ninjas or samuris?

[JLee]

i was just wondering which style do you guys prefer? the style of ninjas(ninjitsu?) or the style of samuris?

[Treebranch]

Very similar and both very effective.

[Drunken Monkey]

hmm, but isn't it true that the ninjas were the samurai?

 

so really, there is no one is better than the other because they are for different aspects of the samurai's job?

 

y'know, a good chef knows how to cut things properly, cook things properly, chose the best ingredients etc etc.

 

if a samurai was ordered to go on a 'covert' (to use the popular term) mission then the skills he would use are from the art of ninjutsu.

 

so unlike the hollywood version,

 

you don't have a group of ninjas sitting around doing nothing.

 

when ninjas aren't doing their ninja stuff, they are samurai.

 

well, that's what i've always believed....

 

feel free to correct me.

[Ravencroft]

Really? I didnt know that the samurai even studied ninjitsu. i thought that they did kendo(kenjutsu) as well as iaido and jujitsu/aikijitsu. i thought the shinobi were the ones who did stealth and assassinations. where as the samurai were more into straight up fighting. but this just what ive learned.

[Fat Donkey]

As pure entities neither one of these historicla figures were admirable. The samurai turned Japan into a war zone for hundreds of years and as in all most wars it was the poor peasants who were slaughtered. The ninja were assasins and spies who did the dirty work for Samurai lords. What we should do is extract those virtues which we admire like discipline and dedication

[Treebranch]

Yeah the whole Ninja Samurai relationship is a little hard to separate, but there were Ninja clans. I don't really know much about the true history of the Ninja, but who does.

[Mart]

I agree with you donkey, the samurai were as bad as you say they were. I admire their discipline and sence of loyalty but other than its good ridence to bad rubbish.

[krunchyfrogg]

All you need to know about ninjas: http://realultimatepower.net/

 

Haha, just kidding. I don't claim to know much about the real historical versions of either of these guys, but I can tell you my impressions:

 

It seems like ninja are sneaky assassins, spies, and generally people who do "the dirty work." Samurai seem to live by a code of honor (bushido), and tend to be the soldier-type.

 

I tend to admire (my version of) the Samurai more than I could ever admire a ninja, as I myself (try to) live my life with honor.

[White Warlock]

Ugh!

 

Bushido was developed as a means to implement some codes of behavior on samurai and soldiers in general. It was developed by the ruling class, not by the samurai. Its underlying intent was to provide a means to enforce behavior, using the pre-existing society's fixation on maintaining family honor. Bushido actually never really took hold until after peace had been enforced by the Tokugawa family. Prior to that, samurai were pretty much just guys with armor and weapons and far too many rights and privileges. Mostly, they were considered to be bullies. Do remember, Japanese history was written by the scholarly, which so happened to be the samurai class.

 

Anyway, as to the ninja/samurai crossover... history on these issues is a bit fuzzy, but as best i can give on it is that there were two samurai families given specific imperial responsibilities. I'm sorry, i can't recall the family names. One family was given the responsibility of protecting the emperor and the capitol, while the other was given the responsibility of providing information and performing actions in-the-interest of the imperial family. Essentially, one was given the responsibility comparable to the U.S. Secret Service, while the other was given the responsibility comparable to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Eventually the boundaries became less clear and the families more intermixed.

 

One thing that really tends to throw chaos into the historical writings, are the shinobi, which were spies / informants / infiltrators / etc. Shinobi were used quite frequently in the early Japanese conflicts. Shinobi came from most every class, including samurais, artisans, peasants and even geisha. Essentially, they consisted of turncoats, moles, counter-insurgents, etc. The confusion arises when attempting to differentiate events in historical descriptions. It is often very difficult to discern what is a peasant revolt, a betrayal, a surreptitious action, and whether these were done by design... or lonewolf.

[ramymensa]

With all my respect to both, samurais and ninjas, I wouldn't like to live like them. Their existence was less "exotic" than what we see in films and their life was mostly governed by some laws impossible to obey in the "real world" (our world ). Their determination, skill and courage are to be admired, still their era has passed. Nowadays we must live by other codes, though Bushido seems nice in some aspects. We'll have to take from them what's suitable and live like "normal" people (though our interest in MA is not "normal" in some people's minds ). Religion and moral codes (in our society) make impossible a pure "bushido" life, so we'll stick with what we can take from it.

 

Just an opinion.

 

and for the question asked ... I'd take Ninjutsu and the samurais arts as well. Hard to decide. Not to mention the need to find a REALLY GOOD instructor.