Speaking of ninjas, the first impression may be that the popular anime "Naruto" can use a variety of mysterious ninjutsu "strangers", they can change and complete various secret tasks; secondly, it is reminiscent of a "assassin" dressed in black and with cornices, quietly and killing people invisibly.
Ninjas, in people's minds, represent mystery and power, as if they were fireworks that do not enter the human world. Some people also question whether ninjas really exist in Japan. The answer is yes, and the historical record of the Warring States period is clearly documented. Nowadays, with the development of the times, the number of ninjas is even more countless, and only one person can be examined: Renichi Kawakami.
In Japan, there are countless mysterious legends about ninjas.
In modern Japan, although the true sense of the ninja no longer exists, the ninja spirit that has been handed down has had a profound impact on Japan, in which the tenacity, loyalty, persistence and other spirits of ninjas have become an excellent part of the Japanese personality, which has been passed down from generation to generation, and has also had a great impact on the way of thinking of the Japanese people.
Japan's last ninja, Renichi Kawakami, how good is he? According to related news, he could even hear the sound of a needle falling to the ground in the next room.
Jinichi Kawakami
Hitoichi Kawakami was born in the 1950s in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Since childhood, Kawakami has been fascinated by the stories of Japan's Sengoku period, especially the various legends of ninjas.
During Kawakami's childhood, Japan was far removed from the smoke of war, and the ninja community became more and more secretive with the development of the times. But Kawakami has always insisted on his dream, and during a shrine worship service, he was lucky enough to meet Shozo Isita.
At that time, Kawakami was only six years old, and when Ishida saw him, it was like Bole discovered a Maxima and felt that Kawakami had great potential as a ninja, so he persuaded Kawakami's family and took him to start learning.
According to Hitoichi Kawakami, in the years before he studied, he had hardly learned any ninjutsu, and Master Isita spent most of his time practicing how to quietly enter and exit the door, which once made him think he was a thief.
It wasn't until he was eleven years old that Isita began to formally teach Kawakami Renichi ninjutsu, and it was at this time that Kawakami finally realized that he had been learning the ninjutsu he had been thinking about.
At the same time, he also learned that his master was a ninja of the Koga stream and was also the 20th generation leader.
However, Kawakami found that as a professional ninja, there was also a big difference between what he imagined, they had no fixed financial resources, and the training was extremely boring, so people who were interested in ninjas had been rare for many years, and the Koga stream had long been unborn.
The master also officially told Kawakami that in order to become a professional ninja, the content of the ninjutsu cultivated is very complex, in addition to physical exercise, but also pay attention to spiritual cultivation, but also include various disciplines such as military, psychology, physics, pharmacy and other aspects of research, the hardships and persistence of which is absolutely beyond the imagination of outsiders.
Although the training was arduous and boring, Kawakami's passion for ninjutsu was not consumed by day-to-day training.
For example, when training concentration, Kawakami Will stare at the candle heart in the dark until he feels as if he is in the candlelight, and then stops training. What is even more shocking is that Inichi Kawakami listened to the sound of a needle falling in the middle of the night, he dropped the needle over and over again in the night to listen to the sound, not knowing that he had not slept for countless nights.
In this way, Kawakami Hitoichi trained for more than ten hours a day with his hard work, and insisted on it for more than ten years, and he finally succeeded in completing all the ninjutsu studies at the age of 18.
His master felt that he had not misread the wrong person, that Kawakami really had the potential and perseverance that a ninja should have, and that Kawakami was willing to dedicate himself to the spirit of a ninja. After much deliberation, Master Isida gave him the position of head. As a result, When Kawakami Hitoichi became an adult, he received the title of the head of the 21st generation of Koga Ryu.
Now seventy years old, Hitoichi Kawakami still regards daily training as a part of his life, practicing every day, just like eating and drinking, and ninjutsu has been integrated into his body.
The term "ninja" first appeared in the Edo period of Japan, but the profession of ninja dates back to the more distant Sengoku period of Japan (circa 1467-1600).
In the years of war at that time, the various princes competed for supremacy as a behind-the-scenes combat deployment, and ninjas were born. Later, with the advent of the shogunate era, ninjas appeared in large numbers for the need to hunt down and spy work within the court.
For example, in the world's impression, they always wear black clothes, but real ninjas wear dark blue that is less easily recognizable. If it's a bright night with a clear moon, or a gray and cloudy day, ninjas will change their outfits to gray or brown. A ninja is one who has been doing everything in his power to hide himself from this world.
In order to be able to move between cities, ninjas generally use weapons that are modified from some of the tools they already have every day, and they disguise themselves as ordinary people. Most of the existing modified ninja weapons look strange, and only the makers know how to use them.
The actions of the ninjas and their concealment, rarely on a large scale, also require them to hide their identities and avoid the general crowd. In the course of their mission, they need to use their surroundings to hide themselves as much as they can. It is not until the completion of the task that they can remove the "mask" and slowly integrate into society like ordinary people.
Kawakami's master follows the principle of "hidden forbearance" in ninjas, and he hopes that his apprentices can also live a low-key life. Kawakami has also been following the instructions of his master. What was his life like before he officially announced his identity as a ninja?
