Ninja

Ninja (??) or shinobi (??) (literally, "one who endures") were agents of espionage in feudal Japan. Some modern practitioners of budo ninjutsu argue that ninja were used primarily as spies, not assassins. It is popularly believed that the ancient ninja were peasants, forbidden under law from studying the samurai swordplay techniques because of feudal Japan's caste structure. Others contend that many ninja were also samurai, operating as spies in the service of their daimyo. The latter is more likely as there aren't any records of peasant ninja, while there are many samurai families who are recorded as being ninja. Contrary to popular belief, bushido didn't in fact stop samurai from being ninja.

List of teaching styles or "ryū" of ninja

Each teaching style is gathered according to where they would be located under current prefectures and may not be completely accurate. They may or may not still be practised.

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• Aichi - Matsuba-ryū, Ichizen-ryū
• Akihabara - Akiba-ryū
• Aomori - Nakagawa-ryū
• Fukuoka - Kuroda-ryū
• Gifu - Mino-ryū
• Ibaraki - Matsuda-ryū
• Kagoshima - Satsuma-ninpō
• Kanagawa - Fuma-ninpō
• Kyōto - Hatano-ryū
• Mie - Hattori-ryū, Momochi-ryū, Togakure-ryū, Iga-ryū
• Nagano - Kōyō-ryū, Togakure-ryū, Aoki-ryū, Itō-ryū, Akutagawa-ryū
• Nagasaki - Nanban-ryū (see also the Nanban period)
• Nara - Kusunoki-ryū
• Niigata - Uesugi-ryū, Kaji-ryū
• Okayama - Bizen-ryū
• Shiga - Tarao-ryū, Rigyoku-ryū, Kōga-ryū
• Shimane - Fukushima-ryū
• Tochigi - Matsumoto-ryū
• Toyama - Echizen-ryū
• Wakayama - Kishu-ryū, Negoro-ryū, Saika-ryū
• Yamagata - Haguro-ryū
• Yamanashi - Takeda-ryū, Ninkō-ryū

(Note: Ry? can also mean dragon.)

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