Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu (忍術?) started out as a set of survival skills that were used by groups of people who lived in Iga Prefecture of Japan. They were self-reliant, and had a strong affinity with nature.

These techniques, used to hunt and fight, eventually developed and became the strategic base of the ninjutsu martial arts. The ninja clans used their art to ensure their survival in a time of violent political turmoil. It also included methods of gathering information, non-detection, avoidance, and misdirection techniques. Ninjutsu can also involve training in disguise, escape, concealment, archery, medicine, explosives, and poisons.

Practitioners of ninjutsu (known as ninja) have been seen as assassins for hire, and have been associated in the public imagination with other activities which are considered criminal by modern standards. Though it was influenced by Chinese expatriates and the strategic principles of Sun Tzu, ninjutsu is believed by its adherents to be of Japanese origin. One version is that the basis of ninjutsu was taught to a Japanese household who fled to the mountains after losing a battle. There they mixed with a varied lot of people including the descendants of refugees who had fled China. Later, the skills were developed over 300 years to create ninjutsu.

Although the popular view is that ninjutsu is the art of secrecy or stealth, actual practitioners consider it to mean the art of enduring - enduring all of life's hardships. The word nin carries both these meanings. To avoid misunderstandings, "ninjutsu" should just refer to a specific branch of Japanese martial arts, unless it is being used in a historical sense.