A ninja (忍者) was a spy and secret agent in feudal Japan. Ninja gathered information, slipped behind enemy lines and spread false rumours. The black-clad assassin of the films is mostly a later invention. The real history is quieter, but in some ways stranger.
Spies from the hills
The kanji 忍 means "to endure" or "to hide." The best-known ninja came from Iga and Kōka, two hilly areas east of Kyoto. Families there were famous for scouting, sabotage and night raids. In the wars of the 1500s, warlords hired them as mercenaries. In 1581 Oda Nobunaga invaded Iga and crushed it. A year later, Hattori Hanzō, a warrior of Iga descent, helped Tokugawa Ieyasu escape through the mountains after Nobunaga's death. Under the Tokugawa, Iga men served the shogun as guards and agents. A gate of the old Edo Castle, Hanzōmon, still carries Hanzō's name. So does a Tokyo subway line.
From history to pop culture
A real ninja dressed like a farmer, a monk or a merchant. Blending in mattered more than looking dangerous. The black outfit probably comes from kabuki. On stage, helpers dressed in black count as "invisible," and an actor playing a ninja wore the same clothes. Edo-period novels and later films added magic tricks, smoke bombs and walking on water. Star-shaped shuriken became the ninja's trademark. Manga and anime such as Naruto spread the image around the world. Today Iga-Ueno has a ninja museum, and in 2017 Mie University opened a research centre on ninja history.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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忍術 (ninjutsu): the "art of stealth," the ninja's skills, from disguise to escape.
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手裏剣 (shuriken): a small throwing blade. The name means "blade hidden in the hand."