Quotes from Bansenshukai (with notes)

[1-22-2020]Text i used to make this notes is gone from the site linked at the end.

Here is a link to the pdf version on a different site.

The reason i looked for the text today is i wanted to search form something i could not find. About creating and spreading false rumours. However, i found the world false written 58 times. The ancient eastern war strategies from which ninjutsu have been born are riddled with tricks and falsehoods.

They were not constraint by the 10 commandments of the Bible. This is the major difference between western and eastern mindset and the reason westerners have such difficulties understanding easterners ending up completely ignoring them as a contemporary, different civilization.

Also to prove that the book is merely a skeleton upon which the "meat" of oral or family or clan tradition is added. I found the text "to be transmitted orally" 144 times.
[end of 1-22-2020 addition]

Introduction
["The Bansenshukai is a Japanese military manual based on samurai guerrilla tactics, espionage,  assassination and destruction, which contains dangerous and deadly information. Instructions include:  theft, explosives, poisonous gases, toxins, clandestine and underhanded action and arson, among many other military topics. This translation has been made available in English for the purpose of history and for education and is a deep and academic look into the misunderstood arts of the Japanese [art of] shinobi no mono, or ninja as they are more commonly known. Therefore, the information contained within is for research purposes only and should not be re-created nor re-enacted in any way."]

 "When the Tokugawa family took control of Japan in 1603, the country entered a period of relative peace and totalitarian control, which led to the decline of the shinobi as a force on the battlefield and prompted them to concentrate more on the espionage aspect of their skill set. This decline prompted an increase in the compiling of ninja records, with the aim of preserving the ways of the ninja, and in 1676 one shinobi named Fujibayashi Yasutake, who was probably of Iga and from a former samurai family, finished working on his masterpiece, a collection of shinobi information that he had obtained over an unknown amount of time and through personal experience. This work was known as the Bansenshukai which translates as ‘A Myriad of Rivers Merging into One Ocean’."

"Like most ninjutsu manuscripts, the Bansenshukai was written in the Edo period, in 1676, which was a long tranquil time without war, leaving many ninja - including the Koka ninja - unemployed. As a result, some Koka ninja travelled the distance to Edo to appeal to the shogunate against their difficult situation in the hope of recovering their status by offering them the Bansenshukai manual in 1789. To their disappointment, however, their appeal was not accepted." [but the manual was kept or so the story goes].

"These men of Iga and Koka should be collectively remembered, as while they were part of that world, they pushed the conventional limits and went beyond the required norm and perfected themselves on the darker path of clandestine warfare."

[Iga and Koka where two provinces in the center of Japan of the size comparable to today's prefectures, controlled by the ninja where they could be found to be hired by the daimyo or feudal lords].

"In the dark recesses of ninja popularity, the name Bansenshukai has been bandied around with a limited understanding of the work’s contents and details and until now it has never been published outside of the Japanese language (even then only in small sections). It has always been spoken of next to the Shinobi Hiden ( Ninpiden ) and the Shoninki ninja manuals, and together they form the triumvirate of ninja information. The Shinobi Hiden is a collection of skills attributed to the sixteenth-century ninja master Hattori Hanzo, the Shoninki is a record of the Natori family’s secret tactics, and the Bansenshukai is the universal collection of ninja skills from Iga and possibly also from Koka."

"Here for the first time the world may see the deadly and complex ways of the shinobi and appreciate the subtleties of Japanese spying and operations in enemy territory."

"Of the numerous ninjutsu scrolls, the Bansenshukai is profound, and is the largest compiled volume of information from the ninjutsu schools of both Iga and Koka, which were considered the lands of the ninja."

"hidden within the meaning of the text is the masses [bulk] of knowledge that was made up of kuden or oral tradition, which now, unfortunately, has been lost." [ambiguous, i'd say it is simply missing in the text and it was not lost, read the next quote].

"Mr Fujita was the penultimate teacher of mine and he also taught at the Nakano war school of the Japanese imperial army, which was a facility for the training of spies during World War II. This teaching was on the subject of ninjutsu."

