Konigun Ninjutsu History

History Before Time
The Beginning
The System
The Great Invasion
The Brotherhood
Mystical
Christians?
The Great Ninja Wars
The Origins Of Ninjutsu & The Chinese
Ryu Of Difference
History Bibliography

History Before Time

Dating back to the mid-4500's B.C., the Japanese islands were inhabited by a Caucasian race known as the Ainu, who are mostly found on the northern islands of Hokkaido. This cultural era is known as the Jomon era. The Japanese that inhabit the islands today are believed to have lived there since about 200 B.C. and are known as Yayoi.

In 660 B.C., legend has it, a person known as Jimmu Tenno brought about a confederation of clans on the island of Kyushu. Tenno also conquered the people of Kinki, later giving birth to the Yamato state and dynasty. He would be known as "The Divine Warrior." The Yamato court from Peakche, (a kingdom in southwest Korea), became introduced officially to the Buddhist religion in 552 B.C. As with any state or country consisting of religion and government, a need for a secret group to keep a watchful eye and control corruption, gave birth to the origin of Ninjutsu between 500 and 300 B.C.

The Beginning

Militaristic Bushi (samurai) ruled from 1192 to 1333 and were named after the Kamakura Shogunate. Zen, as a state of being, was an important practice in Buddhism to many sects or clans during this era. In 1196, a town father and leader would make the name Saija, (sometimes spelled Saiga), a page in history. Konigun would arrive as a way for a small village to defend itself. The word Konigun is actually two words in one, "koni" - friendly and "gun" - force.

The period between 1156 and 1221 marked a significant change in Japan and the start of seven centuries of rule by military powers. Konigun would rise and fall many times during these eras. Despite the shifting of the imperial military power and it being divided by local warrior bands, the old imperial government and the estate system it spawned remained intact on many of the islands. The 1180 Tiara usurpation for power in Kyoto would flow all over the islands of Japan. The cost of civil unrest was a burden to the farmer and to the rich noble alike. The finance system of the era was very taxing and lead to a legend and what we know as Konigun today.

As legend has it, a horde of samurai(s) descended upon a tiny village of farmers in the foothills, northwest of Kagoshima. The samurai demanded taxes and reminded the villagers of their obligations and the consequences of failing to meet them, while marking their day of return for the tax payment. The people of the tiny village knew they were too poor to raise the money, so it was agreed that some would flee to the mountains while others would stay behind to make the town appear regularly populated, with hopes of tricking the samurai(s) into not following those that fled into the mountains.

When the samurai(s) returned, and the taxes were not paid, the villagers were killed or enslaved during the destruction of the village. The members of the village who fled to the mountains stayed hidden for years. One of the leaders of the people was Saija, who decided to leave the group in order to find ways to protect his people and bring back a better way of life. Saija went to the Yamabushi priests to study and master their ways, and once he mastered the technique, he brought it back to the people of the village.

Sakurajima, Kagoshima’s volcano. Image courtesy of http://www.japan-guide.com/.

The System

Japanese Imperial Government allotted control over the countryside estates and provinces to different daimyo(s). The daimyo(s) were given a retainer from the emperor to own or control a measure of land, as well as, to employee bands of warriors to protect their estates and the peasants working the estates. In exchange for estates, the emperor would get a small percentage of the crop and a self-contained "national guard army" that he could call on as part of the retainer agreement. The peasant farmer had title to his crop only through his overlord. The domain of the daimyo varied greatly in size. Ranking was based on the national cadastral surveys Hideyoshi had carried out. Rank was issued in terms of their rice production measured in koku, the equivalent of 4.96 bushels. The lowest yield that would qualify a man for the rank of daimyo was 10,000 koku, and the largest "outer" lord had a domain of 1,022,700 koku. The 26 million plus koku yield of Japan was divided giving shogun(s) realm and the "hereditary" domains vassals received a little more than a quarter each. More than a third went to "outer daimyo"; one-eighth went to the "related houses", with the "hereditary" holding over half the agricultural and forestland and strategic regions (Reischauer). During this era there were two imperial families, the Minamoto and the Taira. Yoritomo led the Minamoto family to victory when the two families clashed openly in Kyoto, in what is known as the Hogan war of July 1156. In 1159, the Minamoto were defeated in the Heiji war. Twenty-one years later Yoritomo ('s) brothers, Noriyoro and Yoshitsune, created the samurai-dokoro, or the board of retainers in eastern Japan. This board imposed disciplinary control on their military vassals. The back and forth war brought many ninja sect to odds, because often ninja sects were employed to spy and carry out deeds that involved combat against another ninja sect.

