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Ninja: Unmasking the Myth

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This history of the ninja uncovers the truth behind the image—from the exploits of medieval ninjas to their modern incarnation as pop culture icons. The ninja is a legendary figure in Japanese military culture, a fighter widely regarded as the world's greatest expert in secret warfare. The word alone conjures the image of a masked assassin dressed in black, capable of extraordinary feats of daring; a mercenary who disposes of enemies by sending sharp iron stars spinning towards them. This is, of course, a popular myth, based on exaggerations and Hollywood movies. But the truth, as Stephen Turnbull explains in Ninja, is even more fascinating. A leading expert on samurai culture, Turnbull presents an authoritative study of ninja history based on original Japanese sources, many of which have never been translated before. These include accounts of castle attacks, assassinations and espionage, as well as the last great ninja manual, which reveals the spiritual and religious ideals that were believed to lie behind the ninja's arts. Turnbull's critical examination of the ninja phenomenon ranges from undercover operations during the age of Japan's civil wars to the modern emergence of the superman ninja as a comic book character. The book concludes with a detailed investigation of the ninja in popular culture. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Frontline Books


Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more


Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 30, 2017


Language ‏ : ‎ English


File size ‏ : ‎ 20.8 MB


Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported


Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled


X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled


Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Accessible scholarship
Format: Kindle
Turnbull does an incredible job compiling and distilling the history of this facet of Japanese martial history. He also separates invented traditions from their historical roots, while providing depth and objectivity to analyzing both. Another great book by a great historian.
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024 by Kearney
    • A great history of ninja
Format: Hardcover
If you have interest in ninja, either the historical or the ones in popular entertainment this is a book I highly recommend. Turnbull is a highly respected writer on Japan who has produced the best book on ninja I have yet to read.
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2018 by Gilles Poitras
    • Probably the most important book on the subject of ninjutsu.
Format: Hardcover
Could have really used this one 20 or even 40 years ago. Meticulously researched and will throw a lot of "ryuha" into even deeper legitimacy problems. With the exception of Itoh's books published in 1909 (recently published in English, translations done by Eric Shahan), which probably did more than anything else to preserve ideas of ninjutsu and some methods, Turnbulls book on ninjutsu clearly separates the "ninja myth" from "factual ninja history", and while the ninja mythology is a lot more fun it's looks a lot like the US understanding of "ninja / ninjutsu" as well as the Japanese ideas from the 1950s are almost complete fabrication. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2018 by Steyr AUG
    • Mint.
Format: Hardcover
A mint edition to the history of the Shinobi. Thank you Stephen Turnbull for tackling the daunting task of unmasking the ninja in the 20th century!
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2018 by Jeff Ingram
    • Well done!
Format: Hardcover
This is probably the most informative book on the Ninja available. Really good.
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2019 by Amazon Customer
    • Awesome
Format: Kindle
Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2020 by Amazon Customer
    • Nor what I was looking for.
Format: Paperback
What I was looking for was an in depth real history of Ninja, and the author seemed more interested in the Japanese writing charters for 'Ninja' than creating a history. I became so irritated that I couldn't finish it.
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2021 by Mak Nichols
    • Ninja are more interesting in real life than fantasy.
Format: Kindle
Review Image by Richard Bejtlich
In Ninja: Unmasking the Myth, I learned that the ninja and ninjutsu are another set of invented traditions, built up from a mix of factual and fictional events taking place in Japan over the course of several hundred years. Dr. Turnbull is an academic writer who has delivered other books on this topic before. He describes this earlier work, “Ninja: The True Story of Japan’s Secret Warrior Cult in 1991, [as] a serious if flawed attempt to discover the reality behind the ninja by using original Japanese sources.” His problem was the following: “I unfortunately allowed myself to become over-dependent on works such as Yamaguchi’s imaginative Ninja no Seikatsu, in which almost any secret operation in Japanese history is credited to a ninja.” This is a recurring theme in the book: ninja fans look back through history and apply their image of the ninja to events and people, rather than accepting them for what they really were. This new book is Dr. Turnbull’s most comprehensive attempt to expose the ninja and ninjutsu myths, hopefully without offending any of their devoted fans. If you are a scholar, or researcher, or you just appreciate reading martial arts history based on sound evidence and sourced research as I do as the founder of Martial History Team, then you will love almost all of Dr. Turnbull’s book. Each chapter is thoroughly sourced, referencing Japanese resources. Dr. Benesch cites both sides of the debate, letting the ninja have a fair hearing. He shows how “The building blocks for the ninja myth can easily be traced back to the civil wars of the Sengoku Period, although some enthusiasts will go back even further in time and find links in the mists of imperial antiquity, seizing upon certain historical figures and projecting the idea backwards to credit them with being ninja.” Dr. Turnbull uses a three step process to make his argument. First, he “tease[s] out the essential features of the archetypal ninja as he is presently understood to provide a baseline for comparison with what may have existed in the past.” Second, he “look[s] at accounts of undercover warfare that were recorded by unbiased eyewitnesses when wars were still taking place.” Third, he “examine[s] the wide range of written material produced after Japan’s wars had ceased.” The careful review of all of this material shows that the ninja was less of a “person” (or a “noun”) and more of an action. In other words, "ninja" was a way of describing a soldier's actions (i.e., as an “adjective” or an “adverb”). Thus, a soldier who moved with stealth wasn’t really a “ninja,” but his actions were consistent with what later ninja fans believed ninja to have accomplished. If you are not interested in factual books, you may not like Dr. Turnbull’s work as much as I did. The text is easier to read than Dr. Benesch’s book, and incorporates Dr. Turnbull's experiences visiting ninja theme parks and restaurants in Japan. I did feel like the text got bogged down a bit in the sections on Iga and Kōka history. However, those arguments were key to showing that their current commercial fascination with all things ninja has weak historical grounding. Their association was built more upon their status as court intelligence operatives, not their skill with shuriken (a weapon that, while real, was not really a ninja tool). Readers will learn so much from this book. For example, Dr. Turnbull notes that “ninja” consists of two kanji (Chinese-derived ideographs) 忍 and 者. “Sha (or ja) 者 simply refers to a practitioner of something, as in the word geisha 芸者... The word ninjutsu 忍術 uses a second character 術 meaning techniques, but the first character nin 忍 in both words can have two very different meanings… It is usually taken to mean secrecy, invisibility or concealment, but its primary definition involves the idea of endurance… Taking one’s clues solely from the addition of furigana to Japanese texts, a fully confirmed on reading of 忍者 as ninja does not appear in any written source until 1955 when it emerges in the novel Sarutobi Sasuke by Shibata Renzaburō, where 忍者 is glossed to be read in that precise way on its first appearance.” These are just hints to the fascinating tale of the ninja waiting for you in Dr. Turnbull’s book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2020 by Richard Bejtlich

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