Ninja vs Samurai
How changes in Japanese society gave rise to warriors trained in specialised arts
What were these two specialised combatants, who rose out of ancient Japan?
In 646, the Taika Reforms united Japan into a state ruled by an imperial government under an emperor. Land was redistributed, and heavy taxes were imposed. These taxes meant that many farmers had to sell their land and work under others, and as a result wealthy landowners gained more power, becoming lords who answered only to the emperor. To protect their wealth, they began to hire mercenaries and employ family members as guards, triggering the age of the samurai.
These early samurai – meaning ‘one who serves’ – would collect taxes, threaten those who wouldn’t pay up and defend their lord from rivals who might look to expand and take over their assets. However, their importance in society didn’t really take shape until the Heian period, between 794 and 1185, when imperial power began to decline. The emperor’s influence was lost outside of the capital, and civil wars began to break out across the county. The warrior class now played a huge role in society, and local lords began to amass personal armies in the struggle for power.
While the two sons of Emperor Toba fought over what little imperial power remained in the latter half of the 12th century, two powerful samurai and their clans were fighting their own battles. Though Taira Kiyomori’s clan would be victorious at first, seizing control of Japan and establishing the first samurai-led government, after his death the Minamoto clan would strike back in the Genpei War of 1180. After their victory, the head of the clan Minamoto Yoritomo established the Kamakura shogunate, turning Japan into a military dictatorship, but allowing the emperor to remain a figurehead.
Under military rule, samurai had more power than ever before, though they were still in service to their lords, who became known as daimyo. The new enemy became the Mongol Empire, a horde of nomadic tribes who had already conquered China. With the weather and seas on its side and samurai from all over the country fighting to repel the foreign forces, Japan
kept the invaders at bay.
However, the Kamakura shogunate was unable to offer much reward to the samurai leaders who had come to the country’s defence, and soon its grip would begin to loosen.
In the 1400s the entire country was plunged into civil war once again, with the daimyo all vying for power using the strength of the samurai in their service. This 100-year conflict would be dubbed the Warring States period, and would see the status of the most powerful samurai equal that of nobles, with their standing able to pass down to their children.
During this brutal period, powerful daimyo would also employ more clandestine tactics, hiring shinobi warriors – better known as ninjas – for sneak attacks and sabotage. In stark contrast to the samurai and their newfound nobility and code of honour, ninjas were low-class citizens trained in specialised skills and stealth, making them the perfect spies. Because of their secretive nature, it’s hard to say when exactly the art of ninjutsu began to develop and when ninjas were active in warfare, but many of them can be traced to the Iga and Koga regions of Japan.
The eventual reunification of Japan would start with the powerful daimyo Oda Nobunaga, whose army defeated other influential warlords and overthrew the Ashikaga shogunate. Seeing ninjas as a huge threat, he first defeated and scattered the Koga shinobi, then launched a massive offensive on the Iga clan. Decimating them in open combat, many remaining ninjas would end up in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who would rule Japan as shogun from 1603.
After years of turmoil, Tokugawa ushered in a new era of peace and stability, and suddenly there was no place for the samurai or ninjas outside of the shogunate’s service. Some samurai remained loyal to their lords, but rarely saw combat, while others were forced to hang up their swords and become farmers. Ninjas became more of a myth, with their exaggerated ‘magical’ abilities becoming legend.