(dramatic music)
- [Micaela] Historically they went by many different names,
Monomi, Kusa, Rappa, Nokizaru or Shinobi,
But the most popular term to use when referring
to Feudal Japan's famous spies, is ninja.
In pop culture and fiction, ninja take on the image
of being skilled assassins, dressed in black,
moving swiftly through the night
with almost mythical skills and powers.
But how much of that is actually true?
The Japan Ninja Council is a national team
dedicated to preserving the fact and fiction of ninja,
and translating it into modern terms
for the current day and age.
With their guidance, I traveled across Japan
to speak with experts and determine the truth
behind Japanese history's most mysterious beings.
My first stop is Odawara City,
located in the southwest of Kanagawa Prefecture.
Historically, this area was once home to the clan
that ruled all of the Kanto region
during the Sengoku period.
But these days, it's a quiet seaside city,
and fresh fish are brought into the harbor every day,
making it a great spot to grab some seafood.
So we're here at Sakana Cuisine Ryo,
and I think I'm gonna grab lunch here.
(speaking Japanese)
I just love the colors and the way that
this bowl has been decorated.
It's very, very pleasant to look at.
Fish oil's really, really healthy for you
and you can tell by looking at the cuts of the meat
that these are very oily cuts, which is a good thing.
You're gonna absorb all types of nutrients.
Look how thick that is.
Okay, here we go.
Oh my gosh, it's so good.
So in Odawara the seafood is really good
and that lunch was amazing, but there's another thing
that Odawara is especially known for
and that's Kamaboko which are fish cakes.
So now we're here at the Kamaboko Museum
and we're gonna learn how to make
these famous Odawara Kamaboko fish cakes.
I can never resist an opportunity to work with food
and at the Kamaboko Museum you can join public group lessons
and have the hands on experience of scraping and sculpting
and molding your very own original fish cake.
It's actually a lot harder than it looks.
(speaking Japanese)
It doesn't look bad.
I though it was gonna be a disaster
but it actually looks like food which is,
I'm impressed.
It's very, very chewy and very, very sweet.
And there's something really cool
about being able to make it yourself.
'Cause one you've made it yourself,
you feel like it tastes like pride.
It tastes like fish and pride.
After exploring modern-day Odawara city
and eating a ton of food,
I'm ready to go back in time and learn more
about its history and its connection to ninja.
So today we are in Kanagawa Prefecture at Odawara Castle,
which is one of the closest places in proximity to Tokyo
where you can explore authentic ninja history and culture.
This castle used to belong to the Hojo Clan
and the Fuma ninja were the ninja that served the Hojo Clan.
So if this was the White House,
the ninja would be like the CIA.
Odawara Castle has been reformed and is now a museum
with a collection of historical relics on display.
Here, you can learn about the famous Hojo Clan,
one of the most powerful clans
during the Sengoku period in Japan.
The Sengoku period was a time in which
Japan was divided amongst different rulers
who fought to conquer each other's territories.
It was during this time that leaders
would send expertly trained spies, known today as ninja,
to spy on rival clans.
The problem today though,
is that ninja were often so secretive about their craft,
that they didn't leave much of a paper trail.
Inside these books that were written years and years ago,
are stories about the Fuma Ninja.
Nobody can say for sure if they really did exist
or what is fact and fiction
but relying on the things of the past,
we can assume that they did exist in some shape or form.
We're really lucky with the weather today
and from the fifth floor of the castle
there is a lookout point
and you can see the ocean,
you can see the mountains, you can see the city
and on a day like today, it's just very, very lovely.
The hard evidence backing ninjas historically may be scarce,
but that doesn't stop Japan
from celebrating these mysterious heroes anyway.
The gift shop here stocks ninja novelty items, nunchaku,
and even very legitimate looking shuriken.
They're actually really heavy and I think that these
could actually hurt someone if you throw them.
Like, these are real weapons.
Yikes.
So, everyone's dressed up.
So one of the big attractions at Odawara Castle
is that you can dress up as a samurai or a ninja
and take photos and learn about the culture,
it's a very immersive experience,
so we're gonna check that out today.
(speaking Japanese)
I have to protect my people.
I have to protect my Hojo.
Where are my Hojos at!
(panting)
(upbeat techno music)
This is a really fun photo opportunity
for tourists and families, especially with kids,
but personally, I can't help but feel like
running around a castle dressed in all black like a ninja
is the whitest thing I've done in a long time.
So I figure that since I am now
finally dressed up as a ninja,
I might as well do all the ninja-y things here
and one of those things you can do at Odawara Castle
is practice shooting shuriken at a target,
which is really, really cool.
(laughing)
So, while media and pop culture portray the ninja
as a solid black figure that's super sneaky
and runs around in the night,
actual ninjas were actually more known
to blend in with society by dressing really normally
so that they wouldn't stand out.
I wouldn't be a very good ninja if everyone around me
could look at me and tell that I'm a ninja.
The often overlooked truth about ninjas
is that their main job was not to assassinate
or attack others.
To do so would blow their cover.
It was simply to collect information in rival clans.
That is why it was important for ninjas
to blend in, not stand out.
They would dress as merchants, farmers, peddlers,
and would assimilate into society undetected.
A good ninja would never let on that they were a ninja.
Although I had fun pretending to be
a ninja at Odawara Castle,
it left me wanting to know more
about how this super secret society
really lived during feudal Japan,
and so we headed north to Nagano Prefecture,
home of the Sanada Clan, to learn more
about how the ninja survived during the Sengoku era.
All that and more, next time.
Thanks for watching this video.
I know it's a little different from what I usually make,
but ninjas being such a prominent figure
in Japanese media and pop culture, I figured this would be
really, really interesting to explore.
Do you have any information about ninjas that I should know?
Let me know in the comments.