DE can we have the Ninja sword now?

[RuFi0]

13 minutes ago, (PS4)Zero_029 said:

I would love to have Dual Ninjatos.

I saw one similar to this as a Expo here in Texas.

Truly beautiful. I admit...I'm partial to the Stylized blade Leonardo from TMNT used in the animations:

 

I like the cut edge. Although my first photo is an authentic ninjato. But WF is obviously fantasy, I mean hell, 1 sword in the game is a spiny piece of meat, another is a rod with cables coiled around.

No harm in suggesting a weapon. I seriously am surprised by the hostility in this thread.

But OP, be cautious not to entice the hostility, you'll only end up creating more. If folks start to derail things just let a Mod know.

Not to derail but just to toss it in. I want more weapons that are both cool but also some for laughs.

Blades of Chaos as some have mentioned, a literal Wooden Bo Staff, Wands, and...

One of my all time favorite weapons in any game was Phantasy Star Online's Akiko's Frying Pan!

 

Man, thank you. Pretty much this post. Leo's swords are what I think of. The extra length with the really defined cutting edge looks awesome. They are a beautiful weapon.

[(XBOX)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy]

17 minutes ago, (PS4)Zero_029 said:

I admit...I'm partial to the Stylized blade Leonardo from TMNT used in the animations...

Unless they've changed things Leo practices niten ichi-ryu. A style typically practiced with a daisho, a katana and wakizashi pair. In his case he subs out the wakizashi for a second katana, presumably due to his enhanced turtle strength.

No ninjato there, all katana.

[birdobash]

2 hours ago, Capitaine_Courage said:

And you say your want it since 5 years ?.... Are you sure you really know what you want at least ?

Are you SURE you really know what you want????

Did you seriously just ask him if he knows what he wants?? This is giving me minor EA flashbacks when they questioned the fanbase of some game they published when the fanbase criticized the game, asking "are you SUREEE you don't want pay-to-win microtransactions?"

Besides the point, I would love a pair of Ninjatos in the game, just like how nikanas have different stances than the one handed swords I feel the ninjatos should have different stances than our current dual swords and blades, because a lot of those stances look like they're supposed to be swinging around dual axes or kukri's rather than sleeker blades.

Edited January 10, 2019 by birdobash

[Kevyne_Kicklighter]

5 hours ago, Corvid said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjatō

"Historically, there is no physical evidence for the existence of this "katana-like short sword legendarily used by ninja" before the 20th century,^[13] though it is believed that the designs demonstrated by alleged replicas are based on the design of the wakizashi or chokutō swords or the swords associated with ashigaru.^[1]"

 

Not only that, the sword the OP wants is even a worse example of a STRIKING blade.

Why infantry SWORDS (straight blade) and calvary SABRES (curved blade) are used for different reasons. Calvary can't run a guy through with a blade, they have to strike from atop of a horse, and their sabers are designed to put the weight of the blade where it belongs for striking (why the Samurai long sword is shaped the way it is ... for striking). Infantry blades are designed to thrust in (and usually pointed to pierce armor). Striking blandes may not even have a POINT to pierce armor. Look at even the construction of the fencing foil, it's strictly a piercing weapon designed to run through another (like a nail through lumber, even the foil has like a nail tip design more like an piercing arrowhead).

The OP wants to USE the weapon and wants symmetry.

Good luck in finding that balance when frames bodies and their armor CAN and WILL clip, and how the Tennogen creator will TRY to compensate for it (it will look weird just how far from the body the swords will have to be to NOT clip).

[(XBOX)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy]

10 minutes ago, birdobash said:

Did you seriously just ask him if he knows what he wants?? This is giving me minor EA flashbacks when they questioned the fanbase of some game they published when the fanbase criticized the game, asking "are you SUREEE you don't want pay-to-win microtransactions?"

Well, the guy did make a thread about the ninjato and never provided a proper picture of it, and randomly threw in a picture of a Chinese jian, which is completely unrelated to the other (likely fictional) sword, nor ninja in general. So that's a pretty valid question.

It does make one wonder if he believes the two are connected or perhaps the same, and makes one wonder whether he knows that China and Japan are two distinct entities.

Edited January 10, 2019 by (XB1)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy

[birdobash]

50 minutes ago, (XB1)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy said:

Well, the guy did make a thread about the ninjato and never provided a proper picture of it, and randomly threw in a picture of a Chinese jian, which is completely unrelated to the other (likely fictional) sword, nor ninja in general. So that's a pretty valid question.

