Historical 'Ninja Assassinations': The Definitive Ranking
A whole lot of nothing from 1967 to 2022
In the previous post I pointed out that medieval Japanese warriors seem to have been perfectly able to carry out their own assassinations without any help from ‘ninja.’ I used this to cast doubt on the widely-held idea of ‘ninja’ as expert assassins, noting that on the whole, the way that assassinations were carried out in Japan doesn’t really fit with the classic ‘ninja’ image of a lone, stealthy, hired assassin.
“But wait a minute, Rob,” (I hear you cry) “I’ve read one or two books on the ninja, and they’re full of accounts of ninja assassinations from Japanese history.”
Yes! They absolutely are! I’m so glad you brought that up. Let’s take a look at some of them.
#1: Ishikawa Goemon vs. Oda Nobunaga
Let’s start with a celebrated case from the Godfather of all ‘ninja’ writers, Andrew Adams, in his 1970 Ninja: The Invisible Assassins:
After Nobunaga had retired for the night, Goemon made a small hole in the ceiling just above the general’s head. Then, noiselessly he lowered a thin thread until it hung suspended just above the lips of his sleeping victim. Taking out a vial of deadly liquid poison, the ninja sent the poison, drop by drop, down along the thread and into the mouth of Nobunaga. The light-sleeping general, ever alert for such attempts on his life, managed to awaken in time to prevent Goemon from succeeding with his diabolical trick.
(From Adams, Ninja: The Invisible Assassins, 1970. Also appears in: Weiss and Philbin 1980, Turnbull 1991, Turnbull 2003, Turnbull 2005, Turnbull 2008, Levy 2008, Yoda and Alt 2012, Fiennes 2019, Lockley & Girard 2019, etc etc)
This never happened. It is, in reality, the climactic scene of a 1962 ‘ninja’ movie called Shinobi no mono, which Adams apparently decided he could include in his book as historical fact. I’ve just had a peer-reviewed article documenting exactly what happened with Adams and the Goemon story accepted for publication, and hope to be able to share more details shortly.
#2: Hachisuka Tenzō vs. Takeda Shingen
Takeda Shingen, who apparently had two doors on his lavatory, is recorded as recommending that even when alone with his wife a daimyo should keep his dagger close at hand. One unsuccessful attempt on his life was made by a ninja named Hachisuka Tenzo, sent by Oda Nobunaga. Tenzo was forced to flee, and the Takeda samurai pursued him into a wood, where he concealed himself in the moonlight among the shadows of the trees. A spear thrust from his pursuers caught only his costume, and he subsequently evaded capture by hiding in a hole in the ground, which he had already prepared. Nobunaga’s chosen assassin may well have been an Iga man, for we know that he had some on his payroll.
(From Turnbull, Ninja: AD 1460-1650 (2003); also appears in: Draeger 1971, Turnbull 1991, Turnbull 2005, Levy 2008, Matthews 2015.
This never happened. Both Turnbull and Draeger apparently got the story from a 1964 children’s story book by Hatsumi Masaaki, in which the ‘ninja’ in question spins so fast he digs himself down into the ground like a human drill. This obviously cannot have happened, but Turnbull appears to have subtly edited the story (“a hole in the ground which he had already prepared”) to make it seem like a plausible event. Quite why he did that, I have no idea.
#3: Kirigakure Saizō vs. Hideyoshi
Other examples of assassinations that failed include Tokugawa Ieyasu’s sending of a ninja called Kirigakure Saizo to murder his rival Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Saizo hid beneath the floor of Hideyoshi’s dwelling, but a guard managed to pin him through the arm with the blade of his spear, which he had thrust at random through the floorboards. Another ninja, presumably in the service of Hideyoshi, then ‘smoked him out’ using a primitive flamethrower.
(From Turnbull 2003; also appears in Draeger 1971, Turnbull 1991, Turnbull 2005; Levy 2008; Warner 2014; Matthews 2015)
This never happened. Kirigakure Saizō is a fictional character, and the story is once again drawn from Hatsumi Masaaki’s 1964 children’s story book. Turnbull and Draeger should have known that Saizō was a fictional character because their own source for the story says so.
#4: Manabe Rokurō vs. Nobunaga
The year 1573 witnessed an attempt on Nobunaga’s life by a certain Manabe Rokuro, the chief steward of a vassal of the daimyo Hatano Hideharu. Oda Nobunaga destroyed the Hatano in 1573, and Manabe Rokuro was instructed to take revenge. He tried to sneak into Nobunaga’s castle of Azuchi and to stab Nobunaga while he was asleep in his bedroom, but was discovered and captured by two of the guards. He then committed suicide, and his body was displayed in the local market place to discourage any other would-be killers.
(From Turnbull 2003; also appears in Turnbull 1991, Turnbull 1992, Turnbull 2005, Zoughari 2010, Yoda and Alt 2012, Lockley and Girard 2019, Blair 2022, Galindo 2023)
This probably never happened. I wrote about this one at length a month or two ago. and explained why it should be viewed as fiction. Even if we accept it as truth, nobody ever thought to call Rokurō a ‘ninja’ until well after World War II.
