Were Ninjas Actually Good at Hiding?

And actually, I feel like it would almost be even worse if instead of talking, he just kind of went near them and just was like breathing like my glass to them. Anyway, that's so weird, It is gross and ridiculous. But you know, I was reading up on Ninja's and ninja diets on Atlas Obscura, and this is the total opposite of that. So Ninjas would actually avoid eating any smelly foods because they were supposed to be completely undetectable

even by smell. So think about things like garlic, leeks, onions. Those were all off the table also since they had to be super agile. You know, Ninja's had this ironclad ruled that they couldn't weigh more than a hundred thirty pounds. And because they'd be lurking in shadows, you know, just waiting for the right opportunity, they'd take these homemade hunger pills with them, that's what they'd call them, so that they're you know, stomachs wouldn't start growling and give them away.

And one of these pills was made from yams um, also a bit of cinnamon rice lotus pips, and and there was another snack ball made of pine bark gin seng in white rice. And well, I don't think anyone's gonna go on the ninja diet anytime soon exactly. You know. Reading about this did make me wonder, like what else don't we know about ninja's Why did so many of them keep crickets as pets, Like why were they staring into cat's eyes? Why did they keep pocket change on them?

You know? And and also does the ninja shark live up to its reputations? So let's tag in a their podcast. Listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer. And on the other side, of the soundproof glass Mango. All week, I've been excited to see what Tristan would be doing. I thought maybe he would be hidden and we wouldn't see him the entire episode pulling off the Ninja thing.

But instead he's showing off his pirate costume again for some reason. Anyway, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. I'm not really sure what's going on here because today's show is all about Ninja's. Do you think he just missed the memo or what? You know? I asked him earlier and he said he's just showing his love for the team. You know, I guess when it comes to this eternal debate over who's cooler pirates are Ninja's, Tristan

is a friendly team Pirate all the way. Wow. Well, we'll have to see if today's show brings him around at all, because I'm just gonna come out and say that I am team Ninja all the way here. Yeah, I mean too. You know, pirates are cool, but to me, they feel like loudmouths. You know, they're like brash and and you know, like Ninja's are so calm and collected and stealthy, and they use like smart tricks, like misdirection. You know, it feels like the two camps couldn't be

anymore different. No, I agree completely, But you know, if pirates and ninjas do have one thing in common is

that both groups are pretty misunderstood. You know, in our Pirate episode, we talked about how most of what we know about pirates really comes from popular fiction instead of things like historical accounts, And it's actually the same story when it comes to ninja's, Like, we know them mostly as these masked characters that Chuck Narris fights off in his movies, or I don't know, as these pizza loving mutant turtles. But you know, I hate to disappoint you,

those portrayals are not actually rooted in reality. So for today's episode, we thought it'd be fun to peer into the shadows surrounding ninja history and and really kind of see if we can get a better idea of what these legendary warriors were really like. So we'll talk about where ninjas came from, what kinds of missions they carried out, as well as some of the coolest ninja skills, and

you know, the equipment you've probably never heard about. So why don't we start with wine ninjas are so mysterious in the first place, and why it's likely that they always will be. One thing I noticed while researching is that even when ninja's were at their peak in Japan, and this was in the early sixteenth century, nobody really knew that much about them. And it makes sense because ninja's were spies for the most part, so of course,

you know, they had to keep a low profile. They didn't talk about their work, you know, especially with anyone outside their clan. But rumors still swirled about these secretive warriors, and as a result, ninja's became steeped in superstition pretty

much from the start. For instance, some Japanese folklore claims that ninjas descended from a demon that was half man and half crow, and most villagers during the Ninja Age belief that ninja's possessed all sorts of supernatural powers, like everything from shape shifting to invisibility to the power to

walk through walls. And if you think about it, those kinds of superpowers are pretty easy to arrive at when you look at some of the methods ninjas used, like they'd often disguise themselves on missions they were masters of concealment. They could break into an enemy's house or infiltrate a fortress with the ease, and with a little bit of imagination, you've got a ninja that can shape shift or walk

