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The last activity of the Tokugawa ninja occured with the arrival of Commodore Perry’s “black ships” in 1853. The ninja Yasusuke Sawamura was ordered to board Perry’s ship secretly and search for information that would reveal the intentions of the foreign barbarians. To this day, the Sawamura family archives in Mie Prefecture’s Iga-Ueno City still contain the two documents purloined by their stealthy ancestor-two letters containing a Dutch sailor song extolling the delights of French women in bed and British women in the kitchen.

NINJUTSU IN THE MODERN WORLD

As Japan emerged from the devastation of World War II, all martial arts were banned from practice for a time by the American occupation forces that ruled the conquered nation. Ninjutsu came to be seen as a pointless antique by the Japanese people themselves as they adjusted to a role of international cooperation in the postwar era. Along with the introduction of Western troops, culture, and political concepts into Japan came a reliance on skill in commerce and economics to provide for the security and general welfare of the people. The Japanese of today belongs to the corporation instead of the clan; his armor has been replaced by the ubiquitous dark-blue suit; and his monsho (family crest) has become the company lapel pin. Training in the skills of survival no longer takes place in the mountains. In glass and steel skyscrapers, a new kind of knowledge is taught for a new kind of competition on the commercial battlefields of today.