Recreation Misunderstood Warriors Samurais, Ninjas, Kung Fu

Hello, I am just a newbee here and I'm not so sure if I should open my big fat mouth about this stuff here:sweat2: . I'm just interested to know how much you know about Samurais, Ninjas, Kung Fu masters, Karate, Judo and so on...

Sure, we have seen movies that had Kung Fu masters fighting it off in mid air, doing incredible flying attacks and can break rocks in one single blow. With Ninjas, they have super human speed, can leap up to a branch of a tree more than five meters high without breaking a sweat, disappear into thin air and posses magical weapons that can be used in any fighting situations. Same with Samurais, they are often depicted to have mystical sword techniques that can even split rocks from a distance, generate hurricanes with their unbelievably sharp blades, they can even deflect riffle bullets and slice an object behind a person without harming them.

The question are, how true are these incredible techniques that they use? Does such things really happen in actual combat? If they are true how did they develop these things?

The media is showing off a lot of fantasies about them that many of the people (especially younger ones) who see these stuff actually believes that these warriors are capable of doing incredibly super human attack and defense moves.

I may be missing a few more details about this, but I would like to hear what you guys think of this subject. This is just for facts to clear up a lot of misunderstandings concerning these great warriors and their incredible fighting techniques.

 

Ok,The ninja's are so over exaggerated.I have studied just a little ninjutsu.
Know,for the disapearing thing,it's not true,all they really did(I think)was throw smoke bombs and then run away.The ninja were more of a secret police more than anything.I beileve it was originally formed to combat the samurai or somthing like that.

And in Kung-Fu,they can't jump super hi,actually about 90% of kung-Fu is kicking depending on the kind of kung-fu you want to learn.

 

Kung Fu is not actually Japanese, it is actually Chinese. If I remember my Chinese History lessons it was a fighting technique developed by the Shaolin monks. It is not mainly developed for attack, but its mostly for defense only. And the Shaolin strictly follow rules about when to use their Kung Fu skills. Most of the Kung Fu training is building up stamina and body endurance under extreme situations. One of their common trining is punching through hot sand to make their knuckles stronger. there is also a training for the strengthening of the skull, I have seen an actual training in which they would hold a Shaolin Kung Fu student like a battering ram and hit his head on a padded brick wall . Of course it sounds unreal, but it is part of their training (you can't ram a person's head on a brick wall without any pad on it that would be crazy).

 

i know a small amount about each i guess, warrior is just another word for someone who fights or has fought, samurai live by the sword and uphold family honour etc etc, on the other hand, a ninja's sword is just another expendable tool of the trade, and are trained from birth(not literally), Kung Fu, meh iunno much at all about that, justthats its a very difficult art to master.

 

You are correct b-tuvs,it is chinese and that the shaolin monks did start it.I have read a few book's to,and some talk about diffrent styles of Kung-fu.Like Bruce Lee for example(Im a big fan of his)He developed Jeet kun do,beileve it or not,that's a real style.Im gonna go see what else I can find about Ninja's.

 

The Ninja

Lets see... Ah yes, the Ninja also known as the vanishing warriors???

They were known to suddenly disappear, and yes it is one of their specialties. According to what I have heard about Ninjitsu is that it is a technique that combined both Samurai fighting style and a little bit of Kung Fu. Quite unbelievable, but I still think its possible. They told a story about a young man who wants to train to become a Samurai, but no one would teach him one day he met a Monk and asked him to train a different kind of fighting technique, it is as far as I can remember because it has been ages since I heard that tale (not sure if it was real or not ). But anyway, the vanishing technique of the Ninjas is not a super human ability. unlike Samurais who follow rules on how to engage in combat, Ninjas do the opposite. They are dirty fighters, and they would do all means just to win a fight or run away as fast as they can from the enemy. Ninjas don't just use the conventional Japanese swords, they use specially designed tools for fighting, even their houses are outfitted with trap doors and secret passages. So when the soldiers come to storm their houses they can easily hide and escape, making it look like they disappeared. Also their black suites are ideal for camouflage at night, Ninjas were known to be masters of camouflage that's why they look invisible to the enemy. The ever famous smoke bomb is only used when a Ninja is caught on sight, they just temporarily blind the enemy with a cloud of smoke so that they can run away as fast as they can.

For what I have learned, the vanishing Ninja technique is real, but they don't literally vanish, they just camouflage themselves or get the hell out of the way as fast as they can to make it look like they vanished.

 

Ok,here in maine,there is a small ninjutsu school not far from were I live.And I read that ninjutsu was actually devoloped by a bunch of peasants to combat the raiding samurai.Some of the weapons they used were,Swords,shurikens,Ninjutsu of course,smoke bombs,darts(Not quite sure),And they set alot of traps that would make your stomach turn!(Like dropping people on spikes and just leaving them there if they wern't dead)Ouchy!Know,the camaflouge for night was black,but for the day,it was like camo today,they just attached stuff to blend em in.

I don't know if this is all true,but it is quite logical.

 

Read up and watch the documentries On Bruce Lee.. It will answer a lot of your questions..


As for Kung fu.. there are so many different forms its not even funny..

 

As for Kung fu.. there are so many different forms its not even funny..[/QUOTE]


You can say that again!

 

ok then....

you all need to stop watching hollywood movies.
even as accurate as the last samurai was, they still messed up the shinobi.



