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does anyone know where i can find a real ninja-to. all i can find is these piece of junk fakes. im looking for one that has the traditional long handle, square guard, with a wood sheath.
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ninja-to
- Thread starter valentin_bugilan
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valentin_bugilan said:
"Real" as in historical or made to historical specifications don't exist as the ninja-to is an invention of cinema. That said, there are some decent makers that make swords in that style. Kris Cutlery is known for making good stuff for a price you normally only get wall hanger junk for: http://kriscutlery.com/japanese/ninjato.html
The ninjas actualy existed. I do not believe that they could jump on top of the roofs like they do in the movies but they did existed maybe a couple of centuries ago. I think they were some kind of spy members. kind of like special forces from long time ago. Not only the black suits like they wore in the movies but they even wore normal clothes during their missions when they had to.
excuse me simon-yu I think I misunderstood what you meant on your thread. I didn't know what ninja-to was. I don't konw where you can get a real ninja sword,but I'm sure someone would sell them. This is only my opinion but I wouldn't wanna get a real one because some of them could be the one that's been actually used and that means someone must have died from it. If I were you I'll ask the background of the sword to whoever I'm buying it from if your looking for an old one. If you really mean the "real ninja sword" .:thumbup:
ryosuke said:
"ninja-to" didn't exist historically, so you would have a hard time finding an antique one. Now if you are talking about kiriha zukuri or hira zukuri swords (historically straight Japanese swords, but not ninja swords) you might be able to get an antique one, but the price of one in decent condition will be fairly high since they are old (before 900 AD) and are rare.
For newly made ones that can be used and are not just for display then Kris Cutlery or Hanwei would be your best bet. You could even order a custom one if you felt the urge.
Walking Man
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It amazes me what Jackie Chan and other high flying martial artists can accomplish, as far as leaping on rooftops goes. Sure some of it is fantasy (in the movies), but there are internet videos people doing crazy real life building jumping type of acrobatics. It kind of makes you wonder what they were really capable of.ryosuke said:
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ryosuke said:
I have seen photos of Ninja from the early days of photography, and they dressed like common peasants. Best way to hide is in plain sight.
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They also dressed as samuraiRat Finkenstein said:
(because they WERE samurai). Quite right, quite right.However, I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least some instances of wearing "ninja pajamas"
when being seen at all would be bad.... say.... when skulking around in the forest, perhaps for assassination there (in a castle, it would be easier to just look like a high-ranking official or a servant - people would either be too intimidated to challenge you, or wouldn't notice you).P.S. That's one reason there were no "straight" swords - would be a dead giveaway - however, there was a period during which straighter, shorter swords became popular (easier to carry and draw perhaps?) once katana became the main weapon (peacetime) rather than a last-resort sidearm (wartime).
"That's one reason there were no "straight" swords - would be a dead giveaway "
I always thought that was a great arguement against a specifically styled "ninja sword". The good guys could simply look for the sneaky dudes with that sword style and wipe 'em out.
I wish we could erase all the misconceptions Horrorwood has heaped upon the swords of Japan.... but alas! Where would the tales (and the dollars) be in the unembellished truth?
I always thought that was a great arguement against a specifically styled "ninja sword". The good guys could simply look for the sneaky dudes with that sword style and wipe 'em out.
I wish we could erase all the misconceptions Horrorwood has heaped upon the swords of Japan.... but alas! Where would the tales (and the dollars) be in the unembellished truth?
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Merek said:
Even if we could erase all the Hollywood embellishment, we'd still have to deal with what Japanese theatre has done
We're not the only culture that likes to have fun with fantasy after all. Heck, they even like to have fun with the embellishments WE made. While ninja in Japanese fiction are traditionally very stealthy, sometimes they use the American style of having them be really stealthy until they get to a target, at which point stuff starts exploding senoBDEC said:
The most reasonable explanation of where the black pajama thing came from is from descriptions of Japanese theatre conventions. Stage hands that had to manipulate props on stage would dress in black body suits, basically a sign that said to the audience "I'm not really here." When ninjas started showing up in plays, they, or rather, the effects they left were performed by the stage hands and eventually the black pajama look became associated with them.
Rat Finkenstine said:
One thing nice about ninja from a historical perspective is that for a group of spies and infiltrators, they actually kept decent records and weren't all that secretive through their entire history. Oda Nobunaga didn't have to look that hard when he decided to strike against them and knew to poke around the Iga and Koga areas. Trick is finding people willing to write about the historical record instead of deciding that researching a mysterious group shrouded in myth is a fruitless endeavour.
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Simon Yu's history seems to match my understanding across the board. Ninjas were a teeny tiny part of Japanese history, and didn't even call themselves as such.
Virtually everything we think about Ninjas today is a recent invention. There are three influences at work:
1) Hatsumi's recreation of Ninjitsu based on a collection of different martial disciplines--with a lot of logical "gap fillers" of his own, so to speak. There was no ancient ninjitsu system--just a collection of folk techniques with varying levels of organization... some directly from samurai field techniques, some from regional areas, some from other martial arts, and a fair amount from people who had nothing to do with fighting or warfare... but he has a sense of spotting a darn good technique that might be applied in a new context.
2) Japanese theater (especially Kabuki), which later influenced Japanese pop culture (movies, comic books, cartoons, television).
3) Hollywood, which in my opinion is the *least* influential of all. Hollywood's approach to ninjas is basically to copy and streamline what Japanese pop culture created. Really, Hollywood's influence has been to mix and match different Japanese or Asian ideas as "ninja," which is why we have 'karate-practicing ninja,' and ninja armed with Chinese weapons, mutant turtles, etc.
Ninjitsu as a modern construct is a reasonably well thought out fighting system, and I'm not advocating nor dismissing its internal merits--I leave that to others to debate.
But historical ninjitsu is one of those things that the more you look into it, the less there really is to find (compared to what's perceived). There is no "there" there.
As Simon said, there were and are fairly clear records and good documentation; it's just that few people have bothered to read them because they're probably quite anti-climactic.
Virtually everything we think about Ninjas today is a recent invention. There are three influences at work:
1) Hatsumi's recreation of Ninjitsu based on a collection of different martial disciplines--with a lot of logical "gap fillers" of his own, so to speak. There was no ancient ninjitsu system--just a collection of folk techniques with varying levels of organization... some directly from samurai field techniques, some from regional areas, some from other martial arts, and a fair amount from people who had nothing to do with fighting or warfare... but he has a sense of spotting a darn good technique that might be applied in a new context.
2) Japanese theater (especially Kabuki), which later influenced Japanese pop culture (movies, comic books, cartoons, television).
3) Hollywood, which in my opinion is the *least* influential of all. Hollywood's approach to ninjas is basically to copy and streamline what Japanese pop culture created. Really, Hollywood's influence has been to mix and match different Japanese or Asian ideas as "ninja," which is why we have 'karate-practicing ninja,' and ninja armed with Chinese weapons, mutant turtles, etc.
Ninjitsu as a modern construct is a reasonably well thought out fighting system, and I'm not advocating nor dismissing its internal merits--I leave that to others to debate.
But historical ninjitsu is one of those things that the more you look into it, the less there really is to find (compared to what's perceived). There is no "there" there.
As Simon said, there were and are fairly clear records and good documentation; it's just that few people have bothered to read them because they're probably quite anti-climactic.
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senoBDEC said:T
However, I wouldn't be surprised if there were at least some instances of wearing "ninja pajamas"
Nah, wearing all black stands out in a forest. It creates one solid shadow that resembles a man, while mixed colors and broken up designs dont form a particular shape and often blend in with the surroundings better.