It does make one wonder if he believes the two are connected or perhaps the same, and makes one wonder whether he knows that China and Japan are two distinct entities.

He included a picture of deadpools ninjatos. Although you COULD say they're just his katanas, but if that were the case they should be curved and longer which they aren't. Even if they're not classic ninjatos(which clearly deadpool don't use) they're aptly named ninja swords and addressed as ninja swords in the comics. Although in the movies hes only used katanas, in the comics he seems to use both.

And about the chinese jian, he stated that he wanted those AS WELL, he never said they were ninjatos but instead that he wanted those added alongside with ninjatos, and I personally kind of want those in the game as well. There are a few chinese based weapons like the guandao, but more are always welcome.

Edited January 10, 2019 by birdobash

[RuFi0]

36 minutes ago, (XB1)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy said:

Well, the guy did make a thread about the ninjato and never provided a proper picture of it, and randomly threw in a picture of a Chinese jian, which is completely unrelated to the other (likely fictional) sword, nor ninja in general. So that's a pretty valid question.

It does make one wonder if he believes the two are connected or perhaps the same, and makes one wonder whether he knows that China and Japan are two distinct entities.

Please guys stop looking at the pictures and just read the post, this is scaring me how difficult it is for some people to simply read and comprehend. The last sentence of my original post, I said I would like the Ninjato "and the Chinese Wushu pictured above" - I was including this sword with the other weapon. My other post talks about how I'd like to see straight-blade swords like that, and I expand upon the idea. There are two posts explaining the other sword.

41 minutes ago, Kevyne_Kicklighter said:

Not only that, the sword the OP wants is even a worse example of a STRIKING blade.

Why infantry SWORDS (straight blade) and calvary SABRES (curved blade) are used for different reasons. Calvary can't run a guy through with a blade, they have to strike from atop of a horse, and their sabers are designed to put the weight of the blade where it belongs for striking (why the Samurai long sword is shaped the way it is ... for striking). Infantry blades are designed to thrust in (and usually pointed to pierce armor). Striking blandes may not even have a POINT to pierce armor. Look at even the construction of the fencing foil, it's strictly a piercing weapon designed to run through another (like a nail through lumber, even the foil has like a nail tip design more like an piercing arrowhead).

The OP wants to USE the weapon and wants symmetry.

Good luck in finding that balance when frames bodies and their armor CAN and WILL clip, and how the Tennogen creator will TRY to compensate for it (it will look weird just how far from the body the swords will have to be to NOT clip).

Please stop relying on the pictures. I just randomly searched them off of google. I am not a sword enthusiast. I just like to play video games, and many of the video games i have played have this sword.

The historical accuracy doesn't matter

The effectiveness of it doesn't matter

Kevyne I get that you're trying to troll me on purpose by bringing up cavalry and all that stuff and about "good luck because it WILL CLIP" but try not to encourage other people to join in on this stuff man, this is my last post addressing all this. If it's not relevant to my topic I'm just going to ignore it and assume you guys are trolling me lol, there's no way some of these responses are genuine, shame on me for getting so riled up before I realized what was happening.

[birdobash]

8 minutes ago, RuFi0 said:

Please guys stop looking at the pictures and just read the post, this is scaring me how difficult it is for some people to simply read and comprehend. The last sentence of my original post, I said I would like the Ninjato "and the Chinese Wushu pictured above" - I was including this sword with the other weapon. My other post talks about how I'd like to see straight-blade swords like that, and I expand upon the idea. There are two posts explaining the other sword.

Please stop relying on the pictures. I just randomly searched them off of google. I am not a sword enthusiast. I just like to play video games, and many of the video games i have played have this sword.

The historical accuracy doesn't matter

The effectiveness of it doesn't matter

Kevyne I get that you're trying to troll me on purpose by bringing up cavalry and all that stuff and about "good luck because it WILL CLIP" but try not to encourage other people to join in on this stuff man, this is my last post addressing all this. If it's not relevant to my topic I'm just going to ignore it and assume you guys are trolling me lol, there's no way some of these responses are genuine, shame on me for getting so riled up before I realized what was happening.

The person you quoted point they were making kind of goes out the window because first of all, warframes are not calvary type units anyways, they are more akin to special ops squads or very strong infantry units, whereas calvary typically means on horseback or some sort of fast moving vehicle or medium.