#5: The ‘Toilet Ninja’ vs. Uesugi Kenshin
The most famous ninja assassination story is of how Uesugi Kenshin was murdered in his lavatory by a ninja who had concealed himself in the sewage pit, and who thrust a spear or sword up Kenshin’s anus at the crucial moment. Kenshin died a few days later, and it was suspected that Oda Nobunaga had sent the assassin.
(From Turnbull 2003; also appears in Draeger and Smith 1969, Draeger 1971, Turnbull 1991, Zoughari 2010, Lockley and Girard 2019, and loads of other sources).
This probably never happened. As I documented a few months ago, there does exist a premodern source for the tale, but no serious historian thinks this really happened.
#6: Men of Iga vs. Nobunaga
But the most remarkable assassination attempt on Nobunaga is recorded in the Iranki. Three ninja each took aim at Nobunaga with large-calibre firearms when he was inspecting the ruinous state of Iga Province that his invasion had brought about. The shots missed the target, but killed seven of Nobunaga’s companions.
(From Turnbull 2003; also appears in Turnbull 1991, Lockley and Girard 2019)
This probably never happened. Again, I’ve written about this recently. Iranki is not a reliable source, and the rifle ambush is not corroborated by any other account of Nobunaga’s life. Turnbull concedes this in his more recent 2017 Unmasking the Myth.
#7: Sugitani Zenjūbō vs. Nobunaga
Rokkaku Yoshisuke, who had seen his territory in Omi Province invaded by Nobunaga in 1571, hired a Koga ninja called Sugitani Zenjubo, whose particular speciality was sharpshooting with the long-barrelled arquebus. Zenjubo lay in wait for Nobunaga as he was crossing the Chigusa Pass between Omi and Mino Provinces, and fired twice, presumably with two separate guns. Both bullets struck home, but were absorbed by Nobunaga’s armor and the padded shoulder protectors beneath. Zenjubo escaped to the mountains, but was apprehended four years later and tortured to death.
(From Turnbull 2003; also appears in Turnbull 1991, Lockley and Girard 2019)
This one probably did happen (I know! I’m as surprised as you are!), but it’s not clear why Sugitani Zenjūbō should be identified as a ‘ninja.’ The account appears in the generally-reliable Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, written by one of Nobunaga’s retainers:
[A] man called Sugitani Zenjūbō, who had been hired by Sasaki Sakyōno Daibu Jōtei, lay in wait with his harquebus by the wayside in the mountains of Chikusa. In cold blood, Sugitani took aim at Lord Nobunaga from a distance of twelve or thirteen ken [twenty-two to twenty-four meters] and fired a double load. But the Way of Heaven watched over Nobunaga, and the bullets merely grazed his body.1
You’ll notice that there’s no mention of Sugitani being a ‘ninja’ or even a shinobi. I suspect, based on his name, that he was probably a Buddhist monk, and the ‘ninja’ ID is a much later invention.
#8: Sarutobi Sasuke vs. Tokugawa Ieyasu
The Toyotomi forces sent Sasuke from their Osaka Castle to the district controlled by the Tokugawa army - present-day Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya Castle - to find out if Tokugawa planned to attack them soon…He climbed the wall safely, but when he jumped down the other side his left foot got caught in a steel trap. Unable to extricate himself…Sasuke Sarutobi finally committed hara-kiri.
But strange to say, Sasuke continued to appear nightly in the Tokugawa castle, announcing himself and revealing that suicide was merely one of his secret techniques he used to escape from dangerous situations. And every night this remarkable ninja jonin slew a couple of guards. The news of these strange doings reached the Toyotomi Clan which was relieved to hear of Sasuke’s amazing success, certain that sooner or later he would manage to assassinate Gen. Tokugawa himself.
(From Adams, Ninja: The Invisible Assassins; also appears in Draeger 1971).
This never happened. (Normal service is resumed!) Sarutobi Sasuke is a fictional character, as numerous Japanese authors have acknowledged. Oddly, Adams gives Okuse as the source for this story, even though Okuse was fully aware that Sasuke was fictional.
(I wonder where the misunderstanding came in? Did Adams misunderstand what Okuse was saying about Sasuke’s fictional status, or did Okuse mislead Adams in some way? Or did Adams decide the story was too good to check?)
By the way, in case you think this story is too obviously fictional to be taken seriously, I’d remind you that Adams’ Invisible Assassins is the best-selling ‘ninja’ book of the last fifty-five years and appears in almost every ‘ninja’ writer’s bibliography.
#9: Unspecified Ninja vs. Unspecified Warlord
Okuse notes that the ninja applied brainpower scientifically to every problem. In one example, Okuse relates that a ninja accurately noted his enemy’s daily habits and saw that he was fond of strolling in his garden and smelling his flowers. Otherwise, his enemy was too well protected to expect any success in an assassination attempt. His solution was to poison one of the flowers and then when the enemy made his usual rounds, he inhaled the poisonous fumes and died shortly thereafter.