through walls. It makes sense. Yeah, and it actually sounds a lot like what happened with pirates, like the way all these embellished stories and tall tales kind of sprang up right alongside them and and then later became just the accepted truth. Yeah, it's interesting because Ninja's capitalized on

their own legends the same way pirates did. Like Ninja's actually encouraged all these rumors because they knew the inaccurate reports would make them seem more dangerous to enemies, and it was also a great way to muddy the waters and further conceal who they were and how they functioned.

Of course, there's a downside to that, and that's that no one actually corrected the falsehoods, and as a result, even written accounts from the era tend to be exaggerated, which makes it tough to distinguish between fact and fiction. You know, we only have three or four manuals supposedly written by Ninja masters, and this was shortly after their fall from power in the late sixteenth century, and because they were written after the fact, it's possible those are

inaccurate as well. Yeah, that's true. But just like with pirates, there are at least a few things we know that you know, we're true about ninja history. For instance, we actually know a good bit about where ninja practices first came from, and surprisingly much of that philosophy comes from China,

not not from Japan. And in the fourth or fifth century BC suns who wrote his famous Battle Guy The Art of War, which includes this section extolling the virtue of stealth and surprise, which are of course the backbone of ninja training. So just to make sure I have what you're saying is right. You know, you're saying that a lot of the ideas of what it is to be a ninja actually come from Chinese philosophy, but the Japanese were the ones who actually put them into practice. Yeah,

that seems to be the case. And you know, most historians now agree that ninja practices originated in central Japan during the early Middle Ages, and that was a period when the country was really being picked apart by war lords. Now luckily for would be ninjas. The warlords were mostly interested in the more developed areas of Japan, and that meant that the rural regions often went overlooked and were typically warlord free. And so those two factors combined to

create these prime conditions for the birth of ninja's. Is that another reason why ninjas are still such a mystery, Like, not only did they keep their practices secret, but they kind of developed in isolation. Yeah, that's right. And you know, to be specific on this, they developed in two such regions.

There was Ega and Coca. Now, both of these were especially remote and almost completely undeveloped, so there were no warlords there, and that's exactly how the people liked it, so much so that the villages began to organize themselves,

like these self defense communes. And because they had neither the numbers nor the weapon read award off invaders with any sort of real force, the residents focused instead on these survival techniques, things like stealth, disguise, evasion, misdirection, you know, all the basic ninjas stuff. Yeah, And so as their skills developed, these travelers started telling stories and pretty soon these early ninja's were being hired as mercenaries all over

the country. Yeah, and I think the mercenary role is really worth lingering on for a second, because one of the biggest misconceptions, at least I had about ninja's is that there were some kind of elite fighting force, And the truth is that ninja's mostly acted as medieval secret agents. They were like hired by lords to spy on their enemies and report back with intel or sometimes assassinated target.

But they occasionally acted as bodyguards. Still, they're they were mostly providing spy work for the battlefield, but you know, they were never traditional soldiers or warriors. And in fact, ninjas didn't even receive formal martial arts raining. All right, So what about those classes that people take where you learn to defend yourselves, you know, supposedly like a ninja ninjatsu. I think it's called isn't that a martial art? It's

not really a traditional martial art. You know. All that came well after the ninja's fell from power, and it was never part of their real training. In fact, most ninja's learned self defense during childhood from their family members, but from their adult training would really focus more on infiltration techniques. Gymnastics, as well as these more esoteric topics

things like chemistry, weather, psychology. You've got to remember, ninjas were mostly hired to gather information and survive long enough to report back, and the whole point was not to be seen and not to get caught. So fighting wasn't actually a big part of the playbook, like most of that was kind of a last resort in case things went wrong. Well that makes sense, you know, since we're