TLDR: he uber contradicted himself.

[(XBOX)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy]

48 minutes ago, birdobash said:

He included a picture of deadpools ninjatos. Although you COULD say they're just his katanas, but if that were the case they should be curved and longer which they aren't.

The problem with that is this...

 

... his swords vary based on what looks cool in the scene. Note how they're long and curved there. Katanas.

Which is why I said he didn't include a proper picture of a ninjato. He included a pic from a film where the swords were all over the place, and frequently katanas. And while criticising this for being a ninja game with Viking swords and Greek/Roman swords... included a picture a of Chinese sword as though that was more appropriate, which is the kind of thing people do when they think all Asian people are the same. Actually a lot of older Western works of Orientalism follow that idea.

21 minutes ago, RuFi0 said:

Please guys stop looking at the pictures and just read the post, this is scaring me how difficult it is for some people to simply read and comprehend. The last sentence of my original post, I said I would like the Ninjato "and the Chinese Wushu pictured above" - I was including this sword with the other weapon. My other post talks about how I'd like to see straight-blade swords like that, and I expand upon the idea. There are two posts explaining the other sword.

Please stop relying on the pictures. I just randomly searched them off of google. I am not a sword enthusiast. I just like to play video games, and many of the video games i have played have this sword.

Okay, so obviously the picture matters since we are specifically discussing a visual representation of the weapon. We're talking about a picture of something essentially and you seemed to be under the impression a jian was a ninjato, and didn't know any better. And if that's the case, and that doesn't matter, there's already an awesome ninjato in the game. This one right here;

 

I've solved your conundrum. You're welcome.

See now why it matters?

[MickThejaguar]

1 hour ago, birdobash said:

Are you SURE you really know what you want????

Did you seriously just ask him if he knows what he wants?? This is giving me minor EA flashbacks when they questioned the fanbase of some game they published when the fanbase criticized the game, asking "are you SUREEE you don't want pay-to-win microtransactions?"

It was rhetorical question. He wasn't legitimately asking the dude that, so the EA scenario isn't even remotely related.

[MickThejaguar]

32 minutes ago, birdobash said:

The person you quoted point they were making kind of goes out the window because first of all, warframes are not calvary type units anyways, they are more akin to special ops squads or very strong infantry units, whereas calvary typically means on horseback or some sort of fast moving vehicle or medium.

TLDR: he uber contradicted himself.

He didn't contradict himself. He said that sword the OP wanted was a striking blade. He mentioned cavalry to explain the between a curved sabre and a straight sword. Did not say that a ninjato would be a cavalry blade, thus he did not compare warframes to calvary. So where's the contradiction?

[birdobash]

47 minutes ago, MickThejaguar said:

He didn't contradict himself. He said that sword the OP wanted was a striking blade. He mentioned cavalry to explain the between a curved sabre and a straight sword. Did not say that a ninjato would be a cavalry blade, thus he did not compare warframes to calvary. So where's the contradiction?

The contradiction is when he states that straight swords are infantry type swords, and then immediately follows up with ninjatos would not be appropriate for warframes due to the type of warriors they are and clipping issues.

In what way is saying straight swords are better suited for infantry, and striking swords are better suited for calvary, and then immediately concluding with straight swords are not suitable for tenno/warframes which ARE infantry type units not contradictory?

I'm not saying hes wrong about the whole calvary and infantry thing, but he went on to say it wouldn't fit tenno because of clipping issues and the such when previously he stated straight piercing swords are made for infantry.

Maybe I'm missing some point here about why this clipping thing is so important and how it applies, so maybe you could shed some light on that? Because I don't understand why something like that would prevent infantry tenno from gaining a new set of infantry straight blades.

Like, what in the WORLD is stopping us from getting ninjatos in the game here???? besides DE not putting it in, but with enough community voicing they WILL consider it and most likely put it in. They gotta be running out of weapon ideas soon, the last set of weapons we got were a weaker sigma & octantis, a corpus variation of the Tigris, a corpus BB gun, and a corpus whip that's made of wires.

There are still SO many real life or pop culture weapons they can take inspiration from, even if some of them were never real weapons jusf like the ninjato. We still don't have revenants odachi yet but that's an example of a weapon not in the game yet, but is a real life weapon they pulled inspiration from. Some other weapons we don't properly have ingame are European type longswords (not greatswords), shield only melee, lance and shields, clubs (although we have hammers so clubs may be redundant), shield sword hybrid(basically a greatsword that has a shield at the base, I've seen these sometimes in animes), and even something similar to bayonettas pistols, where she has 4 of them with one on each limb. Hell, we don't even have generic spears yet, closest we have is polearms for that but those aren't technically spears.