(From Adams, “Last of the Ninja” Black Belt Feb. 1967. Also appears in Finn 1988).
This never happened. It falls apart on simple questioning: Who was the warlord, and when did this happen? I have as yet been unable to locate the story in Okuse’s work, but I see no reason to take it seriously, especially as Okuse made up his own examples to illustrate what he thought historical ninjutsu was.
#10: Unspecified Ninja vs. an Entire Platoon of US Marines
But the ninja did not fail very often. Information on their specific World War II activities is scant, but according to Ron Duncan, a ninja practitioner living in New York, there were many strange incidents which had a ninjaesque quality […]
What turned out to be one of the most chilling incidents was a story making the rounds just after the war that told of an entire platoon of Marines that died mysteriously within a twenty-four hour period. Symptoms included abdominal pain, diarrhea and bloody urine, and it was at first assumed that amoebic dysentery or some tropical disease was the cause. But a young naval lieutenant didn’t think so, and his investigation ultimately revealed the cause. The drinking water had been spiked with arsenic, 0.5 gram per glassful of water - more than enough to do the job.
Poison has long been a favorite technique of the ninja.
(From Weiss and Philbin, Clan of Death (1980))
C’mon, really? This never happened. You think an entire platoon of US marines all died in mysterious circumstances in the space of 24 hours and nobody noticed? No record of this in any newspaper or anything? And a “young naval lieutenant” doing an investigation? This sounds like the plot of a detective novel or 1960s daytime TV show.
Is That the Best You Can Do?
With the exception of the last one, which I threw in there for comedy value, all of the above ‘assassinations’ have appeared in more than one purportedly historical account of the ‘ninja.’ Some, like Goemon at #1 and Manabe Rokurō at #4, have appeared in at least half a dozen different publications over the space of a few decades. The Goemon story, in particular, has been out there for nearly fifty years, from 1970 to 2019.
Basically, we can classify all of these supposed historical events in one of two ways:
It happened, but it wasn’t ‘ninja.’
It was ‘ninja,’ but it didn’t happen.
The point, which I hope is clear by now, is that English-language ninja history presents ‘ninja assassinations’ that never happened as a matter of routine. For a purportedly historical field of inquiry to do this is nothing short of an embarrassment.
The cases I’ve given above represent a span of more than fifty years and nearly twenty published books, quite a few of which are from major publishers and others of which have sold exceptionally well. Across these works everyone has been copying everyone else, no-one has bothered to ask what the primary sources behind the stories might be, and there’s been almost no serious attempt to consider the possibility that some of this stuff might be bullshit. I struggle to think of any field, outside of fringe stuff like UFO studies, that’s managed to maintain such low standards for so long. It’s actually quite impressive in a grim kind of way.
In the next post, I’ll wrap up this little series on assassination by offering some thoughts on why so much of the ‘ninja’ record is made up of literal fiction.
Translation from Elisonas and Lamers, trans., The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (Brill, 2011), p. 145. ‘Harquebus’ (or arquebus) is an old-fashioned term for a long rifle.
References & Bibliographic info for above:
Adams, Andrew. “Last of the Ninja” Black Belt Magazine February 1967.
----. Ninja: The Invisible Assassins. Black Belt Communications, 1970
Blair, Gavin. An Illustrated Guide to Samurai History and Culture. Tuttle Books, 2022
Draeger, Donn F. Ninjutsu: The Art of Invisibility: Japan’s Feudal Age Espionage Methods.
Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle, 1989
Draeger, Donn, and Smith, Robert W. Asian Fighting Arts. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1969
Fiennes, Ranulph. The Elite: The Story of Special Forces – from Ancient Sparta to the War on Terror. Simon and Schuster, 2019.
Finn, Michael. Martial Arts: An Illustrated History. Stanley Paul, 1988.
Galindo, Arturo. “Los ninjas, la guerrilla de élite de Japón” National Geographic March 2021.
Levy, Joel. Ninja: The Shadow Warrior. New York, NY: Sterling Press, 2008
Lockley and Girard, African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, A Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan. Hanover Square Press, 2019.
Matthews, Rupert. Ninja. History’s Fearless Fighters. [No Location], Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2015.
Turnbull, Stephen. Ninja: The True History of Japan’s Secret Warrior Cult. Poole, UK: Firebird Books, 1991
----. Ninja AD 1460-1650. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2003
----. Warriors of Medieval Japan. Oxford, UK: Osprey Books, 2005
----. Real Ninja: Over 20 True Stories of Japan’s Secret Assassins. New York: Enchanted Lion
Books, 2008
Warner, Jennifer. Ninja Warriors: 10 Ninja That Changed History. Golgotha Press, 2014.
Weiss, Al, and Philbin, Tom. Clan of Death: Ninja. New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1980
Yoda, Hiroko, and Alt, Matt. Ninja Attack: True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws
North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle, 2012
Zoughari, Kacem. The Ninja: Ancient Shadow Warriors of Japan. Tokyo: Tuttle Books, 2010.
Not just embarrassing. Humiliating