talking about the importance of not being seen. I do want to mention another common misconception that most of us have, which is what ninja's wore on their mission. So you know how ninjas are always depicted, you know, in these all black, skin tight uniforms and the ones with hooded mask where you can really just see their eyes. Well, it turns out that the ninjas didn't have standard uniforms like that at all, So most of the time they

were just in normal civilian clothing like anybody else. And that's because ninjas often had to go deep undercover for their missions. So as an example, warlords would frequently hire ninjas to infiltrate another organization, and to do so, the ninjas would disguise themselves, as you know, people like gardeners or construction workers, you know, just anybody who might blend in around a palace and not draw attention to themselves, which you know makes sense. But how did those ninjas

sneak back to their warlords without blowing their covers? I found this interesting because they would actually do this by adopting a different cover, and the most popular choice was to dress up like a monk, because monks were actually one of the few groups who were allowed to pass freely between these various warring states in Japan at the time, So anytime a ninja needed to report back to a different province, they just slip on their monk disguise and

cross over the border. That's fascinating. You know, when I was in Tibet and studying about Tibetan culture and stuff, Tibet was also one of these very secretive regions, and the only way spies would come through and sort of catalog what was there was dressed as monks, and they would use their rosaries to count steps, so they knew like the steps to various places, you know, and and that's how they count distances and stuff. And it's pretty fascinating.

That the monk disguises such a great disguise. But you know, it is a shame to me that these ninja's didn't put on like their black cloaks and just sneak back in the middle of the night. You know, if Tristan had done his homework, he probably would be dressed up as a monk today instead. And I will say, I mean, I want the ninja uniform to be true as much as you do, but it does seem like history is

not on our side with this one. But that being said, ninjas did go on plenty of these one night missions, and when they did, what they were was not all that dissimilar from what we like to imagine. I mean, there are a couple of key differences. First was that

those real stealth ninja outfits were not skin tight. I mean, the ninjas had to perform all these acrobatics to get in and out of these buildings without being seen, so it was better to have clothing that breathed a little bit and would allow for a good degree of movement.

And then second, black wouldn't have been their color of choice, not only because it would have been difficult to achieve because of the dyes that were available at the time, but black also tends to reflect moonlight, which would definitely be a no no on these night missions. So instead, historians believe Ninja's were dark brown or navy blue clothes when they were doing these late night scouting missions. I

like that they were both fashionable and practical too. You Know, one thing I've been thinking about is that people usually think of Ninja's and samurai as polar opposites, and to a certain extent, that makes sense. Like Samurai had really bold personalities, they were pretty renowned for their toughness and their bravado. Plus they dressed really, really colorfully. And meanwhile, Ninjas were secretive and mostly out for themselves. They practiced

deception and stealth, then avoided combat whenever possible. You know, the demeanor and tactics of the two groups couldn't have been more far apart. But at the same time, that disparity actually turned off a lot of Japanese citizens. They were used to the explicit bravery and the undying loyalty of the samurai. I mean, that was their measure of a warrior, not this like stealthy, underhanded stuff that Ninja's

were doing. So did people not think much of ninjas at the time, not at first, apparently, like they eventually came around over time, samurais and warlords both kind of realized the value of these covert operations and that it was useful for winning battles or whatever. But you know, it wasn't uncommon to see ninjas and samurai on the same side of the battlefield, and some people can practice both professions, like you have a samurai by day and

ninja by night, which just feels like a great business card. Well, and even though what they wore was drastically different, Samurai ninjas did use some of the same equipment, didn't they. Like I read somewhere that they both used that same kind of sword, like the katana, I think, right, that's right.