Edited January 10, 2019 by birdobash

[(PSN)Zero_029]

3 hours ago, (XB1)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy said:

Unless they've changed things Leo practices niten ichi-ryu. A style typically practiced with a daisho, a katana and wakizashi pair. In his case he subs out the wakizashi for a second katana, presumably due to his enhanced turtle strength.

No ninjato there, all katana.

You're 100% correct in the knowledge of his sword style.

However I was being "honest" to the series. In the series Biographies Leonardo is said to wield Two Ninjato Swords. Where in reality those swords would not fit his training regiment.

[MickThejaguar]

48 minutes ago, birdobash said:

The contradiction is when he states that straight swords are infantry type swords, and then immediately follows up with ninjatos would not be appropriate for warframes due to the type of warriors they are and clipping issues.

In what way is saying straight swords are better suited for infantry, and striking swords are better suited for calvary, and then immediately concluding with straight swords are not suitable for tenno/warframes which ARE infantry type units not contradictory?

I'm not saying hes wrong about the whole calvary and infantry thing, but he went on to say it wouldn't fit tenno because of clipping issues and the such when previously he stated straight piercing swords are made for infantry.

Maybe I'm missing some point here about why this clipping thing is so important and how it applies, so maybe you could shed some light on that? Because I don't understand why something like that would prevent infantry tenno from gaining a new set of infantry straight blades.

Like, what in the WORLD is stopping us from getting ninjatos in the game here???? besides DE not putting it in, but with enough community voicing they WILL consider it and most likely put it in. They gotta be running out of weapon ideas soon, the last set of weapons we got were a weaker sigma & octantis, a corpus variation of the Tigris, a corpus BB gun, and a corpus whip that's made of wires.

There are still SO many real life or pop culture weapons they can take inspiration from, even if some of them were never real weapons jusf like the ninjato. We still don't have revenants odachi yet but that's an example of a weapon not in the game yet, but is a real life weapon they pulled inspiration from. Some other weapons we don't properly have ingame are European type longswords (not greatswords), shield only melee, lance and shields, clubs (although we have hammers so clubs may be redundant), shield sword hybrid(basically a greatsword that has a shield at the base, I've seen these sometimes in animes), and even something similar to bayonettas pistols, where she has 4 of them with one on each limb. Hell, we don't even have generic spears yet, closest we have is polearms for that but those aren't technically spears.

Upon further inspection, it's not that comment is necessarily contradictory so much as it very unclear what point he is trying to make, if any. Like it kind of seems like he just said a bunch of facts about swords and then started randomly rambling about clipping.

[FlusteredFerret]

17 hours ago, RuFi0 said:

For 5 years I have wished, hoped, begged, upvoted, bumped topics, prayed, everything; I've done everything I can to get DE to consider adding the most iconic weapon associated with the Ninja in pop culture. It's NOT the Katana (although I literally screeched with joy when they finally added it with The Sword Alone update) which is more of a Samurai weapon - it's The Ninjato. I've even started researching how to learn Tennogen in order to see if I could make it myself. I'm not interested in 3D modelling at all, but if that's what I have to do in order to get the ball rolling on this, I will make the sacrifice in order to finally get it.

How can these viking swords get added to the game:

Before something like this:

 

How can this get added to the game:

But not this:

What can I do, DE? Where can I go? Who do I need to talk to? Please let me buy them. Please. I've wanted these things since day 1. Could someone at least respond and say that the idea is floating around for Melee 3.0? We got the Nikana for The Sword Alone, please give us the Ninjato for 3.0. Ninjato and the Chinese Wushu pictured above - I'd skip rent to buy these. I'm serious. Please. Please?

Think you'll have to wait until DE decide to make a Deadpool-themed frame. 

To be honest, I don't get what the big deal is.

Samurai & ninja have been pop culture themes for so long now. I mean, they were novel and unusual in the 70s and 80s, but they've been done in so many movies, games, books etc. that I think the whole genre is a bit boring now.