"The ninja themselves were taken from any social class but tended to come from the lower samurai ranks and worked as retainers for a clan lord."

"While their physical martial arts and fighting skills were no different from the rest of their samurai ‘brothers’ they were trained in other elements, such as infiltration and burglary and, whether the target be a mountain-top case or a fortified manor house, the image of the shinobi creeping in the black of night is historically correct. However, in tandem with this, the ninja were the street peddlers, the merchants and entertainers, swordsmen for hire, and they even took the guise of priests. No one knew who the ninja were; a samurai lord might realize that ninja had infiltrated his army or province, but the problem was how to find out who they were and how to get rid of them."

"The future of the Bansenshukai rests along two lines. Firstly, as a survival and guerrilla warfare manual, it allows a single human to train diligently to become a clandestine operative with knowledge that rivals modern Special Forces, and the skills it teaches, if adapted, can have relevance for modern espionage and clandestine warfare even today. Secondly, the Bansenshukai makes an immense contribution to Japanese and military history; with this manual, historians can gain access to countless areas of research, from army marching orders to the art of hanging a decapitated head on a horse saddle, from architecture to lock production, from social interactions to attitudes to women, the list goes on [kunoichi or female ninja in Japanese means nine holes which means one more than a man]. This is not only a manual for shinobi and samurai enthusiasts but also required reading for anyone involved with military history, Japanese architecture, the influence of Chinese religion on Japan and much more."

"The earlier chapters of the book, for this reason, are quite full of references to Chinese episodes, all of which are there simply to highlight the truth of what he is saying and to reinforce his ideas in the minds of the educated reader. However, interestingly, the quotations begin to thin out as he gets closer to the core skills of shinobi no jutsu. By the middle chapters, which focus on the ‘hands on’ skills of the ninja such as burglary, infiltration and espionage, one notices that Chinese thought has been almost entirely replaced by a very practical and purely Japanese collection of arts [skills]."

"Then, in stark contrast, come volumes sixteen and seventeen, which are written with a heavy Chinese slant. Here Fujibayashi is recording the Chinese arts of divination, the methods of establishing if a direction, day or time is auspicious or not."

"Therefore, the two major Chinese sections are openly acknowledged as such and are loaded with the warning that these practices are not to be trusted, but that the knowledge of them is useful when conducting warfare against a general who does believe in their supernatural power."

[I personally believe that (strategic decisions based on) divination may include randomness and unpredictable complexity in one's actions which helps to make them unrecognizable. (Adding randomness which transcends any reason is adding an element of unpredictability to such actions)]

"the text may state: do such and such an action on a day of Kinoe (one of the Ten Celestial Stems) or even when the day of Kinoe and the day of the Boar meet (one of the Twelve Earthly Branches)."

Introduction to Japanese Locks and the Art of Lock-picking

"Japanese lock bypassing is both simpler than its modern-day equivalent but yet, in some regards, paradoxically, can be more complicated. To understand the world of the shinobi and the lock bypassing sections of the Bansenshukai, the reader must comprehend - to some extent - the old Japanese practice of ‘stealing in’"

"The final chapters of the in-nin segment contain historical Japanese lock-picking and bypassing methods, which are almost impossible to find recorded in any other document. This document allows us a view of the workings of a samurai household, its make-up, and the measures it took to remain secure."

"Numerous approaches to the locks were taken by the shinobi, each requiring finesse, skill and the correct tool and these fundamentals still apply today in modern-day locksmithing. It is because of the timelessness of the principles that the lock-picking teachings of the Bansenshukai are still applicable to this day." [and are still applied, take my word for it].

[My apartment, cars have been burglarized and vandalized in many instances, in rather subtle ways. Things broke, parts failed about when was the average time for that to happen. However statistically timing was chosen most unfavorable to me. Also i suspect my wallet was stolen several times in stores only to find it at the apartment. Or a noise was made when i was supposed to put in in pocket and forgot to do it. In the meantime no one can say what was done with those cards].

