Nightshift – Kurzgesagt after Dark
Nightshift – Kurzgesagt after Dark
Ninjas SOURCES
We would like to thank
Prof. Robert Tuck, Associate Professor of modern Japanese literature at Arizona State University
and
Prof. Danny Orbach, Professor of military history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
for reviewing our script.
For our story, we relied on Stephen Turnbull’s Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) as well as Rob Tuck’s Substack Critical Ninja Theory. We hope you check them out!
There are a lot of myths and dubious stories about Ninjas and their history. And also a lack of sources with clues about how things actually were. With our sources and our experts, we did our best to accurately represent our story and myth-bust wherever we thought was appropriate.
Intro
Clouds cover the moon as a man climbs up Azuchi Castle on his grappling hook. It’s 1580, and the intruder is here to kill a warlord.
Dressed in black, he sneaks through the castle halls, throwing stars and smoke bombs on his belt. He avoids guards where he can and silently kills them where he can’t. Sliding open a door, he lunges– but guards are waiting. When the warlord demands to know who sent him, the assassin bites off his own tongue. Oda Nobunaga, the first Great Unifier of Japan, survives… for now.
An image of this scene from Utagawa Toyonobu in his 1883 Shinsen Taikōki can be seen here: https://morimiya.net/online/ukiyoe-big-files/M145.html
This scene has become part of the legend of the ninja, or shinobi. The truth is… if anything like this had actually happened, the killer would have been a doctor. He'd have had no smoke bombs or throwing stars and he wouldn't have murdered guards but would have passed them with a smile.
#Robert Tuck, professor of modern Japanese literature at University of Arizona, comments on this legend in his Substack “Critical Ninja Theory”:
#Robert Tuck, Manabe Rokuro, The Ninja Who Wasn't: The story of a medieval hero and his badass sister, part #1 (Substack Post from 03.12.2024).
https://criticalninjatheory.substack.com/p/manabe-rokuro-the-ninja-who-wasnt
#Robert Tuck, Lady Ono: Total Badass: Introducing Manabe Rokuro's awesome sister (The Tale of Manabe Rokuro, Part #3 (Substack Post from 10.12.2024).
https://criticalninjatheory.substack.com/p/lady-ono-total-badass
#Robert Tuck, The Master of Stealth who Wasn't a Ninja: How to understand the tale of Manabe Rokurō, Part #7 (Substack Post from 28.12.2024).
The ninja mythology is so strong, so cool, that it pulls in stories that are totally unrelated. So who were the real ninja, and where have they vanished?
Chapter 1: A Shattered Empire
Japan is ruled by a military government: the Shogunate. Officially serving the Emperor, they have been the real power for centuries. But their authority has crumbled. Daimyo, feudal lords, and their armies of bushi, Japan’s warrior class, are waging war for territory and power.
#Polina Serebriakova and Danny Orbach, Irregular Warfare in Late Medieval Japan: Towards a Historical Understanding of the “Ninja” The Society for Military History 84 (2020) pp. 997-1020.
https://www.smh-hq.org/jmh/jmhvols/844.html
#John Ferejohn with Frances McCall Rosenbluth, War and State Building in Medieval Japan (Stanford University Press, 2010) pp. 1-20.
https://www.sup.org/books/politics/war-and-state-building-medieval-japan
Close to the capital Kyoto, which all rising powers hope to control, lie Iga and Koka. More than one warlord thinks they’re easy to conquer - a mistake: their mountains act as a natural defense and their clans work together. But their real strength is the samurai they lend to neighbours and allies, shifting allegiances and spying on threats to keep the fighting far away. These skills of spying, ambush, and stealth are called “shinobi tactics”, and Iga samurai gain a reputation for them.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 37-43.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
–Turnbull also gives the original Japanese sources he uses for this section, including the Tamon’In nikki and Kyōroku Temmon no ki.