With the 1185 destruction of the Taira family, Yoritomo regained power and appointed military governors (shugo) in all the provinces and military stewards (jito) in both private and government land estates. These shugo(s) and jito(s) were responsible for law enforcement and tax collection of the dues imposed upon the villagers. If a person could not pay his taxes, the samurai would take the children, wife or even the farmer himself for slaves. Those who protested faced death.

The Great Invasion

In 1274, a large Mongol force set forth in Korean ships to conquer Japan, with a military strategy which involved seizing certain small islands as a base to deploy and supply invasions. Having seized several of their targeted islands, the Mongols landed at Hakata Bay, which is a short distance from the modern city Fukuoka in northern Kyushu. Due to the great threat of approaching bad weather, the Mongols withdrew their fleet to the continent and had to forego the conquest. Whether or not they would return, was a foregone fear that would motivate preparation. For the next several years, many of Kamakura's vassals within Northwestern Kyushu's waters stayed on guard or busy constructing a wall designed to trap and repel the Mongol Calvary around Hakata Bay.

In 1281 the Mongols returned to Japan. They needed a combined fleet of Chinese and Korean ships to carry the invading force. Estimated at 140,000, this was the greatest overseas invasion the world had seen. The Mongols relied on large-scale cavalry tactics afforded them by the superior weapons at their disposal, such as, gunpowder bombs hurled by catapult. The Japanese had a mere handful of warriors accustomed to single combat with which to meet this Mongol force, which had no equal in the world. The stout defense of the warriors on the wall, allowed counter attacks in the narrow waters of the bay, by smaller more maneuverable Japanese boats. Before the Mongols could deploy their full forces ashore, a typhoon destroyed their fleet. The Japanese named this typhoon, "Kamikaze" or "Divine Wind" and took it as a sign that the gods were protecting their land from foreign invaders. A common conviction which many Japanese held: "their land was sacred and inviolable", stemmed from this Mongolian fleets destruction.

Regardless of this inviolability, the financial situation some of Kamakura's vassals reached by the late 13th century had put them seriously in debt. To help relieve the civil pressure that the lords and their subjects felt, occasionally the bakufu would give aid by ordering tokusei, "The forgiving of debts" as started with the edict of Einin in 1297. This financial rise and fall allowed the Saija family to advance in the noble ranks and the Konigun sect to grow.

Mongol Area of Domination 1300-1405. Map courtesy of University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas Austin.

The Brotherhood

Across the islands of Japan, many priests sickened by the pursuit of wealth and power left, because too many of the sanctioned orders fought and jockeyed for power from the government. These outcast priests built several shrines all over Japan, ranging from a simple house type of setting to a castle fortress. Most sought a common goal: a better way of life and enlightenment through the understanding of nature. Some of the priests went to the mountains and were known as Yamabushi. The word Yamabushi is actually two words; "yama" - mountain and "bushi" - warrior. The Yamabushi(s) would seek this enlightenment by observing and testing themselves against nature by either: sitting under ice cold crushing waterfalls; hanging from cliffs upside down; sitting in snow naked; running through woods in the dark and much more in their pursuit of wisdom. Often as a ninja progressed in his training and level of skills he would attain the title of Yamabushi.

The Kyushu Island had more than five ninja sects operating by this era and untold numbers of sects on the other islands of Japan. The ninja got his name from the feudal samurai(s) who often hired the ninja to scout and spy because of their special abilities. The ninja were in an era where samurai(s) retained them to destroy samurai or lords, which they once did for survival. Now it was a paycheck. Although the era gave the ninja time to grow and sharpen their skills, it had its drawbacks. When their samurai's enemies hired other ninja clans to do as they were doing, in time, this brought ninja clans to war with each other.

Mystical

Travelers, woodcutters, sportsmen, and others people often saw the Yamabushi's unusual habits of study and would go back to the estates spreading tales of the wonders they witnessed. Over time, the Yamabushi developed higher skills with nature, and the stories grew. Although easy to explain, many skills seemed magical. For example, a lowlander might see a Yamabushi priest walking across a lake using two foot tubs for support with a pole for balance/ propulsion or even enjoying a fall glider (hang glider). By the time the story spread, they were flying or walking on water. The Yamabushi became more like gods to the lowlanders of the estates who already looked up to them. Threatened by their growing fame and their denunciation of the sanctioned orders, it took little effort for the imperial priests to have the Yamabushi priests declared outlaws along with having their beliefs banned.

