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A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included: espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare. Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed "dishonorable" and "beneath" the samurai-caste, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. The ''shinobi'' proper, a specially trained group of spies and mercenaries, appeared in the Sengoku or "warring states" period, in the 15th century, but antecedents may have existed in the 14th century, and possibly in the 12th century (Heian or early Kamakura era).〔Frederic, p. 715〕〔Moriyama, p. 103〕 In the unrest of the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), mercenaries and spies for hire became active in the Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kōga, and it is from the area's clans that much of our knowledge of the ninja is drawn. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (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'' (1676).〔; based on different readings, ''Ninpiden'' is also known as ''Shinobi Hiden'', and ''Bansenshukai'' can also be ''Mansenshukai''.〕 By the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), the tradition of the ''shinobi'' had become a topic of popular imagination and mystery in Japan. Ninja figured prominently in folklore and legend and it is often difficult to separate fact from myth. Some legendary abilities purported to be in the province of ninja training include invisibility, walking on water and control over the natural elements. As a consequence, their perception in western popular culture in the 20th century is often based more on such legend and folklore than on the spies of the Sengoku period. ==Etymology== ''Ninja'' is an ''on'yomi'' (Early Middle Chinese-influenced) reading of the two kanji "忍者". In the native ''kun'yomi'' kanji reading, it is pronounced ''shinobi'', a shortened form of the transcription ''shinobi-no-mono'' (忍の者). These two systems of pronouncing kanji create words with similar meanings.〔(Origin of word Ninja ).〕 The word ''shinobi'' appears in the written record as far back as the late 8th century in poems in the ''Man'yōshū''.〔; the full poem is "''Yorozu yo ni / Kokoro ha tokete / Waga seko ga / Tsumishi te mitsutsu / Shinobi kanetsumo''".〕〔; the ''Man'yōgana'' used for "''shinobi''" is 志乃備, its meaning and characters are unrelated to the later mercenary ''shinobi''.〕 The underlying connotation of ''shinobi'' (忍) means "to steal away" and — by extension — "to forbear", hence its association with stealth and invisibility. ''Mono'' (者) means "a person". It also relates to the term ''shinobu'', which means ''to hide''. Historically, the word ''ninja'' was not in common use, and a variety of regional colloquialisms evolved to describe what would later be dubbed ninja. Along with ''shinobi'', some examples include ''monomi'' ("one who sees"), ''nokizaru'' ("macaque on the roof"), ''rappa'' ("ruffian"), ''kusa'' ("grass") and ''Iga-mono'' ("one from Iga").〔 In historical documents, ''shinobi'' is almost always used. ''Kunoichi'', meaning a female ninja, supposedly came from the characters くノ一 (pronounced ''ku'', ''no'' and ''ichi''), which make up the three strokes that form the kanji for "woman" (女). In the West, the word ''ninja'' became more prevalent than ''shinobi'' in the post-World War II culture, possibly because it was more comfortable for Western speakers. In English, the plural of ''ninja'' can be either unchanged as ''ninja'', reflecting the Japanese language's lack of grammatical number, or the regular English plural ''ninjas''.〔Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed.; American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed.; Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ninja」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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