#Polina Serebriakova and Danny Orbach, Irregular Warfare in Late Medieval Japan: Towards a Historical Understanding of the “Ninja” The Society for Military History 84 (2020) pp. 997-1020.
https://www.smh-hq.org/jmh/jmhvols/844.html
Although we concentrate on Iga and Koga in our story, shinobi tactics were not unique to those regions.
But in recent years a new power has risen, an inspiring leader and ruthless conqueror who can unify Japan - Oda Nobunaga. After he deposes the shogun in Kyoto, Oda is the most powerful man in Japan. To consolidate his control, Oda invades Kōka with overwhelming force, and the district becomes his personal fief. Now alone, Iga’s days are numbered.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 57-60.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
In personal communication, Rob Tuck commented: It is uncertain whether Oda Nobunaga personally oversaw Koka and profited off the region. It was not a rich place and he probably would have assigned it to one of his commanders. But this is not confirmed either. It also might have stayed semi-autonomous until 1585, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent Nakamura Kazuuji there as his representative.
In 1579, Oda’s son tries to impress his dad by invading Iga. This plan backfires when local samurai infiltrate his camps. Disguised as merchants and priests, they learn the paths the armies are taking. Then, the men of Iga ambush and destroy them. Oda is furious: “You were guilty of a fiasco on the Iga border. Take this as a lesson.” He will not make the same mistakes as his son.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 62-66.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
–Turnbull gives sources for his translation of the quote on page 66.
When the warlord himself invades Iga in 1581, he sends more than 40,000 samurai who destroy every village and temple they encounter, killing thousands. Iga’s samurai are soon bottled up in their castles. The defenders use all kinds of shinobi tricks - lighting torches for fake reinforcements, setting fire to enemy camps, killing scouts, and leading night raids.Three musketeers lie in wait for Oda Nobunaga himself and kill his guards, but the warlord is undeterred. After long sieges, Iga submits to the Oda clan.
#John Ferejohn with Frances McCall Rosenbluth, War and State Building in Medieval Japan (Stanford University Press, 2010) pp. 1-20.
https://www.sup.org/books/politics/war-and-state-building-medieval-japan
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 66-70.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
–Turnbull also gives the original Japanese sources he uses for this section, including the Shinchō-Kō ki which chronicles Oda Nobunaga’s life.
About the three musketeers:
In personal communication, Danny Orbach commented: this episode is cited in the Iga chronicle (the Irank-ki), but it is not considered historical fact.
In personal communication, Robert Tuck commented: The ambush of Nobunoga is considered a little dubious–it is not clear whether it happened or not. The only evidence is from the Iran-ki in the seventeenth century and sources closer to the time of the incident, like the Shincho-ko ki (The Chronicle of Lord Nobunoga) don’t mention it.
Tuck translates the story from the Iran-ki for his substack:
https://criticalninjatheory.substack.com/p/tracking-down-the-evidence-for-african
This victory lasts only a year. Then, Oda Nobunaga is murdered - not by a ninja, but in an ambush by disloyal subordinates. The warlord refuses to die by any hand but his own. He commits seppuku - disembowelling himself with his own sword. Oda's story may be over, but the story of the ninja is just beginning. Without his authority, former allies become rivals - and the men of Iga will help decide who wins that fight.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 71.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
“Ninja” as an expression probably appeared around the 1930s. Before that, it was shinobi-no-mono.
Chapter 2: History on a Knife Edge
The fearsome Oda Nobunaga is dead! Finally, old grudges are paid back in blood, and Oda supporters like Tokugawa Ieyasu are hunted down. Tokugawa was one of his closest allies - now he’s in enemy territory with only a few dozen men - his bodyguards of Iga and Kōka samurai, led by the legendary Hattori Hanzo, who has served Tokugawa for decades. Their loyalty has only grown since Tokugawa gave shelter to those fleeing the Oda invasion. Now they can return the favour. Tokugawa needs to pass through Iga - a dangerous place full of bandits and samurai hunters - but Hattori’s warriors know the mountains well. Their strategy is relying on old ties and bribes just as much as on bows and blades – or so the legend says.
