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【中文标题】你所不了解的忍者：影武者的8个秘密
【原文标题】You Don’t Know the Ninja: 8 New Revelations About the Shadow Warrior
【登载媒体】时代周刊
【原文作者】Ishaan Tharoor
【原文链接】http://world.time.com/2013/02/05/you-dont-know-ninjas-8-new-revelations-about-the-shadow-warrior/#slide/ninja-history-101/?&_suid=1360115670606044907105384516915
在流行文化中，忍者无处不在，但他们究竟是什么人？这就是英国旅行作家、历史学家John Man在他的新书中尝试探索的问题。
1853年日本艺术家歌川丰国的一幅画，一个忍者在偷袭一位演奏者。
流行文化中，忍者无处不在——电影中他们摧毁犯罪团伙；iPhone里他们切烂水果。我们有时候把他们与海盗相提并论，有时候又把他们当作纽约下水道里与变异乌龟生活在一起的、穿着和服的老鼠。
但是忍者到底是什么人？这就是英国旅行作家、历史学家John Man在他的新书《忍者：千年影武者》中尝试探索的问题。他接受了《时代周刊》的采访，谈到传奇背后的武士。
1，最顶级的忍者不穿黑衣。
《时代周刊》：有那么一个忍者的黄金年代吗？
John Man：忍者最兴盛的时期是在十六世纪，他们在不断进化。中世纪早期，日本陷入军阀割据的局面，忍者的居住地变得越来越与世隔绝了。军阀混战期间，伊贺和甲贺创建了自身的公社防御体制，直到16世纪末，忍者时代达到了最高峰。那时，所有人都敬仰忍者的技能，于是他们在日本各地寻找雇主，做雇佣兵。后来，日本大军阀织田信长统一全国，一个统一的国家肯定不能接受忍者的存在。于是连续两次进攻伊贺和甲贺，最终两个地区被日本占领，存在了几个世纪的忍者也逐渐消亡。
有关他们的传说是怎么形成的？为什么他们变成了我们今天所了解的那种身穿黑衣的影武者？
是的，伟大的传说。实际上，忍者博物馆——你可以到伊贺和甲贺去参观——认为，黑色或许不是在夜间最好的服饰，藏蓝色更好。
1600年以后，他们不再被社会所需要，于是其中一部分人——大约200到300人——被幕府将军招募为秘密警察。这些工作没有占据他们太多的时间，所以一些人为了让忍者的技艺传承下去，必须要把它们记录下来。自然，间谍活动没有太多值得记录的。因此，他们是在成为社会多余的群体之后，才开始在三、四本手册中记录他们的故事。这也是我们对忍者认识的最初来源。
2，伊贺与甲贺，忍者诞生之地
日本艺术家哥川广重的这幅作品描绘了伊贺街户山的景色，这个地区与忍者有关。
忍者到底是什么？
有人认为忍者是一种武术的名称，但这并不是它的原意。他们是中世纪日本的特工，通常在晚上进行间谍、刺杀等活动。
“ninja”这个词是什么意思？
Ninja最早来源于中文，是日语对“忍者”的类似发音。因为日语有其独立性，所以它也有一个专门的日语单词“shinobi”。这两个词可以互通。一般来讲，中文的层次比日文稍高，所以“ninja”的级别也就比较高，逐渐被世界所接受。“shinobi”依然是日本人在国内使用的称呼。
他们发源于日本某个特定的地区，对吗？
是的。我发现了一个特殊的地区与忍者有密切的关系。在传统上，这个地区叫做伊贺甲贺，离京都有几个小时的车程。那是一个美丽、偏远的地区，崇山峻岭、森林密布、村庄、河流、溪谷和稻田——经济并不发达，但是很美丽。
那么这里是如何孕育出忍者文化的？
这里是日本的中心，当日本内部军阀割据之时，它保持了继续发展的姿态。这个地区没有受到军阀混战的影响，并且决定继续保持这种状态。于是临近村庄联合起来成立了自卫公社，在这种情况下，忍者技能逐渐发展起来。
3，是的，有些忍者也是武士。
顺泰胜川在1820年的一幅武士绘画。
在书中，你强调了忍者与武士的区别。
忍者通常被认为是武士的反面。武士行动公开，个性丰富，这是他们赖以存在的基础。武士勇于面对死亡，有时甚至鲁莽地寻求死亡。忍者与此相反，为了刺探到信息，他们必须保持隐秘，不能轻易献出生命。隐匿是被武士鄙视的一件事，但实际上，忍者在军事行动中是至关重要的。经常有白天的武士在夜里以忍者的形象出现。
有没有忍者兼职武士呢？
理论上当然可以。两者还是有显著区别的，武士的级别通常很高，而忍者并不需要，但两者之间还是有一些重叠。
4，忍者的训练方式是坐在瀑布下面
葛饰北斋的这幅作品描绘了训练中的忍者。
忍者与流行文化中那些隐秘的、对宗教盲目崇拜的形象，比如服用麻醉剂的十字军刺客，有类似之处吗？
