something went wrong, so expensive swords were naturally poor choices. Ninja techniques extended to the use of ordinary objects as lethal weapons. A ninja assassin was much more likely to pose as a tradesman and kill his target with a hammer than to dress in camouflage and use a sword.