Edited January 10, 2019 by FlusteredFerret

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

10 hours ago, birdobash said:

The person you quoted point they were making kind of goes out the window because first of all, warframes are not calvary type units anyways, they are more akin to special ops squads or very strong infantry units, whereas calvary typically means on horseback or some sort of fast moving vehicle or medium.

TLDR: he uber contradicted himself.

No, no he didn't. He explained how what you think looks "cool" and what "actually works" are vastly different things. 

"Infantry units" doesn't mean "anyone who was on foot". It means that they were trained to fight in particular ways and used tactically in particular ways. 

Very importantly, please understand what people are explaining about the sword being mainly fictional. The design that you see, is pretty much made up, and there don't seem to be any real world examples of actual swords used by actual ninjas. FFS the instant you find yourself resorting to comic books not known for historical or military accuracy (mutant turtles are unlikely to be very good ninjas, as are terminal cancer patients), you should take a minute to wonder what else they may have screwed up. 

 

TLDR: Nope. 

59 minutes ago, RuFi0 said:

Hey ya'll it's me, ish'ya boi Rufi0 bumpin' mah thread

You really shouldn't do that. 

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

11 hours ago, RuFi0 said:

Please stop relying on the pictures. I just randomly searched them off of google. I am not a sword enthusiast. I just like to play video games, and many of the video games i have played have this sword.

The historical accuracy doesn't matter

Yeah OK so my brain just translated that to "I have no idea what this thing is, or would look like, but I want it, and I have played other games where I was given a random thing and told 'this is a ninjato it is cool' and that made me happy because I have no idea what I actually on about". 

 

Honestly that's not a very good way to do things, Tenno. 

[Amhiel]

hace 15 horas, (XB1)HAPPYHapyJ0YJoy dijo:

hace 17 horas, RuFi0 dijo:

 

The jian has about as much to do with ninja as the gladius does so... *shrug*

I'd love the Jian sword added to the game, with a proper stance, a cool Tai-chi one preferably. 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

The Ninjato is a weapon that was made by Hollywood.

[FlusteredFerret]

46 minutes ago, (PS4)guzmantt1977 said:

No, no he didn't. He explained how what you think looks "cool" and what "actually works" are vastly different things. 

"Infantry units" doesn't mean "anyone who was on foot". It means that they were trained to fight in particular ways and used tactically in particular ways. 

Very importantly, please understand what people are explaining about the sword being mainly fictional. The design that you see, is pretty much made up, and there don't seem to be any real world examples of actual swords used by actual ninjas. FFS the instant you find yourself resorting to comic books not known for historical or military accuracy (mutant turtles are unlikely to be very good ninjas, as are terminal cancer patients), you should take a minute to wonder what else they may have screwed up. 

 

TLDR: Nope. 

You really shouldn't do that. 

Interesting you should mention that.

I watched a documentary a while back on ninjas and I was (somewhat) surprised to learn that IRL they tended to be very lightly armed and actually avoided combat wherever possible.

I mean, it makes sense, as their missions tended to be reconnaissance, sabotage and the like...stealthy, guerilla type stuff...so carrying around a lot of gear wouldn't be practical.

In most cases they used smoke bombs, poisons and various kinds of booby traps to confuse & deter would-be attackers and only used swords / daggers as a last resort.

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by FlusteredFerret

[RuFi0]

29 minutes ago, Amhiel said:

I'd love the Jian sword added to the game, with a proper stance, a cool Tai-chi one preferably. 

I think Nezha would look great with these!

[tyranno66]

Dude, at first I didn't care if something like this gets added to the game but with your behavior I hope it doesn't.

You're way too defensive over some dumb hunk of metal.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

2 hours ago, FlusteredFerret said:

Interesting you should mention that.

I watched a documentary a while back on ninjas and I was (somewhat) surprised to learn that IRL they tended to be very lightly armed and actually avoided combat wherever possible.

I mean, it makes sense, as their missions tended to be reconnaissance, sabotage and the like...stealthy, guerilla type stuff...so carrying around a lot of gear wouldn't be practical.

In most cases they used smoke bombs and various kinds of booby traps to confuse & deter would-be attackers and only used swords / daggers as a last resort.

 

If they even existed. There's a lot of stuff attached to the ninjas, and a lot of speculation, but not a lot of it is borne out by actual facts. 

Now folks who are educated by Hollywood and anime and little else, won't know the difference, but someone who studies military history with specialist focus on Japan might. Like maybe, Stephen Turnbull. 