So the main difference was that samurai wore the swords on the hips, while ninja's carried them on their backs, which obviously seems like the way to go for someone who's always like climbing on walls and jumping across rooftops. And you know, the katana was a part of some ninja missions, but mostly they preferred to carry shorter and

less conspicuous blades. Actually, I kind of want to stick with this subject and talk a little bit more about some of the lesser known gear that Ninja carried around with them. But before we do that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the surprising truths behind the Ninja legend. Alright, Mango, So, I know one thing we were both scared to find out this week, I mean really scared to find out

is whether or not Ninja's actually used throwing stars. I know we talked about this as we were prepping for the episode, and I feel like I've been mentally preparing all week in case you decided to ruin my life by telling me that Ninja's didn't use throwing stars. Well I've got good news, because yes, Ninja's absolutely used throwing stars.

They you know, those pointed stars were used to seeing We're part of a broader class of weapon called shuriken, and it's a term that covers any kind of throwing weapon, including stars, or flat knives, darts, wooden sticks, or actually even coins. Wait, did you say coins, like like people

could just take coins out and throw them at their enemies. Well, I mean it sounds like they did this and you know, this is actually where reality maybe differs a little bit from the fictional ninjas, because real ninjas didn't really use these like an offensive weapon all that often, so instead they would take these shur akens. Is kind of a

distraction or delaying tactics. So let's say you've got a ninja that's hiding in the shadows and a nearby guard was getting a little too close, so he might be able to throw a coin or a knife in the opposite direction and get the guard to follow that sound. So yeah, of course, if a ninja was discovered, then

these could also be used more defensively. You know. For example, if a guard charged toward them, ninjas could buy some time by forcing their enemies to dodge or block a bunch of projectiles, and those few seconds could be just what the ninja needed to either amount a stronger attack, or in most cases, you know, plot an escape route. That's interesting and I think I like that explanation even

better than just throwing fistful of coins at someone. But yeah, I am curious, like why would they bother with something as unwieldy as a throwing star if the intention is just distraction? Right, Like, like I mean the other stuff you mentioned makes sense, But throwing stars have a ton of sharp points. They kind of feel like a liability, Like if I was reaching into my pocket, I'd be worried I'd be cutting my finger every time I reached

for one. And that's why you're not an engine. But I mean, you know, I can tell you that these throwing stars were considered actually a little bit easier to throw than some of the other shure it can like, you know, the flat throwing knives, And that's because the stars have these multiple points that spin when they're in flight, and it actually makes it a little bit easier to aim these things and throw these things. And plus it likely didn't hurt that a bunch of spinning blades makes

for a pretty menacing site when it's coming right at you. Yeah, that makes sense, you know. I I know, we wanted to talk about some of the weirder skills and gadgets that Ninja's had at the disposal, but really quickly I did want to mention a few other blades that Ninja's put to good use. So first up, there's the Kusara gama, which was the small sickle with the chain on the

end of the handle. And this was especially helpful for ninja's who were undercover because this is actually a farming tool, so if a ninja was caught with one, he could

just claim to be a gardener. And then the other blades, like I wanted to talk about, where the kunai, and these are little daggers which were borrowed from another sort of harmless trade masonry in this case, and they were shaped like trowels, only a little bit sharper, and the ninja used this for scaling walls rather than fighting, like they would infiltrate a castle by pulling out their kunai and then climbing way up the wall by digging holes

into the plaster as they went. That's pretty neat, And you know, it was really surprising when we found out just like all of the unusual or unique things that they would find to be able to use as tools and their utility bill But I know we both found a lot of stuff that ninja's relied on that that honestly feels even stranger than that. And there's one I definitely want to talk about, and it's a particularly helpful ninja skill, and it's the ability to tell time from

looking to a cat's eyes. Now something I would never do, but I respect this skill and this is a real thing. I'm not making this up. It's called nikom jutsu, and it's based on the fact that cats have these especially sensitive eyes, including these pupils that can drastically change in size throughout the day and response to changing light. And so Ninja's would spend a lot of time apparently staring into cat's eyes because they were able to determine the time of day down to the exact hour just by

