Known for their stealth and agility, ninjas are an extremely interesting part of Japanese history. Originally known as 忍び (shinobi) or 忍びの者 (shinobi no mono), ninjas were commonly employed as spies. They were masters at blending in, and devoted their lives to training at their craft. One pretty cool fact is that many ninjas were actually women!

One of the main ninja training places was Iga Ueno, in Mie Prefecture which can still be visited today! In Iga, there is a ninja village, complete with a house that hosts a variety of trap doors and secret hiding spots, an underground museum, and a very well done ninja show!

Ninja Show Videos:

The black clothing that we stereotypically see in images of ninjas actually originates from the theatre. In reality, ninjas had to blend in with society, and were often found wearing one of seven ninja disguises: a straw-hat-clad Buddhist priest, a travelling priest, a novice priest, a merchant, an acrobat, a street musician or in every day wear of a farmer or warrior.




Body - They built their physical strength so they would not lose stamina during long missions.

Mind - To accomplish missions easily and not get discouraged, ninjas had to keep a strong mind.

Medicine - It was important for ninjas to master the art of healing, by knowing how to prepare herbs when they were injured or ill. They also were well versed in compounding gun powder.

Diet - The ninja diet was made up mostly of vegetables, tofu, and miscellaneous grains. They avoided eating foods with a strong smell.

Smell - In order to not stand out, ninjas kept themselves clean and avoided notable fragrances.


Aside from swords and daggers, there were a wide variety of weapons that ninjas used during their missions.


まきびし (Makibishi; Caltrop) - made from wood, iron, and plant materials, a ninja would scatter these down a narrow path to slow up pursuers.

手裏剣 (Shuriken; Throwing Stars) - used for assassination, usually had aconite poison on the blades.

火車剣 (Higuruma-ken; Incendiary Dagger) - throwing dagger with a match wound around it and gunpowdr in the center. Used for illumination to start a fire.

分銅つぶて (Fundo-tsubute; Throwing Weight) - used for throwing and pulling nails.

万力鎖 (Manrigusari; Weighted Chain) - used as a self-defense weapon.

鎖鎌 (Kusarigama; Sickle with Chain) - used to intimidate, bewilder, stab or cut an enemy.

吹き矢筒　(Fukiya-zutsu; Blowgun) - mainly used in assassination with poison applied to the tip of the dart.

Other interesting ninja tools including くろろ鉤 (kuroro-kagi), a special key that could open a variety of locks), 手甲鉤 (tekko kagi), a hand claw weapon used to snatch the enemy's sword, 戸締器 (tojimeki), for jamming doors, and 坪錐 (tsubogiri), gimlets used to bore holes into walls, spy, or leak a sleeping drug into a house.

Last but not least are the 水蜘蛛 (mizugumo), or mud shoes. These special shoes allowed ninja to distribute their weight evenly so that they could walk across moats or swampy lands.


Before Chinese characters (now called kanji) were introduced, Japan had their own original character, which according to scholars originated in knotted ropes.

During the era that the ninja thrived, the characters were already out of use, and therefore no one could read them. Ninjas would use these secret characters as a way of communication.


Another way that ninjas would send messages to each other would be using dyed rice grains.

Can you decode these secret messages? Below is one message using the secret characters, and another using coloured rice. Decode one or both for a special bumper!


Figure out what the code says, and send me a PM. Feel free to use this conversion website to go from romaji (English characters) to Japanese. Then toss the Japanese (hiragana) into Google Translate to get an English version of the message!

Decoding Challenge #1:

Decoding Challenge #2:

Good luck!

I will have to look at this a lil later when I am not overwhelmed with real life stuff.

There is nothing... I saw nothing XD

Starchild, that's it! But could you edit the answer out from here? Then it won't be ruined for others! Thanks!

I'm gonna have to take a crack at this. I had no idea about the secret codes they used! (Also that chibi ninja is adorable dreamsinpink.)

I have no idea what you're talking about *Ninja Moves*

But seriously, to get the bumper and stuff do we PM the answers, or... I wasn't here last year for this XD

I saw it, so I'll send you one!