我不这么认为。刺客带有一种深植于宗教中的、强烈的伊斯兰圣战感，而忍者与宗教无关。双方共同之处在于，忍者追求的是所谓的“正义”。在保护他们的村庄、他们的主人和他们自己之前，忍者必须先具备正确的态度。他们要接受日本国内信仰制度的训练——神道教，这是一种禁欲主义信仰，要求你在深山溪谷旁训练，以磨炼身体和意志，直到你完全可以胜任忍者的行动。
训练的内容包括剑术和飞镖吗？
从来没有任何正式的武术训练。一般都是从小时候开始，在家庭学习自卫的技巧。我了解到的唯一正式训练方式参与神道教禁欲主义者的活动，而他们都不是忍者。并非所有忍者都接受神道教训练。
那么这其实是精神层面的训练，而不是格斗训练？
其实两者都有，既有精神层面，也有身体训练。虽然没有直接传授格斗技能，但是如果你能在瀑布下幸存，能在环境极端复杂的密林中步行几英里，自然就可以成为一个合格的间谍。
5，有关忍者家族
2007年，香港展出的日本伊贺流忍者。
有没有忍者家族的血统或者传宗接代一说？
是的，你的出生决定了一切，你或许是大地主，也可能是农民。忠诚让你和地域、家族密不可分。这是封建制决定的。
成为一名忍者是有技术性的条件还是既定的一种身份？
纵观历史，这方面的信息比较模糊。中国伟大的军事理论家孙子在谈到取胜之道时，提到了艺术和诡计。忍者通过这种思想慢慢渗透到日本文化中。在一些古老的寓言中，可以找到一些有关秘密行动、暗杀的描述。
6，……以及忍者部队
影片《雷霆谷》中的一队忍者。
忍者似乎诞生于一种类似民主的环境中，其中有没有一些邪恶的忍者？
我不会称其为邪恶。你可以想象一下，一个自卫性质的群体在遭到进攻时需要撤退到一些地点——他们常常有几十个，甚至上百个集结地。那些地方都是粗糙的土丘，就像英国西南部的凯尔特城堡。这些历史大部分不为人知，还需要深入的考古研究。这些都是伊贺和甲贺别具特色的景观，从来没有像今天日本那些吸引游客的、精心翻修的城堡。这些建筑大都荒废了，掩埋在密林中。所以，还有很多有关忍者的知识等待我们发掘。
这些堡垒的守卫者是忍者部队吗？
没人知道。相关的书籍并没有谈到群体活动，全部是个人行为。当然，他们之间一定也有协作，但并没有相关记录。
7，詹姆斯•邦德扭曲了忍者的历史
影片《雷霆谷》中，丹波哲郎饰演日本特工头目猛虎田中。
忍者的故事是怎样传遍全世界的？
忍者在19世纪花了很长时间让日本接受了这个形象，在二战之后传播到全世界。在这里，我要批评一下007。邦德影片《雷霆谷》把忍者的形象灌输给对武术不感兴趣的观众，问题时，虽然忍者的名声虽然传开了，但影片中的忍者根本不具有代表性，更像是突击队员。尽管如此，忍者这个词还是在西方传开了。当然，后来派生出专攻武术的忍者形象，虽然与传统不同，但也持续存在下来。
19世纪，出现了有关黑色服装的人秘密潜入城堡的出版物。
是的，的确有一些相关的出版物。在忍者时代之后，有关他们的神秘传说逐渐传播开来，但都与事实距离甚远。在开始创作这本书时，我在考虑其中要不要涉及公众们脑海中有关忍者那些不靠谱的故事。但后来我发现有一些切实的历史依据可供查询，这些内容是这本书的基础。尽管忍术被认为是一种武术，但我们实在无法辨别其真伪。
能说说有哪些不靠谱的故事吗？
你可以看看有关忍者的网站和书籍，往往会发现有关隐身术的内容，这其实是在1945年为了弘扬忍者文化而发明出来的东西。忍者理论界内部也在争论，就是哪些是真正忍者文化的内涵。还有一些忍者大师，声称他们有从中世纪继承下来的卷轴，其中的内容都是真实的，但从未有人出示过这些东西。
8，最后一个忍者令人难以置信的故事
前日军情报官员小野田宽郎在菲律宾的丛林中隐匿了30年。
你认为我们对忍者最大的误解是什么？
我本来以为他们只是刺客和杀手，但我惊奇地发现他们还有精神层面的修炼，其中很重要的一个部分是修验道。即使在今天，忍术专家也会告诉你，端正态度是训练的首要因素。
忍者有什么特殊的武器吗？
忍者博物馆中展出的很多武器，绝大部分都是农耕工具，而且都不是真的，都是忍者时代终结之后杜撰出来的东西。
有人提到过魔术师忍者吗？
有一些乡间传说。如果你在一张纸上写下某样东西、某些话，放在房间中恰当的位置，就会发生神奇的事情。但这些都是忍者时代终结之后的艺术化作品。
你曾经在一本书中写到过以为日本二战士兵小野田宽郎，他在菲律宾丛林中隐匿了30年。为什么在你看来他是最后一个忍者？
有关他的故事让我着迷，我因此而了解到日本的一项传统，这与日本在二战期间的仇外军事主义形象截然相反。曾经有一家间谍学校，传授自由主义、慷慨和世界共和。其核心理念是，日本人会把自由传播到整个亚洲——当然，在珍珠港时间之后，一切都背道而驰了。但是，陆军中野学校和小野田宽郎都保留了这项传统，后者依然健在。或许别人不同意，但我认为他才是最后一个忍者。
原文：