The size of Tolugawa’s group in enemy territory with Hattori Hanzi is debatable, ranging from a small group to hundreds of men. We chose “dozens” of men after talking with an expert.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2020) pg. 71.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
#A.L. Sadler, The maker of modern Japan: The life of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1937) pp. 113-116.
After a harrowing trek, Tokugawa reaches safety. By saving his life, Hattori’s warriors have changed the course of history: they allow him to become Shogun two decades later and shift the country from 200 years of ongoing warfare into a peace that will last decades. Tokugawa brings his bodyguards to the new capital, Edo - while his ascension as the last of the Three Great Unifiers of Japan ends the need for shinobi fighters as it seems.
But not everyone is pleased with the new shogunate, so loyal men with shinobi skills will still be essential to keep the newly-won peace.
#A.L. Sadler, The maker of modern Japan: The life of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1937) pg. 163-175, 222.
#Wakita Osamu, The emergence of the state in sixteenth-century Japan: From Oda to Tokugawa, The Journal of Japanese Studies 8 (1982) pp. 343-367.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/132343
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 72.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
#Polina Serebriakova and Danny Orbach, Irregular Warfare in Late Medieval Japan: Towards a Historical Understanding of the “Ninja” The Society for Military History 84 (2020) pp. 997-1020.
Chapter 3: Sniffing Out Conspiracy
In 1651, the Tokugawa Shogunate has ruled for three generations, prizing stability above all else. To prevent the spread of dangerous new ideas, Japan has become strictly isolationist, banning Christian missionaries and restricting foreign merchants. Violators are imprisoned and deported.
https://read.cambriapress.com/reader/9781604977387/i
#Louis Cullin, Sakoku, Tokugawa policy, and the interpretation of Japanese history in: Early Japanese Trade, Administration and Interactions with the West (Renaissance Books, 2020).
#Bruce Arnold, Diplomacy far removed: A reinterpretation of the U.S. decision to open diplomatic relations with Japan (2005)
To avoid the bloody pitched battles of the past, official policy requires all lords to spend every other year in Edo, based on the principle - keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 83, 88.
The job of watching the lords falls to the guards patrolling the grounds of Edo Castle, like this guy. He’s not just a common soldier - he’s a kind of castle detective. It’s the family trade - his grandfather served under Hattori Hanzo, and followed him to Edo. Besides guarding the Shogun, his most important job is gathering intelligence by blending in as a servant or priest. He knows that people whisper about the detectives’ supernatural skills, and call them shinobi-no-mono, “person of stealth. The detectives see themselves as maintaining peace and order, but to their enemies they are the feared secret police of the Tokugawa surveillance state.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 88.
When the third Shogun dies, he leaves a vulnerable empire to his ten-year old son.
#Louis Frédéric, Japan Encyclopedia (Harvard University Press, 2002) pg. 503.
https://books.google.cat/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rumours soon reach the palace that something is on the horizon, and a masterless samurai called Marubashi Chūya is particularly suspicious. He runs a swordfighting school - a perfect place for young samurai to conspire. A detective slips into Marubashi’s home disguised as a servant, and – according to one version of what happened – finds Marubashi ill, talking to people in a fever dream. The unnoticed detective listens with horror as Murabashi describes a terrifying plot - to set Edo ablaze with gunpowder, killing thousands in a deadly distraction. As the authorities fight the flames, Murabashi will storm Edo Castle, murder the Shogun’s regents, and force the boy to undo his father’s unpopular policies.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 92.
The detective slips out of the house, and returns with soldiers. The conspiracy is undone. As a result, whole families are crucified, tortured to death for all to see. The detective does not relish these brutal punishments, but sees them as necessary– only a firm hand can keep Japan from slipping back into chaos.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 92.
Returning to his room in Edo Castle, he opens a well-read book - a history of Oda Nobunaga.
