Ninjas are known to exist in Japan since time immemorial. While they are now commonly known as those who adapt a particular sort of martial art, ninjas have a strict definition in Japan’s long history: they are secret agents who worked usually at night and acted as spies and assassins of the medieval world.
Some 500 years ago, there was a dynasty of secret spies called the Ban clan. Now, its 21st head is the last ninja of Japan. And he is an engineer.
Jinichi Kawakami, an engineer in his sixties, practiced the art of Ninjutsu as early as 6 years old. He trained under the regime of Buddhist master Masazo Ishida.
“I think I’m called [the last ninja] as there is probably no other person who learned all the skills that were directly handed down from ninja masters over the last five centuries,” he said. “Ninjas proper no longer exist.”
It was Kawakami’s decision to no longer forward the art because ninjas ‘just don’t fit with modern day.’ He mentioned about ninjas trying out murder or poisons back in the day, which can no longer be practiced in Japan.
Photo by The Japan Foundation, Budapest
At 19 years old, he has inherited his master’s title along with a cache of secret scrolls and ancient tools.
Kawakami also has unique capabilities that normal people usually do not have, other than mixing chemicals to create poisons or cause explosions and smoke.
He could hear a needle being dropped onto a wooden floor in the next room.
He could also climb walls and jump from heights.
He could withstand extreme heat and cold.
He could go for days without food or water.
It helped him that he spent hours staring into the flame of a candle until he felt he was inside it. For his concentration.
“The training was all tough and painful. It wasn’t fun but I didn’t think much why I was doing it. Training was made to be part of my life,” Kawakami said.
Photo by AFP via Japan Times
As to being a ninja in the modern age, he has a clarification: it’s never about brute force or outward strength, but about the power of surprise and exploiting weaknesses. He shared that the ability to hide in the most unlikely of places is a ninja’s greatest weapon.
“If you throw a toothpick, people will look that way, giving you the chance to flee,” he said. “We also have a saying that it is possible to escape death by perching on your enemy’s eyelashes; it means you are so close that he cannot see you.”
Kawakami refuses to continue the Ban clan’s ninja legacy and instead works for a Japanese university which is planning to open the world’s first research center devoted to ninja.
Sources: Dailymail UK
