Matsuo Basho

[moyashi]

Matsuo Basho ... the famous haiku poet.

The frog near the pond, jumps, the water ripples.

Or something like that.

Here is something that most people don't know.
---- Basho was most probably a high level Ninja.

He was 46 when he traveld 2500km in 150 days on foot.

He traveled at times up to 50+km on foot. Anybody out of shape would find 20km difficult.

He also probably spent in todays terms US $30,000 on his travels. 30 ryo at that time. Ryo was an old form of money that equalled a certain amount of rice production. 1 bag of rice? Most Japanese didn't eat such a high quality of rice at that time.

He also entered the castel of DateHan (now the Sendai area) without a hassel an event that was normally reserved to High Officials of the Area, Bakafu (Tokugawa Government officers) and very famous people.

Besides being a supposed Ninja it's been proposed that he was in the employment of the Bakafu. It's too hard to imagine that a wealthy patron payed for his traveling expenses.

If his journey would never have happened, his poems and possibly the Japan that we all know today would be different. They say that this trip help scare DateHan into spending Billions of today's dollars on water works in Tokyo effectively putting the DateHan into deficit spending. They previous helped pay for the building of Tokyo Castel and later many temples of Hakone. (I believe that's where it was).

Ninjas existed in Japan and Hattori Hanzo was one of the most famous. Sure the movies exagerate their abilities but they were able to run up to 250km a day and other various physically difficult feats. Ninja have a special way of running that uses very little energy. Their swimming technique was a sort of threading water. Also their throwing technic uses the full shoulder in unison with the waist.

A high school trained in such ninja techniques and actually advanced to the top 8 of an all Japan tournament.

ninjas

[samuraitora]

That is some killer info, nice spin on things.

I love the ninja. Here we chump them up sooo high, they are almost gods. There is a Ninja school about 50 miles from me...thought about going, just don't have the time.

Can anyone get me links on sites for info and study?

[thomas]

I found these links in our directory:

Ninja Village

=> http://www.japanreference.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=3169

Iga Ninja Homepage

=> http://www.japanreference.com/cgi-bin/jump.cgi?ID=2221

There's more on Google:

http://www.realultimatepower.net (hehe)
http://www.winjutsu.com/ninjakids/
http://www.jinjapan.org/kidsweb/japan/i/q3.html

[moyashi]

I've been to the IGA ninja house and it's underground museum

[samuraitora]

that is awesome...how was it?

[deborah gormley]

just got a chance to check out those ninja sites!! wow techniques and all provided!!!

[Eli]

I've been to the Iga museum as well-- I only wish I'd gotten to stay there longer. ;) It's fascinating! They have a traditional farmhouse full of trick doors and hiding places, and there are demonstrations of the uses for each. The underground museum is incredible, and packed with information (fully translated into English, as far as I could tell, too!) It's definitely a place I'm looking forward to visiting again.

--Eli

[ohayougozaru]

all remember in tv when us ex-president clinton came to jpn and said about is hed been reading a book about bashou... before or around that time an article about bashou is a ninja came up in magazine or papers, dont remember which..., so, anyhow it was a kind of impressed.... . what was bashous spy mission then ??? btw how true that mr ex-pres is a descendant of rothchild or rockfellor???

for background info: copied from
http://www.openhistory.org/jhdp/intro/node23.html
" As shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu controlled Japans international relations,
coinage, and relations between the various han. His primary concern in the
early years of his shogunate was the preservation of his familys rule. Thus,
although the daimyo ruled their individual fiefs independent of the Bakufu,
their behavior in matters national was under Ieyasus control and the shogun
had a very wide view of what constituted national matters. For obvious
reasons, castle building was a very efficient method of pissing the shogun
off. Building or even repairing castles required government permission. In
addition, the daimyo were required to assist with public works projects such
as dams, roads, bridges and the like. This was partially for pragmatic
reasons (you need good roads to move troops quickly) and partially as a
drain on the daimyosEtreasuries (since they had to pay for the work). Also,
marriages between daimyo....."

the title of his writing/poetic prose in 1689 is called "oku no hosomichi," translated as a narrow road to deep north. date-hans area was situated up north from edo, now its about 2 hours of shinkansen ride....

heres a pretty good site for that question by mr sasaki sans...
http://www.geocities.jp/general_sasa...ninja_eng.html