looking at these cats pupils. So weird, Yeah, I know, it really is. It is. And you know, for all of our more cat inclined listeners out there that want to give this a shot and report back, you should know that a cat's pupils start out super round in the early morning, and then they begin to narrow to like more of an oval shape as the sun climbs

higher in the sky. And then the pupils reach their narrowest at noon, when they basically look like those thin straight lines we sometimes picture as cat eyes, and they gradually start to widen as the afternoon goes on. And so if you really want to get precise about this, you can search online for cat's eyes sun dial and become a nakoma jutsu master yourself. That's funny. So you can actually like look at a cat print advertisement until exactly when it was shot by looking at the That's crazy.

You know. I feel like telling the time by your cat's eyes is somehow both the dorky ist and kind of the most impressive thing I've heard about ninjas today, I think so. So this next skill doesn't involve seeing like a cat. It is more about moving like one. It's called taihn jitsu, and it's basically the art of quieting your movements because obviously ninjas have to sneak around a lot, and that's kind of a big part of

the job. So they grew adept at all kinds of noise canceling practices, like absorbing their falls or rebounding off something quietly, or just softening their footsteps by walking on the out soles of the feet and keeping their knees bent as they did. You know, ninja's had become such masters a quiet movement that it really freaked out war lords, and warlords started building houses with these floors that were prone to squeaking, just so a ninja couldn't sneak up

on them. And that wasn't all either, Like some warlords hired these bodyguards to watch them sleep every night and even demanded that all members of the household where baggy clothes so that they would drag along the floor and just make noise wherever they went. Yeah, you know, these guys sound pretty paranoid for a bunch of warlords. It's it's a little strange, but you know, I actually came across another technique that Ninja's used to mask their movements,

and this one's pretty ingenious if you ask me so. Apparently, when Ninja's needed to travel silently through a forest or make their way through an enemy camp, they would actually bring along with them a small box or jar of live crickets, and so the noise from the chirping crickets would help cover the sound of the ninja's footsteps and prevent their location from being given away by any stray

sounds like snapping twigs or crunchy snow. But ninjas couldn't afford the deal with uncooperative crickets, so they actually used these special chemical mixtures that would either entice the crickets to chirp or compel them to stay silent, depending on what the situation called for. That's pretty amazing, you know. I was gonna say insects and birds usually go quiet when they sense the predator is near, So I'd imagine crickets wouldn't always feel like chirping when they're strapped to

a ninja. So it is interesting that they've got a way to make them churp. Yeah, it's true, and it's actually another good reason why ninja's carried these crickets, because if you think about if all the animals in an area suddenly went quiet, that might tip off the guards that there would be a ninja nearby. And so if the ninja has a bunch of these drug induced chirping crickets at his side, the noise could actually keep the other animals from blowing his cover drugged up crickets. It's crazy.

It is amazing how resourceful these ninjas were, like that they just saw these cricket and realized they could make use of them. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, it really is. And you know, speaking of being resourceful, you know, ninjas use different powders to to blind their opponents. I feel like you've seen a little bit of this and things like movies. But I read their containers of choice for this were hollowed out eggshells, which was something I had

not seen before. So apparently they would poke a needle in a chicken egg and then drain out the contents of that egg through the hole, and then they would refill it with some sort of blinding agent. And this could be anything from sand or salt to iron filings or pepper powder, I mean pretty much anything guaranteed to bring some tears and irritate the respiratory system. So in a fight, ninjas would smash the trick eggs into their opponent's eyes, incapacitating them and giving the ninja a chance

to plan his next move. That is so weird. So my cousins and I used to fill eggs with sand like that as a kid and then just drop them off the first story of my grandma's house as kind of spy bombs, and I had no idea that it was actually a ninja technique we were using. Also, take that back what I said earlier, Maybe you were actually

a ninja. You know what you're doing? You know this sounds so much weirder, but can you imagine how thrown off you'd be if like you were in the middle of a fight and the ninja just pulled out a chicken egg and then try to jam in your face like confused. You know, I didn't come across any examples of odd ninja food fights, unfortunately, but I did find a few cases where they used food is a way

to pass along secret information. So one example of this is something called goshiki my and it roughly translates to five colored rice. The ninjas would take a bunch of grains of rice and they'd paint them five different colors like red, blue, yellow, black, and purple. And then whenever ninja had something to report while undercover, he could just like go to the side of the road or some out of the way place and scatter a bunch of grains for other ninja's from the same clan to find.