He mainly plays several different identities and integrates into ordinary society.
First of all, monks, ninjas usually deal with monks from time to time, and in some cases, Kawakami will dress up as a monk to engage in the role of a spy; acrobats, this kind of profession in the difficult performing arts, is the best disguise for Kawakami.
Because even if Kawakami accidentally exposes his relatively special actions and behaviors in his daily life, ordinary citizens will not suspect him.
There is also the disguise of a merchant, because the merchant can move around, and the requirement that a professional ninja need to go around gathering intelligence is also a profession that does not seem suspicious. In addition, when there was no employer in Kawakami, his greatest identity was that of a farmer, which was also his ordinary life, planting fields, cultivating the land, and living the same life as ordinary people.
It was not until 2002 that Kawakami began recruiting apprentices in order to pass on the traditional culture of Japanese ninjas.
In fact, in terms of recruiting apprentices, Kawakami did not require apprentices to carry out physical training, most of the time, he explained the culture of ninjas in a teaching way, and also showed some ninjutsu appropriately.
Gradually, on the way to the lecture, he realized that ninjutsu had become obsolete, and for modern society, there was no place to practice, and even a little out of place. Especially in such an impetuous society as modern times, there are very few people who are willing to learn.
Moreover, in today's social environment, many ninja techniques are not suitable for learning, and learning is at best a trick of the acrobatic troupe.
When we watch Naruto or related movies, we see ninjas fighting with shurikens and using various ninjutsu. But in fact, the most important job of a ninja is to collect information that is beneficial to the employer and pass it back as quickly as possible. They have the biggest difference in beliefs from the Japanese samurai, and the ninja is most important to survive.
Most of these ninjas are sheltered from the eyes and ears of the people, their lives do not belong to themselves, belong to their masters or are subordinate to an organization.
Real ninjas actually need to get the job done without direct confrontation as much as possible. Therefore, most ninjas will learn and apply skills such as transfiguration and avoidance. They usually disguise themselves as farmers, acrobats, and petty citizens to engage in intelligence activities in their daily lives.
As a ninja, in addition to the necessities to be taken away, the most important thing is to maintain your weight, which cannot exceed sixty kilograms. Ninjas sometimes had to work on trees or pillars in houses.
If you are overweight, it will pose a fatal threat to yourself. In addition to this, foods with a strong odor must not be touched, which will make it easier for them to expose themselves.
Once you become a "ninja", you can only live with the dark world for a lifetime, you need to have a long-term anonymity awareness, and you need to remove even a little trace of yourself.
With the progress of the times and the development of science and technology, the "hidden forbearance" attribute of ninjas is less and less needed by society, and they are no longer tolerated by society. Because in the era of the Grand Secretary, there was basically no way to make a person really lurk, and the ubiquitous monitoring equipment made it impossible for ninjas to take action.
In Kawakami's real life as a ninja, it can also be learned that as a professional ninja, the hardships that need to be paid are conceivable, and the degree of this hardship is unbearable for ordinary people now.
In 2008, Kawakami thought about it again and again, and finally decided not to recruit disciples in the true sense of the word, but only to impart theoretical knowledge as a lecturer.
The ninja Hitoichi Kawakami has been exposed to the media, and he can no longer be a ninja in the true sense of the word. Now Kawakami is the honorary director of the Iga Ryu Ninja Museum, and he is also actively promoting ninja culture to the public, which is also a protection and promotion of the ninja spirit.
In 2011, Kawakami was hired by Mie University as a professor at the Joint Research Institute, and they created a new discipline, ninjutsu. This new discipline focuses on how ninjas can combine their information gathering and analytical abilities in the course of their missions to modern business in connection with the development of modern society.
In May 2019, Hitoichi Kawakami was invited by the director of the Beijing Wulunguan International Cultural Exchange Center to come to Beijing for two days of lectures and exercises, systematically analyzing ninjas: including the character of ninjas, the introduction of ninjas, and some interesting modern views of ninjutsu;
It also showed Chinese ninja fans shuriken skills, the use and practice of hidden weapons, as well as spells and seals that everyone particularly liked, so that Chinese ninja fans could experience the most orthodox Koga Ryu ninjutsu.
In early 2020, a channel called NINDO was launched on YouTube by the Japan Ninja Council, releasing videos co-curated and produced by Kawakami that showcased the skills of ninjas.
At the end of 2021, the Japanese Ninja Council will also launch an online ninja academy together with Ren Kawakami, also to cultivate interest in ninjas around the world. This project was also proposed by Kawakami.
Kawakami Has dedicated his life to ninjutsu, and during his time as a professor at Mie University, he also passed on the positive part of the ninja spirit overseas, leaving the ninja spirit in modern society on another level.
Nowadays, ninja culture has even become a major tourist hotspot in Japan, and people from all over the world will experience everything about ninjas, but it is undeniable that ninjas are no longer part of modern society, and they have become a nostalgia for people about the spirit.
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[4] Interview with The Last Ninja Koka School of The 21nd Soshi family Jinichi Kawakami Mika Aoyama Journal of Japanese Language Education = The Japanese education journal 25(5), 74-77, 2012