page_title: Ninja
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Ninja / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: English: From Suikoden of Japanese Heroes (Yeiyû Yamato Suikoden, 英雄日本水滸伝) Publisher: Kujioka-ya Keijirô c. 1843 Scene: Ogata Shuma (later Jiraiya) raising his sword to kill a python attacking a large toad, Jiraiya is portrayed as being a ninja.
context_page_description: A ninja or shinobi was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included espionage, deception, and surprise attacks. Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed dishonorable and beneath the honor of the samurai. Though shinobi proper, as specially trained spies and mercenaries, appeared in the 15th century during the Sengoku period, antecedents may have existed as early as the 12th century.
  In the unrest of the Sengoku period, mercenaries and spies for hire became active in Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kōga, and it is from these areas that much of the knowledge regarding the ninja is drawn. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate in the 17th century, the ninja faded into obscurity. A number of shinobi manuals, often based on Chinese military philosophy, were written in the 17th and 18th centuries, most notably the Bansenshukai.
  By the time of the Meiji Restoration, shinobi had become a topic of popular imagination and mystery in Japan.
context_section_description: The image of the ninja entered popular culture in the Edo period, when folktales and plays about ninja were conceived. Stories about the ninja are usually based on historical figures. For instance, many similar tales exist about a daimyō challenging a ninja to prove his worth, usually by stealing his pillow or weapon while he slept. Novels were written about the ninja, such as Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari, which was also made into a kabuki play. Fictional figures such as Sarutobi Sasuke would eventually make their way into comics and television, where they have come to enjoy a culture hero status outside their original mediums.
  Ninja appear in many forms of Japanese and Western popular media, including books (Kōga Ninpōchō), television (Ninja Warrior), animation (Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu), movies (Ninja Assassin), video games (Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Tenchu, Shinobi), anime (Naruto, Ninja Scroll), manga (Basilisk) and American comic books (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). From ancient Japan to the modern world media, popular depictions range from the realistic to the fantastically exaggerated, both fundamentally and aesthetically.
caption: Jiraiya battles a giant snake with the help of his summoned toad. Woodblock print on paper. Kuniyoshi, c. 1843.
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