So I guess this was based on some sort of code system that they all knew or what was this? Definitely so, the number of grains they dropped and the different color combinations all had their own specific meanings, and none of it would mean much to an enemy or even a random passers by, But a ninja with the no how would be able to you know, read over a hundred different codes using this method. Also, just as

a side note, it was safe for birds. Uh. Supposedly the paint would tip them off that the rice wasn't grain or seeds, and they'd steer clear of it on their own. But what's really wild is that goshiki may wasn't even the only kind of food code that ninja's used.

According to a text from this eighteenth century Japanese writer, ninjas also sent pieces of fish to communicate an important date, like if an undercover ninja hit upon like the perfect day for reinforcements to storm a castle, for example, he could send his clan some fish, and the size of the fish and the number of pieces indicated the month and the day he had in mind. Yeah, it's stunning, you know. The way the fish was prepared it also mattered. So if it was dried fish, that meant you were

planning to commit arson. Salted fish meant that you had some sort of treachery in the works. But it wasn't just rice and fish. According to Apples Obscure, ninjas also used sweet cakes to call for reinforcements and bread rules to call for forces to attack the enemy from the rear. They also had a rice cake code, which meant, I guess,

a request for provisions. I kind of want to do something like this, but like just indicating what time a meeting will start, like rather than sending around, you know, electronically, we're gonna send each other like some fish or maybe some of those like granola bars and depending on you know, whether they're unwrapped. I don't know, I need to code. I'll keep you guys posted, And that's going to be

how we indicate what time meetings start. But one of the things I'm curious about is how ninja's went mainstream and and really take a look at how their legacy is holding up today. But before we get to that, let's take one more quick break. Okay, Well, so today we know that ninjas have become pretty iconic figures of pop culture. They show up in video games, comics, cartoons, this pretty much an entire genre of action films devoted

to them. But of course it wasn't always like this, And actually it wasn't until the nineteen sixties that ninja's really made their splash in the Western world. Roughly three d years after the heyday of real life ninja's So what happened in the sixties, Well, as weird as it sounds, James Bond happened. So more specifically, the movie You Only

Lived Twice happened. And when the movie version debuted in nineteen six seven, it featured Bond on a mission in Japan where he was supposed to be trained as a ninja by this Japanese secret agent named Tiger Tanaka. And for many in the West, this was the first exposure to ninja culture, or at least what passed for it in the movies. And I'm guessing probably not the most accurate portrayal though, right No. In fact, just listened to his quote from the British travel writer and historian named

John Man, this is what he wrote. Quote. The Bond movie popularized the idea of ninja among people who are not interested in martial arts. It's quite strange, really, the idea of the ninja spread, but in the film they're not represented as ninja at all, more as commandos. Nevertheless, that's what made the term popular in the West. I blame James Bond, you know, actually I just pulled up the IMDb page for You Only Live twice and this

is super interesting. But it actually looks like we can also blame Roll Doll because he apparently wrote the screenplay for this movie. That is really weird. I feel like I've read Roll Doll's entire catalog and I had no idea that he worked on a James Bond movie. Yeah, like this, this is what it says, and he's strayed pretty far from the source material with the whole ninja plot.