Ninja are everywhere in popular culture. But who were they, really? That’s what John Man, a British travel writer and historian, set out to explore in his new book
An 1853 print by Japanese artist Toyokuni Utagawa shows a ninja sneaking up behind a musician.
Ninja are everywhere in popular culture — they slice up mobsters in movies and fruit on your iPhone. We seem to think it makes sense to compare them to pirates and then think of them fondly as adolescent mutant turtles living in a New York City sewer with a kimono-clad rat.
But who were the ninja, really? That’s what John Man, a British travel writer and historian, set out to explore in his new book, Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior. He spoke to TIME about the fighters behind the legend.
1. The Smartest Ninja Didn’t Wear Black
TIME: Was there a golden period of the ninja?
John Man: The height of the ninja was in the 16th century. They’d been evolving. As Japan descended into warlord-ism in the early Middle Ages, the areas where the ninja lived became more and more isolated. As the warlords scrapped over the rest of Japan, Iga and Koka developed their own commune system and self-defense and worked toward sort of a peak of ninja-ism toward the end of the 16th century, at which point their skills had been admired by everyone else, so they were finding employment in the rest of Japan as mercenaries. What happened, as Japan was unified under the great warlord Oda Nobunaga, they could not obviously be tolerated in a unified Japan. And so there were two great invasions of Iga and Koka which finally ended in the late 16th century with the complete takeover of the place and the end of the ninja as they had been for several centuries.
When did their mythological status grow? When did they become the shadowy men in black we now know of?
Yes, the great myth. In fact, they recommend in the ninja museums, which you can go to in Iga and Koka today, that black was not perhaps the best costume to use in nighttime — dark navy blue was better.