VOLUME ONE

Preface Introductory notes
Table of contents

"The military is the final line when concerning the safety of a country and the issue of state survival. It is of extreme importance because it is the basis of statecraft and the nation’s safety and is by no means a minor issue. Military craft is incredibly deep and vast and it is not a matter to be taken lightly."

"In any military situation you need to construct a detailed and precise plan beforehand, speculate clearly with the Five Constant Factors and the Seven Plans, understand the feel of your people thoroughly and then, based on these factors, devise a stratagem and conduct your frontal and your surprise ways of attack.

Also, if the five characteristics of wisdom, benevolence, trust, courage and strictness are achieved, and if advantages are derived from the three areas of Heaven, Earth and Man, then, even if you have only one thousand soldiers and have to fight an enemy of multitudes, you can be victorious one hundred times out of one hundred battles with absolute certainty." [that is by using the art of war of ninjutsu].

[About timing of the action] "They say that the time of heaven is not as influential as the benefit of the earth, and in turn the benefit of the earth is not as important as [the harmony of man ]. However, in these volumes, there are quite a few important things for ninjutsu and you should not neglect to learn them, but then be careful not to pay too much attention to them"

"if a lord highly treasures the wisdom of his wise generals, governs the country well and disciplines his clan, then there is nothing to be afraid of, even if the borders of his country are vast. This is because a wise lord makes preparations for the whole country, which as a consequence, makes his generals all the more accomplished."

"If you have myriad strategies but do not have ninjutsu or the arts of the ninja, then in this case you will not be able to obtain details about the enemy’s secret plan or their conspiracies. Looking into the military manuscripts by Wu Qijft and Sun Tzu, reading the secret books written by Zhang Liang, Han Xin and others, [you'll realize that] if you do not have spies, you can never know what is substantial or insubstantial concerning your enemy’s intention, you cannot succeed in invading a massive wall of numerous miles, or lead an entire [enemy] army into a trap and achieve a victory in every battle that you enter."

"Is there anything else which enables a single person to ruin a force of coundess people? You have every reason to study until you reach a mastery of the art of ninjutsu and by any means you can. Then, with the mastery of ninjutsu, even if the enemy has built up a strong siege or iron-like defences, there will be no way to prevent your force from infiltrating its keep."

"The skills of ninjutsu are not occult or wondrous but are just like the strategy of swordplay; that is, it is about hitting the enemy through their gap, hitting by taking advantage of their responses or hitting by surprise."

"Where other authors may simply say, ‘be careful of gaps in your defence and of the shinobi’, the Bansenshukai tells us how to find and infiltrate those gaps, giving the world the most comprehensive view of the workings of the ninja infiltration arts."

"In the second section of this volume, I mention the methods of preventing enemy ninja from getting into your position; this was placed here so that a lord will become familiar with these defence tactics. With these latter techniques, I also describe how to get your ninja into the enemy’s position.

Yo-nin or ‘open disguise’ is placed before in-nin, which is ‘hidden infiltration’. This is in accordance with the fact that yo (yang) means birth while in (yin) means death or the end. Even a resourceful person will not make a good yo-nin performer without training regularly, especially if he learns this skill by word alone. Anyone who wants to master this skill of disguise should always train himself with the utmost effort."

"The volumes on divination [the time of heaven] and astronomy and astrology are placed fifth in position and are based on the philosophy of the wise men of old [times].".

