Free Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth That Shatters the Bushido Mystique by Antony Cummins

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    Education in the Warring States Period focused on practical military ability. In the times of peace it centered on bureaucratic and artistic subjects. The level of attention to each of the above shifted, depending on each situation, but in the main the samurai were the educated warriors of their day. The samurai were not brute raiders and fighters alone, but comprised of educated upper middle class gentry who could involve themselves in deeds of warfare and bloodshed. Overall, the best among them were well educated and very dangerous; the thinking officer.
    The Samurai and Shinobi Schools
    For approximately half of the history of the samurai—that being the latter half—samurai formed themselves into “schools” and “traditions.” Starting around the fourteenth century but gaining popularity in the fifteenth century, they started to form organizations that collected under a single title.

    They added the suffix “Ryu” to their names. Examples of these are Tenshin Katori Shinto-Ryu, and Shinkage-Ryu. The term “Ryu” can be translated in two ways that are not separate; first it is translated as “school” and second as “flow of tradition.” Therefore, Sekiguchi-Ryu means the “flow of traditions from in the Sekiguchi family.” However, this of course still holds the connotations of the codified school.
    The school can either start with a family name or can adopt a name that the founder finds appropriate to his style. The following show both examples:
    Natori-Ryu —Named after the Natori family, they also adopted the name Shin-Kusunoki-Ryu as a secondary title due to their integration with Kusunoki tactics. Natori-Ryu is a school of Gungaku military study and concentrates on the higher tasks of warfare, such as tactics and warfare strategy. This school includes shinobi no jutsu —“the arts of the ninja.” Another example is Sekiguchi-Ryu, which is also based on a family name.
    Mubyoshi-Ryu —Literally “no rhythm school” was most likely named to show the elite nature of the founder. Started by Hagiwara Juzo in the 1600s—he took many teachings from Shinjin-Ryu—the name Mubyoshi is correctly translated as “the school without any discernible rhythm,” i.e., an enemy cannot predict their tactics. The school is a comprehensive martial arts school which includes martial arts of various forms, ritual magic, weapons training, criminal capture, martial philosophy and shinobi no jutsu—the arts of the shinobi.
    Generally a school is founded by a single man who has a moment of divine inspiration, such as a god who came to them as they diligently trained in the mountains for a number of weeks or months. At this point a god or spirit gave them the secrets that their school was based on. In addition to this a school may also include a famous name from history, a great general, or famous fighter to help attract students. This was done to give a prestige to their image. Often examples such as Kusunoki and Takeda (including Koshu where the great general was from) are used to add that bit of extra appeal. Likewise for shinobi related schools—names such as Yoshitune were used for the same reason. People famed for their expertise in guerrilla warfare may have been added to a school’s background. These backgrounds may have been given because schools would be formed by a swordsman studying other arts, combining them to form a “new style.” Therefore they needed an anchor point in history. Founders may pick a god to establish the school, and maybe add a famous person from history that was well known; or at least highlighted during the founder’s lifetime. For example, the founder might use a person long dead, but whose name was known to give prestige to the school. But this was not always the case.
    Generally a school has a central building that it uses as a headquarters, where the master will teach. It may have branches in certain areas. Each building will normally have a “kan” name, the