This history is the Shincho koki by Ota Gyuichi, which was probably written shortly after 1598. Here is an English version with discussion:
#Joshua Mostow, Caroline Rose, and Kate Wildman Nakai (eds.), The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (Brill, 2011).
https://brill-1com-1009783as0729.erf.sbb.spk-berlin.de/display/title/19759
The detective enjoys the section on Iga’s plucky defiance - it’s more exciting than the day-to-day surveillance that makes up his shinobi work.
It’s in this peaceful period that the legend of the shinobi begins to really form. Iga scholars craft the legend of Tokugawa’s escape through their homeland, and boast of the skills of their samurai: “they have a supernatural power as spies, so no matter how secure a fortress is, they can enter it secretly.”
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 63, 71-73.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
For Tokugawa’s escape, Turnbull quotes from the Mikawa Gofudo ki, which he dates to 1833.
The kabuki theatres bring these stories to life - characters who can turn invisible, or transform into toads, rats, and slugs.
Robert Tuck, professor of modern Japanese literature at University of Arizona, comments on the kabuki theater in his Substack “Critical Ninja Theory”:
#Robert Tuck, The rise of the evil sorcerer: Kabuki character Nikki Danjō gets reborn as a 'ninja' (Substack Post from 17.05.2025).
https://criticalninjatheory.substack.com/p/the-return-of-the-evil-sorcerer
Actors use gunpowder, throwing knives and acrobatics. One trope becomes commonplace: characters dress in black to signal invisibility, just like the stagehands in all-black outfits who aren’t meant to be seen. The building blocks of the modern ninja myth are coming together.
#Hioki Takayuki, Notable Spectacles in the Late 19th-Century
Kabuki Stage in: Performance Spaces and Stage Technologies, Yuji Nawata / Hans Joachim Dethlefs (Eds.) (Transcript Verlag, 2022) pp. 103-110.
https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6112-5/performance-spaces-and-stage-technologies/
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 167.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
#Melissa Dawn Van Wyk, Restaging the Spectacular: Misemono and Kabuki Theater 1700-1900, PhD Dissertation, University of California (2021).
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1cq8g58c
Robert Tuck, professor of modern Japanese literature at University of Arizona, speaking in an interview (at 6min 30 sec):
Nathaniel Cho, YouTube Episode: How Japan Lied to You About Ninja (2026) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUXMVLExM54
In personal communication, Rob Tuck commented: the idea that stage-hands inspired the classic ninja costume is a classic one, but another reason might come from Edo-period pictorial art. It often uses the “ninja hood” as a way to signal that the character is doing something they want to keep secret. More research is needed!
While the legend of the Iga shinobi takes shape, the connection of the castle detectives to Iga grows weaker as generations of new shoguns bring their own men to protect them.
But once the outside world comes knocking and Japan has to react, shinobi skills will come in handy once more.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 93.
Chapter 4: The World Comes to Japan
In 1854, two centuries after Marubashi nearly burned Edo to the ground, the capital is under threat once again - but this time not from within. Nine US gunboats are anchored in the port of Yokohama, cannons pointed at nearby Edo. Japan has been off limits to foreigners for centuries. But Commodore Perry of the US Navy demands open trade and diplomatic relations… or else. For years, the British, Russian, and French empires have been pressing for entry. The Americans are just the most recent, and the most open with their threats. Japan’s neighbour, China, presents a terrifying example of how badly this contact can go.
#Matthew Perry and Francis Lister Hawks, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan: Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854: The official report of the expedition to Japan (D. Appleton, 1856) pp. 344.
https://archive.org/details/narrativeofexped0156perr/page/400/mode/2up
#David Wittner, Commodore Matthew Perry and the Expedition to Japan (PowerPlus Books, 2005).