VOLUME THREE

Seishin II - The Correct Mind II

[Philosophically correct is: Mind is a reflection of reality]
"The mind is just like water or a mirror. Water or a mirror does not move itself but is still and serene. However, it is stained by dust or dirt from outside, or moved by wind or men. It then loses its stillness and serenity and does not reflect anything truly, if anything should stand in front of it. This is how the ‘original’ mind is. If it is clear and stable, then it reflects exactly whether the one in front of you is right or wrong, good or evil, just like a mirror or water reflects in this way. There is nothing which cannot be reflected clearly. However, if any of the six kinds of impurity - shape/form, voice, smell, taste, feel and ‘things which influence the mind ’ 12 - connects with the six senses , 13 through the six sense organs of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, then the mind will be corrupt, unsettled and unclear, so that it cannot reflect anything clearly, just like muddy water or a dull mirror. The truth here is that you have an enemy and an ally nowhere else but in your own mind. Penetrate this principle thoroughly, so you will always be true to yourself. If you are committed to the principles completely, you will never fail to infiltrate when on your shinobi mission or once having infiltrated to achieve great bravery".

VOLUME EIGHT

Yo-nin I
Open Disguise I

"Whether you disguise yourself as someone with a trade or just make a basic impersonation, you should be skilled in the art of whatever you are going to disguise yourself as. When you infiltrate using yo-jutsu disguise techniques, if you try to impersonate the appearance or the speech but have no skill in the trade, your stratagem will easily be revealed."

"You should always try to learn the customs and manners of the people and the topography of various provinces. You always need to learn and understand in full the following elements of various places: the customs and manners; the dialects and languages...;"

"In normal times, before the need arises, you should find someone as an undercover agent who will become the betrayer, an enemy you plant and thus make a ninja of him and have him within the enemy castle, camp or vassalage"

"You should make an anaushi undercover agent of a girl from her childhood. If there is a child who is good looking among those close to you, you should create an intricate plan and then, when the time comes, use her to create false charges, or to murder by poisoning or other such appropriate measures." [Scottish girls are beautiful].

"Lord Nobunaga had a boy retainer of fifteen or sixteen years old who had excellent handwriting skills. The lord sent him to serve Imagawa Shinsuke, so that he could in time master the copying of Shinsuke’s handwriting. Later he forged a letter from Shinsuke and made discord between Shinsuke and his lord, Yoshimoto. This caused serious disharmony within Imagawa’s vassalage and was the downfall of Yoshimoto in the end."

"Kunoichi no jutsu is to send [a female] for a shinobi mission [and this person is represented by one ideogram, which consists of three letters combined]. When it seems difficult for tajikara [male ninja] to infiltrate, use this art. In general, kunoichi have a twisted and inferior mind, shallow intelligence and poor speech, so for example [ text blacked out with the number ‘2’ left exposed] you should not use those who you cannot recognize for what they are. If you have someone you have observed correctly, make them take a strict oath, educate them thoroughly and specifically about the signals and promises so that you can send them deep into the enemy by taking the appropriate measures. Alternatively, you make them a servant who is accompanying someone who has access to the enemy. Plans of this nature will be successful and without fail."

"The Three Strategies says: When neither the beginning nor end is visible, no one is able to gain full understanding. Heaven and earth, like all things, also change and transform. You should keep changing your ways according to the enemy." [sounds like a social form of wave function collapse].

I hope this is invitation enough to read the book but most likely will continue with quotes. Must warn, nothing in this book about shin shin shin gan [God's eyes, god's heart], a form of extra sensorial perception that may include telepathy said to be used by ninja] or kuji kiri, an aggressive or active form of meditation possibly preparing the ninja for it. [word shinobi, an alternate word for ninja also starts with silable shin]

You can buy the book on Amazon as this text is hard to read. But then, always the question. Did they put in the right stuff, the said skeleton of the art which is then filled with "kuden", or oral tradition or is just another ninja diversion. The manual was traded to the shogunate for nothing as the ninja were struggling economically after, as the history books say, they were wiped out by Nobunaga.

This is the first book i ever saw that uses the word Volume for Chapter. Nothing scary, it's just a 22 chapters book. I recommend Chapter or Volumes 8-10, Yo-nin - Open Disguise I, II and III as they describe best the phenomena most happening in the world within the last century with celebrities or public persons in all countries.

https://archive.org/stream/TheBookOfNinjaTheFirstCompleteTranslation/The+Book+of+Ninja+The+First+Complete+Translation_djvu.txt