‘Ninja’ essay

MANILA — Filipino law enforcers who allegedly sold narcotics seized from drug traffickers have somehow put ninjutsu in a bad light as they are dubbed “ninja

cops” for their tactics of deception that is the hallmark of practitioners of the Japanese martial art.

Amid the bad publicity on ninjas though, an academic stunt of a Japanese student of ninja history gives respite to the negative portrayal of the clad-in-black mercenary-spy of Japanese folklore.

Eimi Haga’s professor asked the class to write an essay about their visit to the Ninja Museum of Igaryu, promising to give a high mark to the creative ones. Haga wrote her essay in invisible ink, a ninja technique also known as aburidashi.

A ninja fan when she was a child, Haga learned from a book how to make the ink using soybeans. She then wrote her essay on washi or thin Japanese paper with a note written in normal ink saying, “Heat the paper.”

Professor Yuji Yamada was impressed, admitting it was the first time he read an essay where the words appeared by heating the paper over the gas stove in his house. He gave Haga a full mark for her essay.

As for the “ninjas” at the Philippine National Police, senators conducting an investigation on the shenanigans by men in uniform are also getting a clearer picture of the cover-up as one testimony after another exposes the culprit like a secret message written in aburidashi becoming readable as heat brings out the words on the paper.