Japanese researchers have uncovered a rare, centuries-old ninja oath pledging never to divulge the secrets of their spying and sabotage skills — on pain of divine retribution for generations.
Written in cursive calligraphy, the oath contains six promises and was signed about 300 years ago by “Inosuke Kizu.”
Kizu was a ninja from a clan in Iga, a mountain-shrouded town near the ancient imperial capital of Kyoto.
Photo: AFP / International Ninja Research Center
Expressing gratitude to his superior for passing on ninjutsu or “the art of the ninja,” Kizu pledged he would never pass the knowledge on — even to his children or brothers — and would never use it to steal unless so ordered.
In his oath, the ninja acknowledges that if he broke the promises, he would be punished by “big and small gods in more than 60 provinces across Japan” for generations.
The document shows how strict ninjas were about keeping their skills and techniques secret, said Yoshiki Takao, an associate professor at Mie University’s International Ninja Research Center.
“Thieves and ninjas did the same thing — sneaking into other people’s houses — but ninjas prized morality highly,” Takao said. “Ninjas were ‘public servants’ in today’s terms, providing security services and collecting information.”
Also of interest to academics was a vow in the oath to report to his superiors any new skills, tools or firearms that were not in the Bansenshukai, a secretive 17th-century text considered to be somewhat of a ninja encyclopedia.
Kizu said he could show only three chapters of the Bansenshukai to top-ranking samurais who employed ninjas and vowed not to disclose the book’s contents in other writings.
This interests academics because “it shows that Bansenshukai was actually becoming used as a textbook,” Takao said, even though it left crucial points vague.
The contents of the multivolume book are now known to the public, but many ninja traditions remain hidden as important secrets were passed on by word of mouth.
The oath was among about 130 ancient documents left to the university by the 16th head of the Kizu family.
The existence of the oath was unveiled five decades ago, but its whereabouts were unknown until now, Takao said.
Inosuke, who submitted the oath, was the fifth head and last ninja from the Kizu family.
The document was believed to have been returned to his family after his death, Takao said.
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