Tengu were born out of the Yamabushi mystical power. The myth of the tengu was born to save face and life, because the samurai often said the ninja were demons that could change from human form to a bird-like beast. The stories sprang from the ninja's "ability" to disappear, to fly, to walk on water, to make fire come from the ground (via flash bombs) and many other things.

When the samurai were beaten in combat by the ninja and lived, they would often make up stories of the half man-half beast bird demons in order to retain their honor when they reported to their lords. Ninja would often aid this deception by riding tame tigers to and from missions allowing an abrupt change of tracks to be found by anyone following. Of course, no samurai would be expected to defeat a demon and therefore the samurai's life would be spared by his lord.

Christians?

Portuguese traders first discovered the islands of Japan in 1543. After their discovery, they continued returning to Japan and became important carriers of trade in Asian waters, because of their superior ships and seamanship. They set up trading stations at Hirado, an island off the northwest coast of Kyushu (Reischauer). By 1549 St. Francis Xavier, one of the great founders of the Jesuit order, started missionary work there and was active in Japan from till 1551.

Christianity to the Japanese, at first seemed to be a variant of the popular faith sect of Buddhism. When some Kyushu daimyo, noticed that Portuguese traders tended to go where the Jesuit priests were welcome, they embraced the new religion and ordered their subjects to follow suit. Nagasaki, which in time became the chief port to the outside world, was founded by one of these lords in 1571 to attract Portuguese trade. Konigun, Kobo, Sasanuma, Takeda, and Kankai were ryu(s) on Kyushu that were converted to Christianity. It is believed Kyushin, Fudo, Gyokku, and Koto were in part or completely converted.

Abraham Ortelius: Japoniae insulae descriptio. Antwerpen 1595. 36 x 48 cm. (private collection)
This map, drawn by the Portuguese Jesuit Luiz Teixeira, was the first printed map of Japan to appear in an atlas. Courtesy of Wolfgang, Michel-Zaitsu, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, Kyushu University, 4 - 2 - 1 Ropponmatsu, Chuoku, Fukuoka-City, Japan 810-8560.

The Great Ninja Wars

Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Christianity in 1587. Ten years later, he began to enforce the ban when he crucified nine missionaries and seventeen of their followers. Tokugawa Ieyasu began tolerant, but in 1606 he began issuing anti-Christian decrees. At first suspects were made to defile Christian icons, (fumie or "treading picture"), but by 1612 he started punishing the followers of Christianity, leading up to full-scale executions of entire families two years later. Nobody escaped, not the young nor the old.

The clan era of history details hundreds of scattered peasant revolts often against both feudal lords and wealthy power seeking priests. The daimyo ruling the Amakusa area raised taxes in 1637 with severe results for the farmers and business people increasing the level of tension. In an attempt to regain control, Tokugawa Iemitsu decided to prohibit Christianity, giving birth to the rebellions. When the daimyo could not suppress the revolt, he called on the Shogunate.

Photo of Himegi Castle constructed 1601. Courtesy of Eric Obershaw, http://www.samurai-archives.com/links.html.

The Hara Castle was a long and bloody siege in 1637-1638 on the Shimbara Peninsula. Some 20,000 Christian peasants, of whom several thousand were members of ninja sects, challenged religious persecution and economic oppression in this revolt. Saija or Saiga, the 18th generation of the Saija family, made his final stand in Shimbara castle in Kyushu, giving rise to the name, the Shimbara Rebellion.

The Shimbara Castle was lost when the moats were drained and filled with bamboo and rice stalks which were then ignited when the winds were blowing in the proper direction. The sparks and embers blown inside the fortification started a conflagration in which all 20,000 defenders were consumed. Later 37,000 more were massacred. The ninja were used by both sides during this conflict. The book, Samurai Warriors, is a good source for a better detailed story.

Ninjutsu was no small item in Japan's history, when one understands that Oda Nobunaga employed forty-six thousand troops against Sandayu at Ueno, destroying four thousand ninja in the process (Ratti/ Westbrook).

The Origins Of Ninjutsu & The Chinese

The origins of Ninjutsu, placed approximately between 500 and 300 B.C., are commonly linked to Chinese sources. The fall of the T'sang dynasty in China brought many refugees to Japan. The Yamabushi welcomed refugees. With them came the knowledge of gunpowder, which was later used to make ninja smoke bombs. Other weapons such as the san-setsu-kon (three sectional staff), bladed shuriken as well as hand and foot techniques, were adopted from these Chinese refugees. History shows that these refugees from China had some influence in creating and developing the Yamabushi priests and may have been part of its founding fathers.

