Ninjas--Japan's famous black-clad spies, saboteurs, and undercover
fighters, equipped with superb martial arts skills and an uncanny
aptitude for sneakiness--are the stuff of myth and legend. In the
present day, movies, comic books, theme parks, and computer games have
all been dedicated to the ninja. Folklore and entertaining tales
concerning ninjas remain immensely popular as the Ninja has captured a
central place in the cultural imagination, both in Japan and in the
West.
Ninja takes the reader to Japan in 1789, conveying the excitement,
danger, and subterfuge of the period. Based on original ninjutsu
training manuals, it teaches precisely what is required to become a
ninja. Illustrated throughout with contemporary artifacts, documents,
and prints taken from the original manuals, as well as modern
reconstructions, this lighthearted but informative guide covers every
aspect of what it was really like to be a ninja in Japan.