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As well as Chinese military tactics there came the closely related teachings of Chinese mysticism, developed from the esoteric knowledge of India and Tibet. Chinese monks and shamans came to dwell in the forests and caves of the Kii Peninsula beginning about A.D. 1024. They expounded systems of integrated mind-body awareness, based on personal understanding of the order of the universe, which were taken up by the Japanese yamabushi (mountain warrior-priests), and sennin and gyoja (warrior-ascetics of the wilderness). Chinese mystic priests such as Kain Doshi, Gamon Doshi, and Kasumikage Doshi, as well as their Japanese disciples, are said to have been the. teachers of the original ninja families. These beliefs remained closely associated with the ninja even after they became codified into the mikkyo (esoteric doctrine) sect of Buddhism in later years.

Ninjutsu coalesced gradually from a mixture of these Chinese and native Japanese elements; unlike most Oriental religions and martial arts, it was never actually founded at any one specific point in history. The basic body of knowledge that was later called ninjutsu was at first considered merely an unconventional way of looking at situations and accomplishing things. What went on to eventually become a highly systematic method of combat and espionage began as a shadowy counterculture, a reaction against the mainstream of Japanese political and social tradition.