The ninja reportedly made their first notable appearance as spies with an employer of royal blood, Prince Regent Shotoku (A.D. 574-622) in the sixth century. They were frequently hired by the fighting monks of the mountains, the redoubtable Yamabushi, in their battles against both the imperial forces at the end of the Heian period and the forces of the rising military class (buke). Ninja guilds became firmly entrenched in Kyoto, and their schools proliferated until there were at least twenty-five major centers during the Kamakura period. Oda Nobunaga is reported to have employed forty-six thousand troops against Sandayu Ueno, destroying four thousand ninja in the process. The last impressive employment of these fighters on the battlefield seems to have been in the Shimbara war (1637), against forty thousand rebellious Christians on the island of Kyushu (Ratti/ Westbrook). The legendary Konigun colloquialism may have been born with the adoption of the Chinese techniques and refugees. Many historians state that after the Shimbara battle the code language used was undecipherable outside the realm of the Konigun ninja which still uses its own colloquialisms today.

Disclosure of Ninjutsu secrets to unauthorized persons meant death at the hands from other ninja of the same group. This meant that few records exist to the actual participation of the ninja. Books and documents (torimaki) related to the heritage, arts, and techniques of Ninjutsu, therefore, were considered secret family treasures which it was the responsibility of each generation to preserve and transmit to the next. They contained instructions concerning those techniques of combat with which the ninja had to familiarize himself and master. Members of the Kyushin ryu, a school of Ninjutsu, became noted for their unorthodox methods of using a spear (bisento). The Fudo ryu, another school of Ninjutsu in feudal Japan, was considered vastly superior in the development of a particular kind of dexterity with blades. A skilled chemist (yogen) in his own right, the ninja often used poisoned darts, acid-spurting tubes, flash-powder grenades, smoke bombs, and so forth, cleverly adapted Chinese discoveries in chemistry and inventions in explosives to his particular requirements. After the arrival of the Portuguese, he even used firearms. The ninja of the Gyokku ryu, for example, were experts in the deadly use of the thumb and fingers against vital centers in the human body. This method became known as yubijutsu. The students of the Koto ryu were particularly proficient in breaking bones, or koppo jutsu(Ratti/ Westbrook).

Saiga Magoichi was born to the family of Suzuki and was head of the Kishu Saiga Ninja Group. He was a master of Tsuda Ryu Kaijutsu, explosives and firearms methods as well as Saiga Ryu Ninjutsu. He based his headquarters on the Saiga Cape. There he recruited men from the Jizamurai (local samurai) from the vicinity of Saiga Castle. He was involved in the Battle of Naniwa Kanzakigawa Gassen in which Oda Nobunaga took part. Saiga employed the tactic of Shakino jutsu " flag discarding" to win the battle. The Saiga group left their own battle flags behind and moved into position carrying copies of the flags of their enemy. Nobunaga who saw his own flags and thought they were his allies (Hayes).

As late as 1759, ninjas were seen on the battlefield when troops lost the battle of Tensho Iga No Ran against massive ninja clans.

Japan circa 1855, Map courtesy of University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas Austin.

Ryu Of Difference

A ninja ryu is a group of ninja(s). To be a ninja ryu, the ryu has to study Ninjutsu and follow a form of the bushido code. To this code every clansman must give an oath of loyalty. A ninja clan and/or style of Ninjutsu must have a surviving ninja. If a style has no ninja(s) left, then it is no longer a style of Ninjutsu. Ninjutsu has developed over hundreds of years in different areas of Japan, the techniques of fighting and thinking, as well as, codes are different. Hardships caused by wars, treatment from locals, and encountering foreign people with different fighting techniques, had a big impact on each Ninjutsu style. Enlightenments adopted from these occurrences make up the mindset of the system. Konigun is not the only style of Ninjutsu nor do we care to police other styles.

ENJOY LIFE.

History Bibliography

1. Hayes, Stephen K., The Mystic Arts of the Ninja. Contemporary Books, 1985.
2. Ratti, Oscar and Westbrook, Adele. Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal Japan. Castle Books, 1999.
3. Reischauer, Edwin O., Japan: The Story of a Nation. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990.
4. Historical Maps Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, University of Texas at Austin.
5. Portuguese Map Abraham Ortelius: Japoniae insulae descriptio. Antwerpen 1595. 36 x 48 cm. Courtesy of Wolfgang, Michel-Zaitsu, Faculty of Languages and Cultures, Kyushu University, 4 - 2 - 1 Ropponmatsu, Chuoku, Fukuoka-City, Japan 810-8560.
6. Image of Sakurajima, http://www.japan-guide.com/.
7. Photo of Himegi Castle constructed 1601. Courtesy of Eric Obershaw, http://www.samurai-archives.com/links.html.