Detective Sawamura Yasasuke watches the strangers in their odd clothes as he tries to assess the danger. He’s not here to assassinate Perry - he’s not like the shinobi he’s read about or seen on stage. He’s posing as a simple official in the Japanese delegation. The Americans have no idea that Japan has developed the most sophisticated intelligence gathering system in the world, or that they’ve let a professional spy onto their flagship.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pp. 93-94.
But Sawamura’s talents, honed in the feudal society of Tokugawa Japan, are of only limited use in this new modern world. A single spy can’t change the fates of empires, and you don’t need shinobi training to see that the Shogun is outmatched. Japan’s doors slowly creak open to the world.
The ancient military dictatorship was already cracking under economic and political pressure, and many are outraged that the Shogun has allowed Japan’s humiliation. The detectives were espionage experts in isolationist Japan, but their usefulness is running out. With a weakened shogunate and angry feudal lords, Japan is closer to civil war than it has been for 300 years. The new Emperor Meiji seizes the opportunity to sweep away the Shogunate and its institutions - like the castle detectives, replacing them with professional secret police, more suited to the modern Japan he seeks to create. Three centuries after the province was razed, the shinobi legacy of Iga finally dies.
#Donald, Keene, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his world, 1852-1912 in: The rise and evolution of Meiji Japan, James Huffman (Ed.) (Amsterdam University Press, 2002) pg. X.
Chapter 5: Enter the Ninja
This may have been the end of the shinobi of history, but it is the birth of the Ninja of myth.
The Edo Period saw an explosion of art and literature and in the 20th century these stories gained new life. In 1936, martial artist Fujita Seiko claims secret knowledge of ‘ninjutsu’ from Koka, to be able to withstand poisons and torture, impersonate animals, and move silently. His work reads like a parody, but some people take it seriously.
Robert Tuck, professor of modern Japanese literature at University of Arizona, comments on this legend in his Substack “Critical Ninja Theory”:
#Robert Tuck, Tall Tales and Ninja History: Fujita Seiko tries some, uh, 'recreational' substances (Substack Post from 28.02.2026).
https://criticalninjatheory.substack.com/p/tall-tales-and-ninja-history
After World War 2, Japan needed to rebuild, and that included its national confidence. Storytellers looked back into a mythologised past, and they found ‘Shinobi’.
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 191.
Kabuki tales and woodblock prints evolved into movies and manga. These stories weren’t about the surveillance of the Tokugawa secret police, but shadow warriors who sneak into castles and assassinate villains. Shinobi had begun as a tactic and became an identity. It feels traditional, but what we know and love about ninja is less than a century old. The straight ninja sword first appears in a 1956 tourism advert, the throwing star is from a 1957 movie, and the ancient martial art of ninjutsu is a post-war creation. Even the word ‘ninja’ came out of the 20th century.
Robert Tuck, professor of modern Japanese literature at University of Arizona, speaking in an interview:
Nathaniel Cho, YouTube Episode: How Japan Lied to You About Ninja (2026) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUXMVLExM54
Robert Tuck, Fiction of the Ninja: Ishikawa Goemon, Shinobi no mono, and English-Language Popular History, Japanese Language and Literature, 59 (2025) pg. 3.
https://jll.pitt.edu/ojs/JLL/article/view/347/704
#Stephen Turnbull, Ninja: Unmasking the myth (Frontline Books, 2017) pg. 7.
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ninja-Paperback/p/18627
From personal communication with expert Robert Tuck:
The shuriken does appear in the TV series Onmitsu (The Samurai) between 1960 and 1962. But recent research by Yoshimaru Katsuta in his 2023 book What is a Ninja suggests the first screen appearance of a shuriken in the hands of a ninja may have been a little earlier, in the 1957 movie Yagyū bugeichō.
Shinobi warfare wasn’t unique to the samurai of Iga and Kōka, but their skills entered the storybooks as their descendants entered the castle. As detectives they adapted to uncover conspiracies and clamp down on dissent, but they couldn’t change with the times forever.
When the Shogunate itself was swept away, the shinobi went too – but they survive as shadows and stories long after the world that created them has disappeared.