ANYWAY

lets start off here.

Shinobi were not mystical warriors who could fly and such, everything they do is quite explainable.

disappearing was quite simple, smokebombs and swiftness were quite enough. walking on water was actually a combination of an inflatable pouch of skin and a webbing. using this technique they could seemingly "walk on water". throwing fire was a simple method of igniting different combustable materials. there is a story about Hattori Hanzo that is told.

Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hattori Hanzo were standing on a river bank and Ieyasu asked him how long he could hold his breath, Hanzo simply replied "as long as you ask my lord". Thus he jumped into the water and disappeared. Minutes flew by and Ieyasu began to call for Hanzo worried something had happened. in a few moments Hanzo sufaced from the water and presented Ieyasu his own Wakizashi that he had taken from him. Ieyasu was unable to believe what he saw and quickly asked for an explaination. Hanzo had jumped into the river and swam down stream a little ways before surfacing behind some reeds. he layed down there for a rest until he heard Ieyasu calling. he quickly snuck over to Ieyasu and quietly removed his Wakizashi and then dove into the water to surface before Ieyasu holding his Wakizashi.

Simple things are often the answers to complex mysteries. Ninja or Shinobi were not hidden assassins or secret warriors. they served as a spy, gathering information for their masters. Often times there public face was that of a samurai and they quite simply we're samurai they were just given the task of gathering information. The shinobi did not carry a small straight sword called a Ninjato. they carried the same weapons as the samurai, although they did have odd weapons suited to the task of gathering information, such as a large weapon that resembled a huge Naginata, but it had crossbars leading up the length of the weapon and was used primarily as a ladder.

As for wearing camo clothing and such, Black for night is probably a very ideal thing, however, they dressed just as everyone else did. wearing a kimono. going through great lengths to camoflouge yourself is probably going to give you away, especially when they were information gatherers. Im sorry but having a tree sneak up to your window is going to be very suspicious, but if an attendant sits outside your door, dressed as your own samurai and waits patiently, information will flow freely.

as for blinding there are many different ways to do so. Metsubushi is anything that blinds your opponent, being a tatami mat flipped up infront of them to a powder put in there eyes. there are many different ways to blind someone. The shinobi used a hundred different things. for temporary blindness, flour. it gums up in the eyes and eyelashes. for semi temporary blindness, sand. permenant blindness, metal shavings. painful burning, powdered pepper or other acidic vegtagles or fruits. Technically metsubushi can be a cat, if thrown into your opponents face.



as for Kung Fu, its a purely Chinese art, it to my knowledge had no place in Japan at all.

secondly Shaolin Kung Fu is not an ancient Chinese art, rather its a Hawaiian art from the 1960's.

 

A tree walking up to your window......LOL That is really funny,true,but funny!

 

You heard it all from the man's mouth. If you're really interested in getting your facts straight, find a book by a presentable author on the subject and read it. There are many books out there you can buy from local stores. I do it all the time. I will say this, Shaolin Kung Fu is a very disciplined art, and I emphazise on the discipline part.

 

Yep,there are all kinds of book's!!!But the one thing that does annoy me is that people think samurai can cut tree's and rock's,well,THATS JUST NOT TRUE !!!Know,I think,im not sure,that this story came from the fact that some styles cut bamboo for training,and through some lack of information,someone said that they were cutting trees!Im probally wrong,but im sure Gensai probally knows how it really started.

 

well originally the art of Tameshigiri was for testing swords. This practice used the bodies of condemned prisoners by a man called the Otameshiyaku. Varying cuts were made on the body on different thickness of bone and flesh to ensure the blade would cut both flesh and bone and serve in times of crisis. This was the way of the sword tester and conventional shitojutsu used different items to test swords. Deer Antlers, Bo staffs, bales of straw, bamboo.

Traditional Tameshigiri in these times uses Tatami mats rolled up and soaked to simulate flesh and bamboo, both green and yellow.

 

Hey,I read about that,I bet it must have stunk,with all that flesh every where!

 

Probably so, but I'm sure the samurai were more concerned with honing their skills and making a precise cut rather than the smell, that I do. As for the rocks and trees comment, whoever told you that my friend has been watching WAY too much anime, heh.

 

I think that testing the sharpness of a blade on live humans is a bit too much.

Indeed a samurai blade is sharp, and according to modern scientific research a Samurai blade's tip can be so thin all the way down to molecular level. Dunno if that is true tho...

 

The samurai's sword is super sharp. I saw something where they got one of those machines that shoot water out at super high pressures and are used to cut through metal to be used to make things like motorcycles and cars and a samurai sword and made a test to see which was more deadly. They would shoot the water down at the blade of the sword, if the sword split in half then the water machine thing won but if the sword wasn't split in half then the sword won.

The hilt of the sword was split in half but the blade wasn't touched.

 

They are extremly sharp,but they are only deadly depending on there Master,and I agree with you Hitohiro,but I still say that must have stunk! My sword is not even super sharp and it can still cut most things I test it on. My grandfather grows bamboo next to his house and I like to cut them down for practice.

 

lol i broke my sword, but never fear i have repaired it and i am customising it, so far so good, the blade is razor sharp but not fine, i gotta put an edge on it, problem is i took the handguard off i needed it xD

I think ninja means man of the Shadows. (for whoever said it was Vanishing Warrior earlier)