“The Ninja: An Invented Tradition?”

 

 

[Loza03]

How about another reason: In terms of practical differences for a game and laymans identification, Katana and Ninjato are functionally identical. Any kind of slight differences in use in real life are generally ignored for the screen, for the sake of the rule of cool. We even see in many of the examples given of Ninjato that they are indeed swapped out for Katana whenever the filmmakers or animators decided they wanted it to. Sometimes Ninjato are even called Katana.

If it were to be implemented, it wouldn't be its own class - it'd be considered a Nikana anyway. Given that we already have two 'Normal' Nikanas in the from of the Nikana and Dragon Nikana, as well as the Nikana Prime for the 'best' Nikana and the Skiajati as a 'special' Nikana I imagine that the reason DE haven't implemented this weapon is because there's no niche for it.

If you want a Ninjato, suggest a weapon, give it its own niche (a gimmick for example) and have it also be a Ninjato. Don't just demand one when there's honestly no reason for the weapon to exist.

 

1 minute ago, FlusteredFerret said:

Interesting you should mention that.

I watched a documentary a while back on ninjas and I was (somewhat) surprised to learn that IRL they tended to be very lightly armed and actually avoided combat wherever possible.

I mean, it makes sense, as their missions tended to be reconnaissance, sabotage and the like...stealthy, guerilla type stuff...so carrying around a lot of gear wouldn't be practical.

In most cases they used smoke bombs and various kinds of booby traps to confuse & deter would-be attackers and only used swords / daggers as a last resort.

 

Adding to this, they rarely ever even carried swords at all - because Japanese swords were expensive as hell. Japanese iron is famously poor, as it's typically acquired from sand. The reason Katana are of good quality steel despite this is because of how intensive the purification process was - a process that was extremely time-consuming and difficult. Ninja, usually being outside of society or living in poor farming villages (growing their own food), generally made their self-defence and escape weaponry out of far cheaper and easier to come across materials. Simply made sickles used for farming, chains, weights. In fact, the Kusari-Kama I mentioned is pretty much this to a T - it's a sickle with a weighted chain attached. Yet a Ninja could defeat a much better armed opponent, or more commonly incapacitate them long enough to escape, by virtue of reach and the disarming properties of the weapon. A Samurai who has to go pick up his sword is a Samurai not looking at where the Ninja's running and climbing away to. It's also more portable and easier to disguise since if you can detach the chain, you just have a regular farming tool.

Given that the lore of Tenno is that they take low-tech weapons and turn them on the Sentients, such a weapon is a perfect fit for Tenno, so its bizarre that not only do we not actually have one produced by the Tenno, but that the Grineer one we do have uses fancy tech. 

[Loza03]

32 minutes ago, (PS4)guzmantt1977 said:

If they even existed. There's a lot of stuff attached to the ninjas, and a lot of speculation, but not a lot of it is borne out by actual facts. 

Now folks who are educated by Hollywood and anime and little else, won't know the difference, but someone who studies military history with specialist focus on Japan might. Like maybe, Stephen Turnbull. 

Er...

There's physical evidence of the Ninja, their tools and artifacts. There's a museum full of it in the Iga province. There's surviving Ninja texts containing techniques. Documented examples of people who either hired or were ninja (Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hattori Hanzo respectively) as well as surviving examples of these - for example, Tokugawa Ieyasu had the Iga clan reformed into the Hyakuningumi, and you can visit the existing structures where they were based today. Similarly, there are battles where they were known to have taken part - for example the battle of Mikatagahara. The history of the arts can be traced all the way back to Buddhism brought over from China. And, most importantly of all, actual living people who practice and in some cases teach Ninjutsu. Folk memories and cultural myths can't manifest actual proof of their existence.

I checked through that text and none of the references to 'proof' or 'evidence' in his article refer to any these. He even points out that "The Sword Hunt was so thorough that it would be incredible to think that the men of Iga, a province already devastated by war, could have retained any weaponry, let alone had the means to use them other than in the service of their newly imposed rulers" when Ninja rarely anything that would have been counted under the ban and subsequent mass-confiscation. Most of their weapons were repurposed farming tools or even treated natural materials. I'm quite disappointed with your so-called expert.

Yes, what the layman considers a Ninja and any of the cultural legends attached to them are almost certainly a fantasy. But Ninja, as in people who practiced Ninjutsu, were most assuredly real.

Edited January 10, 2019 by Loza03