A new visual guide for the ninja enthusiast in your life sheds light on the myth and fact behind Japan’s historical agents of infiltration.

Whether you grew up watching historical Japanese dramas or dreamed of attending Konoha Ninja Academy in Naruto, ninja have long captured the imagination of people from around the world. Japan has capitalized on this collective interest in recent years by offering everything from a Batman Ninja stage show to an actual ninja certification exam.

On October 15, Tokyo-based publisher of educational guides Natsume-sha is set to release Ninja: An Illustrated Guide to Japan’s Secret Agents. The compact A6-sized, 160-page book is being billed as an excellent gift for Japanese people to bring as a gift when traveling abroad due to its fully bilingual nature and helpful illustrations. What also sets this volume apart from other guides is that its creation was closely supervised by Yuji Yamada, a professor at Mie University who holds leadership roles in the Mie University International Ninja Research Center and International Ninja Research Association.

▼ We previously featured Yamada a few years ago at the onset of the Japan Ninja Council’s crowdfunding efforts for the Nindo online ninja academy.

The new book focuses on the contrast behind real historical ninja vs. the ones in the public consciousness. All text is presented in an easy-to-follow format with bilingual illustrations and accompanying illustrations.

It’s also broken into six main parts covering a wide range of topics such as the ninja’s role in intelligence gathering and infiltration, weapons, tools, ninjutsu techniques, and even historically accurate lifestyle depictions.

For instance, did you ever wonder what the deal was with those hand seals used by Naruto characters? It turns out that there’s actually a real-life connection to esoteric Buddhism.

Ninja: An Illustrated Guide to Japan’s Secret Agents releases in Japanese bookstores and on Amazon Japan on the 15th. We’ll certainly be snatching up a copy faster than the blink of an eye while we wait for any news regarding the unconfirmed reopening of Japan’s Ise Ninja Park in Mie.

Source, images: PR Times
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