The Ninjas today are the stuff of myth and legend in comics, film and electronic games. But once they were real, the medieval equivalent of the SAS: spies, saboteurs, assassins. In their secrecy, under-cover skills and determination to survive, they were the opposite of the overt, self destructive samurai.

 

Could they fly? Make themselves invisible? Of course not. But their skills gave them a magical aura. As a result, martial artists and storytellers have turned them into fantasy creatures, gracing the annals of popular culture from James Bond to Mutant Teenage Turtles.

 

I went in search of the reality behind the nonsense, I went to the heartland of the Ninjas: the old provinces if Iga and Koga, south-east of Kyoto. Here I found solid history – the ninjas were peasant defence forces until overwhelmed when Japan was unified around 1600. Today, there is much local pride in ninja traditions.