Ninja’s Culture
1 Food Culture
Ninja must keep their weigh below 60kg. Because they often run fast and quietly on the roof, jump from tree to tree and hang from branch. So they? must be light. Their foods are low calorie, low fat and high protein.
I’ ll introduce some of Ninja’s food.
First, I’ll talk about Tofu and Konnyaku as example of Ninja’s diet. Tofu is made from soybeans, you know. Japanese ancient people believed that soybeans had wonderful power. Indeed, they were high protein and Ninja got the protein by making Tofu. And Konnyaku is good for thirst and cleaning stomach because of its dietary fiber.
Next, I’ll tell you about Ninja’s field ration. They were in excellent preservation, portable and of course well balanced. Umeboshi is good example. And I’ll introduce Katayaki. Katayaki is a kind of rice cracker. They are made from Genmai. And they are so hard that people ate them after breaking them into small pieces by little wood hammer. Even now, if you visit Iga, you can get them.
Third, I’ll explain sesame, which was used for improvement of Ninja’s power. There is Black sesame and White sesame, you know. The effects are different between the two types of sesame. Black sesame is good for liver, and White sesame is good for lungs. Ninja used even leaves and flowers of Black sesame. The leaves were good for hair combing and flowers were good application of verruca.
2 Ninja Letters
Tradition says that there were Jindai letters before the Chinese character comes to Japan. ?It was said that Jindai letters had come down to only Ninja and that Ninja became using them as cipher.? So the letters could only be understand by Ninja. For us, even writing them is so difficult. If someone got a Ninja’s document, he would be confused.
3 Ninja’s Perfume and Bath
Ninja had an advanced culture of perfume. For them, perfumes were the tools for disguise. Because when there were ranks in Japan, clothes and perfumes were different by rank. So they must change perfumes as well as clothes when they disguise. For example, Buddhist priest wore the incense perfume, and Yamabushi wore the sesame perfume. They also could find out someone’s rank by perfume.
Not only the perfume but also taking the bath was important for Ninja. Because Ninja had to remove the perfume not to be known by someone by their perfume. And Ninja believed they could clean up their souls by taking the bath. It was the source of Ninja’s strong spirit.
References
“Shitte So De Shiranai Nihon No Dento Bunka” By Motoko Yamamoto, Dento Bunka Kenkyu kai
“Ninja Zukan” By Hiromitsu Kuroi, Buronzu Sinsha (2000)
http://www.mpd.co.jp/net/ninja/japanese/menu.html
Ayako
Last updated 6-Dec-2001