But that's not even the strangest thing on IMDb. Apparently, while scouting locations in Japan, the movie's entire chief production team actually narrowly escaped death and this was all thanks to a bunch of ninja's. So apparently the team was invited to this last minute Ninja demonstration and they missed their flight as a result, but the plane that they would have been on it actually wound up crashing and killing everybody on board. That is really horrible. It also

feels like I got miss Lender. I thought the Ninjas like swooped into Save Today and said they just had the performance that everybody happen. That's what they did. They just had to put on a show. But you know, in terms of accuracy. The portrayals only got less connected

to reality as ninjas became more and more popular. So by the time the nineteen eighties rolled around, ninjas really had some ented themselves as these characters and children's programming, yeah, right up there with like cowboys and spacemen and of course pirates. So ninja characters started popping up in G I. Joe like in their Toil one. I actually vividly remember this, and Batman's Origin even got a rewrite to include a stint where he underwent ninja training before he you know,

pulled it all together. And there was actually this full blown ninja craze all through the eighties and well into the nineties, right in the prime of our childhood. And that's only in the last decade or so that that ninja fever has cooled a bit, and now they mostly show up in places like anime series and internet culture, and they're really usually more portrayed in a playful light, I guess, But it feels like they don't get as much respect as you would think they had, given how

impressive their history is. And I guess that's probably the cost of ninja's having kept so much of their practice a secret. Yeah, I mean, that sounds right to me. But the good news is that the Ninja's in the

past probably wouldn't be too bothered by that. I mean, I'm not saying they'd appreciate the implication that a bunch of teenage mutant turtles could do their job, but Ninja's did go along with plenty of far fetched legends in their day, and they'd probably consider it a far worse tragedy if we'd figured out everything about them and sort of ruined their mystery. That's a good point. I'm curious, though,

are there any real Ninja's left in the world. Like, I know, there's the whole Ninjatsu martial arts community, but it sounds like that's kind of its own thing, doesn't really have much basis in tradition. But are there, you know, any of the old clans still around? Yes? And no. So there are actually two men who could reasonably claim the title of Japan's last ninja because they're both leaders of surviving ninja clans, uh the Bond Clan and the

Toga Kura Clan. The head of the Bond Clan is this guy named Junichi Kawa Kami, and he's pushing seventy but still teaches ninjasu classes and also runs a ninja museum. And the other Ninja master is Masaki Hasumi, and he's about a decade older than the other guy, and he was actually the martial arts advisor on that Bond film. Today's semi retired, but he still teaches ninja history part

time at the Japanese University. Alright, so these guys are like the real deal, like they actually know the techniques handed down from that golden age of ninja's way back in the sixteenth century. I mean, that's definitely the claim. But both men come from families with strong ninja heritage, They have a lot of history, and once they became masters, they were supposedly granted access to these secret scrolls and tools of their respective clans dating back as far as

five years. Of course, no one else has seen or likely will see those artifacts, so it is hard to verify their authenticity or even their contents. I mean, it feels like someone will eventually see this stuff, right, Like, I assume these guys have been busy training successors so the clans, you know, they won't die out completely once they're gone, at least you'd hope not. That's what I thought as well, But it turns out that both men are in agreement that neither will appoint anyone to take

over for them as Ninja grand masters. This is what Mr Kawakami explained in an interview a few years back. Quote. In the age of civil wars, ninja's abilities to spine and kill or mixed medicine may have been useful, but we now have guns, the internet, and much better medicines, so the art of ninjatsu has no place in the modern age. We can't try out murder or poisons. Even if we can follow the instructions to make a poison,

we can't try it out. You know, I was really feeling for the guy who rides until the part where he limited not being able to try out murder. I think that's I think that's where I lost it. It is frustrating for true ninjas. But you know, this is the quote from Mr Hutsumi when he was asked about his decision to not select an air. This is what

he told reporters. Quote, my students will continue to practice some of the techniques that were used by ninja's, but a person must be destined to succeed the Klan and there is no such person. Well, that is a definitive answer, if nothing else, I guess, but it's still still kind of a sad one. I think. Yeah, I think you're ultimately right that ninjas would appreciate that their mystique is

