Ninja training – in use of weapons, stealth, meditation – in Japan and online gives insight into mysterious warriors’ lives
- At Japan’s Odawara Castle Park, a practitioner of the ninja arts shares his skills and knowledge, including sword fighting and weapon throwing
- Since the pandemic began, he and an Odawara mindfulness teacher have offered online classes, though there is hope that travel rules for tourists will soon be relaxed
With the faintest of hisses, the black-clad warrior’s gracefully curved sword slices through the air before coming to a sudden and unwavering stop. In a single, smooth action, he brings the weapon back up until it is horizontal and level with his eyes, pivots on the balls of his feet and delivers another singing blow to an imaginary enemy.
Hiroshi Jinkawa is one of the leading scholars and practitioners of the ninja arts in Japan, teaching the skills, knowledge and legends that surround these mysterious masters of feudal-era espionage and warfare.
When the coronavirus pandemic largely put travel to Japan on hold in early 2020, Jinkawa turned to online classes to teach people around the world about the Fuma ninja clan of Odawara, a historic castle town one hour to the southwest of Tokyo by train.
Now, with the Japanese government lifting some restrictions on business travellers on November 8, there is growing anticipation that the rules covering tourists will also soon be relaxed.
That cannot come soon enough for Jinkawa and the operators of Odawara Castle Park, which opened its Ninja Museum in the grounds of the 15th-century fortress in April 2019 to explain the history of the legendary warriors, but has had to rely on domestic visitors since the pandemic broke out.