To be honest, realm life Ninjas are a huge debate on if they even existed. What we imagine are actually stagehands in Kabuki plays. There was also a group of monks and so e underworld organizations, but none of them fit the bill. Then the guy claiming to be a ninja is probably lying, but who cares.
I don’t disagree, but my like perception of a “ninja” is also some peasant rowdy enough to be talked into killing someone with like a mask made out of straw and a slag iron sword. I think a lot of folks are assuming there was some kind of ninja equivalent to the pentagon where they’re all just hanging out
'grassroot' spies like that were unlikely to have existed, even if they did, they won't be more useful than gathering local gossips from a tiny village. personal movements were very limited in ancient times, most people never left their village their whole lives, anyone coming in or going out will be noticed right away. the farmers and fishermen were expected to be self sustained yeah? so they had to work 12 hours a day, and then train spy crafts/martial arts in secret and go out and gather intelligence 5km+ away, where would they even find the time, not to mention that's basically paying the lord for the privilege of working for him. much easier to just bribe someone working in the fortress/samurais households
To be fair, irl ninjas were historically like fisherman and farmers. Her swarthiness actually makes sense in a historic context.
To be honest, realm life Ninjas are a huge debate on if they even existed. What we imagine are actually stagehands in Kabuki plays. There was also a group of monks and so e underworld organizations, but none of them fit the bill. Then the guy claiming to be a ninja is probably lying, but who cares.
I don’t disagree, but my like perception of a “ninja” is also some peasant rowdy enough to be talked into killing someone with like a mask made out of straw and a slag iron sword. I think a lot of folks are assuming there was some kind of ninja equivalent to the pentagon where they’re all just hanging out
Look up Momotaro and Goemon. They both fit that image.
'grassroot' spies like that were unlikely to have existed, even if they did, they won't be more useful than gathering local gossips from a tiny village. personal movements were very limited in ancient times, most people never left their village their whole lives, anyone coming in or going out will be noticed right away. the farmers and fishermen were expected to be self sustained yeah? so they had to work 12 hours a day, and then train spy crafts/martial arts in secret and go out and gather intelligence 5km+ away, where would they even find the time, not to mention that's basically paying the lord for the privilege of working for him. much easier to just bribe someone working in the fortress/samurais households