still intact after all these years. But I just hope that, along with all the cartoon ninja's and the cheesy Chuck Nars films, that we still find ways to remember the real thing. I mean, there was a time when ninja's were a very bizarre but very real force in the world, and it'd be ashamed to forget that completely. Well, I think between the two of us, we've probably got some unforgettable ninja facts for the fact off, so let's just

dive in. And two thousand, Tim Bloomberg News reported that security agents at a Japanese airport made Steve Jobs throw away his ninja stars before he boarded his private plane. I guess he had picked up these objects and wanted

to bring them home with them. They're really beautiful things, and of course he was doubly irritated when he had to leave them, because the logic was that he might use the throwing stars to hijack his own plane, and so Apple later downplay it and even refuted the incident, but Bloomberg stuck with their story. I like this idea of like Steve John's being uh ninja fanboy amazing. You know,

apparently ninja's aren't just land based creatures. There's also a ninja of the sea, the ninja lantern shark, and apparently most lantern sharks who dwell deep in the sea glow from their bellies, but this newly discovered ninja shark doesn't. They're totally black, and they do have this a faint blue glow that emerges from their heads. But you don't have to be too scared of them. Mental Flaws says, they're only really the size of a ferret. But the best part in the Ninja shark to me is how

it got its name. So the lead scientists on the study, Vicky Vasquez, let her four kids, who were aged eight to fourteen, decide on the name, and what they lobbied for was the super ninja, but she dialed it back to just plane ninja. Also, I know it's so cute, but the sharks Latin name is e bench Lady, which is a tribute to Peter Benchley, the author of John's that's pretty cool. And even if they are the size of ferrets, I'm pretty sure I'd still be scared if

I saw something that was called a ninja shark. I mean, I'm scared of ferrets, right, That's that's a good point too. I didn't think about that all right. Well, if you're headed to Tokyo this year, you can visit the newly open Ninja Museum, which is the brainchild of the Japan Ninja Council. So this is this group of scholars and townships that have banded together to increase enthusiasm for ninja's

around the world. But here's what's fascinating to me. It's that the Ninja Council is very focused on shedding light on how well rounded these ninjas were. So according to Smithsonian, the Ninja Council notes that quote ninja's often did their work not by executing insane flips and perching on rooftops,

but by making friends and working their social connections. The art of the ninja includes things like social skills, conversation techniques, mnemonics, food, astronomy, and weather or so I mean Honestly, it kind of feels like they're trying to make ninjas so much less interesting. It also feels like they're opening up the definition of ninja to anyone. Like like like food, you could be a ninja. Exacting about the weather, you could be a ninja.

You're a ninja. So, speaking of ninja, did you know that four thousand women have been actively training to become ninja in Iran for over twenty years now. There's this club that has over twenty four thousand members supposedly, and the women practice everything from backflips, two weapons training to trying to blend into the landscape. Of course, as the group's leaders stay it's vetting the women who are interested

in the program is a top priority. This is what he says, quote, I must be very sure that my students will not use the techniques of ninja su to hurt anyone or sneak into someone else's house. All right, Well, here's one that I honestly think it's going to be

hard to top. I've been saving this one for very last According to the site Consequence of Sound in Axl, Rose was late to a Guns and Roses concert and Ampa because he was watching the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles too secret of the ooze, so he refused to go on stage until the movie was finished. And when the management at the venue kept pleading why he wouldn't go on here's what his manager said, Axel's attention is on the movie right now and he should not be bothered.

That is incredible. You know, I had been trying to find a good mutant Ninja turtle fact, but I I didn't. But the fact that you brought Axel roses in the next two and I feel like you earned the trophy. That's it for today's Part Time Genius. If you've got a great ninja factory missed, be sure to share it to our Facebook or Twitter. And from gave Tristan Willie me thank you so much for listening. Hey Mango, look

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