Sengoku Series: Episode 5 - Ninja in Sengoku Japan

In this video I discuss the reality of ninja/shinobi in medieval Japan. Contrary to pop culture, ninja were not a special social group, separate from the samurai class or members of secret schools. The ninja legend arose from the guerilla tactics and espionage of the medieval period.

[@dbircham]

what i want to know is how do you know that there is no truth to units and schools of shinobi is exaggerated when there is so little written about it? It is impossible to say that the schools of training was all for show. Assassination in it self is something requiring a high level of skill, i think you are dampening the nature of this job ...

[@postponedlife]

You don't have to take my word for it; you can do your own research into modern "schools" of ninjutsu and the controversy surrounding them. Spies and assassins have been trained throughout history in many different cultures without it constituting a formal "martial art."

[@dbircham]

OK Scott will do. I know that this is something I will have to do anyway to satisfy my own curiosity. However I don't know how much I will find. I cant imagine that an assassin school - the real ones that is - would have much written about them due to the very nature of the work ...