After 1600 when they became almost redundant, a few of them — some 200 or 300 — were taken on by the shogun as secret police. That’s not enough to give them much of an occupation, so some of them realized that in order for their skills not to be lost, they had better be recorded. Naturally enough, spies being spies, not much was recorded at all. So it was only after they became virtually redundant that they recorded their ways in three or four manuals. That’s really how we come to know anything much about how they actually worked.
2. Iga and Koka, Where Ninja Were Born
This work by Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige depicts Mount Kaito in Iga province, an area associated with the ninja.
What is a ninja?
It’s now somebody who adopts a particular sort of martial art. But that’s not how they were originally. They were secret agents who undertook work, usually at night, and acted as spies and assassins of the medieval world of Japan.
What does the word ninja mean?
Ninja comes originally from the Chinese and is a vague Japanese pronunciation for “one who endures.” And because Japanese is what it is, there is also a Japanese word which means the same thing: shinobi. They are interchangeable. Because Chinese always was a slightly more higher-status way of talking, ninja tends to be higher status, and became acceptable to foreigners. Shinobi remains the Japanese way of talking about them.
And they originated from a particular part of Japan, right?
They did. I was surprised to discover there was a particular area that is associated with them. Traditionally, it is known as Iga and Koka — within a couple of hours’ drive from Kyoto. It’s quite a charming and fairly remote area of rolling hills and forests and valleys and streams and rice paddies — not at all well developed, but very charming.
So what made this such fertile ground for ninja-ism?
It’s very central in Japan and arose at a time when all of Japan was riven by feuds and governed by warlords. This particular area had been pretty free of warlords and was determined to remain so. And what happened was that the villages there formed themselves like self-defense communes, and it was in that context that the ninja skills developed.
3. Yes, Some Ninja Were Samurai
This 1820 print by Shuntai Katsukawa depicts a samurai.
In your book, you emphasize the contrast between ninja and samurai.
Ninja are usually regarded as the anti-samurai. The samurai were extremely overt and colorful personalities. Their whole being depended on public display — death-defying and often death-seeking bravado. The ninja were the opposite: in order to be a spy, you have to survive and be secretive. Secretiveness was something the samurai pretended to despise, but in fact the ninja were vital to military activity. And quite often the samurai during the day doubled as ninja during the night.
So could ninja be samurai at the same time?
You could, theoretically. There would have been some sort of distinction, because samurai were often extremely high class, but ninja not necessarily so. But there was an overlap in the middle.
4. Ninja Trained by Sitting Under Waterfalls
This print by Katsushika Hokusai depicts a ninja in training.
Were ninja similar to other secretive, cult-like orders of the day, perhaps like the hashishin, or assassins of the Crusades?
I don’t think so, because the assassins had a strong, powerful jihadist sense, very deeply rooted in the religion, whereas the ninja were not religiously driven. The overlap came in that the ninja wanted what was called “right-mindedness.” They had to have the correct attitude in order to undertake what they did in defense of their villages, their masters and themselves. What they did was train in a local belief system, which was Shinto and called shugendo, which is really mountain asceticism, which demanded that you undertake training in the mountains and along the streams to hone your body and mind until you are absolutely fit enough to carry out ninja activities.
Did this involve sword craft and flying daggers?
There was never any sort of formal martial training. It would have been from childhood, within the family, learning self-defense. The only formal training I’ve heard of was with the shugendo ascetics who were not ninja. And not all ninja underwent shugendo training.
So is this more of a spiritual process than a martial one?
It was both. Certainly it was spiritual. It was martial in so far as it trained you. There were no martial arts involved, but clearly if you can survive sitting under waterfalls or walking many miles in forests in extreme adversity, it helps you in your training to be a fighting spy.
5. There Were Ninja Families …
Japanese Iga-ryu ninja pose in Hong Kong in 2007.
Were there ninja bloodlines and generations of ninja families?
Yes, you were born into it, and you were probably a landowner or working those fields, fixed to a particular estate. Loyalty would have tied you to an area and your family. It was very feudal.
Is being a ninja more a tactic than a defining identity?
