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Well, Editor, you asked for the other side to this story, so here it is. I'm not
all that thrilled that I have the criticizing end of the argument, seeing as I
to hold the ninja in very high regards. (By the way, that was a great article,
Timantha. Always nice to hear from a fellow martial artist!)
The ninja, as Timantha said, were outcasts to society. They rejected their
duties to the Shogun, and were often found opposing the samurai, the official
guardians of Japan. Therefore they were criminals. Their missions often included
assassination of Japanese leaders faithful to the Shogun.
The ninja tended to use very dishonorable tactics when fighting. They would
sneak up behind someone and kill them before they even had the chance to fight
back. Or, as was said in the other article, they often used poisons or blow
darts. That did not mean that they could not handle a katana (a Japanese sword),
though.
Ninjas also tended to be very resourceful in choosing their weaponry. Just a few
of their weapons were throwing stars, sai, kama, bo, tonfa, blow darts and of
course the katana.
Samurai usually only carried a katana set (a long and short sword) and possibly
a spear or fighting fan. For those of you who are old enough and whose parents
will let you see it, I felt The Last Samurai did a very good job
portraying both they samurai and the ninja
The ninja were also great naturalists, and had a very interesting method of
telling time. They could tell the general time of day by the size of the pupil
of a cat. When it was perfectly round, it was late night. When it looked like a
seed, it was about 8:00. When it was just a slit, it was around 10:00, and when
it was almost gone, it was noon. It then worked backwards. They also were
knowledgeable of flora, being familiar with plants for both their poisons and
the medicines and remedies for their poisons.
Maybe between these two articles on ninja, you will think twice before thinking
that they are just a bunch of dumb guys in black hoods that are there for the
hero of the movie to fight. They were really a very well-thought out people with
many other skills than just fighting.
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