International Ninja Day

World Ninja Day has been celebrated every December 5th since 2003. The history of this unofficial holiday is funny. Its authors were the administrators of the parody site Ninja Burger. And the date was timed to coincide with the release of the film “The Last Samurai,” which showed an impressive battle between samurai and a squad of ninjas. According to the authors' idea, everyone on Ninja Day can imagine themselves as these mysterious Japanese warriors - martial arts masters and specialists in secret operations. You can dress up like a ninja, watch a movie about them, or share information about an unusual holiday with your friends. The background of this almost comic holiday is serious and directly related to an interesting cultural phenomenon from the history of Japan. We are talking about the phenomenon of "ninjutsu". Literally, the term means “to hide” or “to hide.” That is, ninjas were trained, first of all, to be secretive, to carry out their tasks unnoticed by outsiders. The phenomenon originated in the 5th century, and the art of being invisible was lost in the 19th century. Now real ninjas no longer exist; we are left with only their image, which was idealized and shrouded in an aura of mystery thanks to cinema. In essence, ninjas were highly skilled all-round mercenaries. They mastered the skills of traditional Japanese martial arts and combined the functions of a spy, saboteur and assassin. Several closed clans were involved in training such people. Training required a lot of time, financial costs and effort, and began in childhood. The camps were located in remote forest and mountain areas. In them, future ninjas learned:• handling different types of bladed weapons;• fighting in various conditions (indoors, in open space, on city streets, in the dark, etc.);• the use of poisons;• the art of moving silently , travel long distances on foot, do without food and water, maintain balance well; • swimming and diving (including holding your breath for a long time). The attitude among the Japanese towards ninjas corresponded to their activities. That is, they were considered mercenaries, and the samurai even spoke of them with some disdain. At the same time, everyone paid tribute to the good training of such “specialists.” The same samurai, if necessary, hired them to participate in their civil strife. It was often too dangerous or simply impossible to try to eliminate or compromise a high-ranking enemy or steal documents on your own. In this case, ninjas came to the rescue. Their services cost a lot, but the result was practically guaranteed.