You go back in history and the whole thing becomes extremely vague. Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military theoretician, talks about the art and necessity of deception if you want to win in war. And it’s from that belief that the ninja crept into Japanese life. There’s evidence in old fables of underhand, secretive assassin types.
6. … and Quite Possibly Ninja Armies
A group of ninja in the movie You Only Live Twice.
Ninja seem to have sprung up in proto-democratic communities. Is there something fundamentally subversive about ninja?
I wouldn’t say subversive. If you can imagine self-defense communities that needed places to retreat to in case of attack — there are still several dozen, perhaps hundreds of places where they used to gather. These are earth mounds, similar to the Celtic forts in southwestern England. These are not well researched, and the archaeology still has to be done. They are pretty unique to Iga and Koka. They never had the sort of castles that are typical to much of Japan nowadays, which are tourist attractions and much restored. These places have not been restored and are often covered with trees. So there’s a lot of work to be done about the ninja and how they operated.
Were these forts defended by armies of ninja?
Nobody knows. The manuals that were written do not talk about cooperative activities at all. They were always treated as individuals. They must have operated as groups, but there’s no records of them doing so.
7. James Bond Forever Warped Ninja History
Tetsuro Tamba as Tiger Tanaka, chief of the Japanese secret service, in You Only Live Twice.
How did the ninja legend spread around the world?
It took on a life of its own very much in the 19th century in Japan and then spread to the West, but really after the Second World War. I blame James Bond, really. The Bond movie You Only Live Twice really popularized the idea of ninja among people who are not interested in martial arts. It’s quite strange, really: the idea of the ninja spread, but in the film they’re not represented as ninja at all, more as commandos. Nevertheless, that’s what made the term popular in the West. Of course, there is a whole martial-arts community that’s separate from that tradition and has a life of its own.
By the 19th century there were prints of dark-robed men stealing over castle walls.
Yes, there were some prints that were in operation. The myths that had been assiduously cultivated really spread only after [the ninja heyday], as it became ever more removed from reality. When I started this book, I thought I was going to be involved in all sorts of nonsense which is currently believed about ninja. But I was absolutely delighted to realize there was a historical core to them. And that’s really what the book is about. And even though ninjitsu is considered a martial art, there is very little to do that in the way of authenticity.
Could you talk more about the nonsense?
You look up ninja websites and ninja books and there are titles about the art of invisibility or how to disappear, which has been invented largely since 1945 in order to create and sustain a ninja community, many of whom dispute among themselves what is meant by true ninja-ism and what is authentic. There are masters still in existence who claim to have scrolls that go back to the Middle Ages granting them all sorts of authenticity down the generations, but nobody has seen these scrolls or proved anything about them.
8. The Incredible True Story of the Last Ninja
Hiroo Onoda, a former intelligence officer in Japan's imperial army, hid in the Philippine jungle for 30 years.
What do you think our most major misconception about the ninja is?
I had thought they would be assassins or would-be killers, but I was surprised that they had a spiritual dimension and that shugendo was an important part of the training. Even now, the experts in ninjitsu tell you that right-mindedness was a prime element of their training.
Did ninja have special weapons?
In the many weapons that are displayed in the ninja museums, first there was an awful lot of adapted farm equipment, and secondly none of it’s authentic. It was all made long after the ninja became redundant.
What about the tales of ninja as magicians?
There was a folk tradition of magical belief that if you write certain things, certain statements on bits of paper and put them in the right place in a room, then magical things would happen. But these are in the manuals which come after the event.
You write about a Japanese WW II-era spy, Hiroo Onoda, who hid in the Philippines for 30 years. Why is he, in your view, the last of the ninja?
It was wondering about him and how he survived there which told me there was a tradition in Japan, which is exactly the opposite of the sort of xenophobic militarism that we associate with Japan in the Second World War. There was a spy school that taught an extraordinary degree of liberalism and generosity and non-xenophobia. The idea being that the Japanese would bring freedom to the peoples of Asia — of course, it turned out to be exactly the opposite after Pearl Harbor. But this different tradition was preserved by the Nakano Spy School and by Hiroo Onoda himself, who is still alive. Other people would dispute this, but I’d say he’s the last of the ninja.
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狗仔卡
发表于 2013-2-16 10:02
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