Antony Cummins > Quotes

“When you infiltrate the enemy line and come to a naturally fortified place, use the appropriate tools to gain entrance successfully. To get into an impregnable castle with a high stone wall, a high fence, a barrier, or a castle not naturally fortified but well constructed, or even one fortified with water such as a river, it is essential for you to prepare yourself with useful tools before you embark on a shinobi mission. In addition, you need to use the appropriate weapons when you invade the enemy's residence. This chapter shows how you create these tools.”
― Antony Cummins, The Secret Traditions of the Shinobi: Hattori Hanzo's Shinobi Hiden and Other Ninja Scrolls

“The Skill of Au Awazu: If you go to another province and associate with the local people, it is quite likely that you will happen to see a spy of the province from time to time. You should not show that you have noticed what he is, but pretend to be unaware of it when associating with this local spy. You do this because if he realizes that you know who he is, he will feed you false information. However, if you two always associate with each other, and as it is your job to lie, it is often the case that either of you may unintentionally give away the truth. This is called au awazu [outwitting the enemy spy].”
― Antony Cummins, Secret Traditions of the Shinobi

“Once, in ancient China, there was a serious drought when the grain died and did not grow back. People starved, until an old man came from the foot of Mount Hakusan, the White Mountain, and said to the emperor that he had invented a wonder medicine, or food supplement, that had made seventy members of his family live at ease. If this medicine is used, your complexion or ability will not decline even a bit, and you will feel even better than normal. He then said to the emperor, 'If this medicine is false, the entire family of seventy people I saved can be put to death.”
― Antony Cummins, The Secret Traditions of the Shinobi: Hattori Hanzo's Shinobi Hiden and Other Ninja Scrolls

“The Secret Teachings on Covert Activity: Even after you infiltrate someone's house, if you cannot know clearly what is going on inside, you should take appropriate measures to understand the situation.”
― Antony Cummins, The Secret Traditions of the Shinobi: Hattori Hanzo's Shinobi Hiden and Other Ninja Scrolls

“A ninja or shinobi is a mixture of spy, guerrilla tactician, night time infiltration agent, explosives expert, thief and arsonist. The ninja have been named in various ways in many parts of Japan, however, historically they were known as ‘shinobi’ before they became ninja. Both of the names ‘shinobi’ (also shinobi no mono) and ninja come, in the main, from the same combination of Chinese ideograms , which can be read in the two ways described above. It is a misconception that the ninja are a separate force outside of the samurai, as they are in fact a subgroup of the samurai with some members being from the foot soldier or Ashigaru class; this will be discussed in depth later in this volume. A ninja could come from any class in Japan but many were low level samurai retainers.”
― Antony Cummins, In Search of the Ninja: The Historical Truth of Ninjutsu

“the lord has reinforcement forces”
― Antony Cummins, The Book of Ninja: The Bansenshukai - Japan's Premier Ninja Manual

“because ninjutsu is to avoid where the enemy is of substance and take advantage of their gaps and insubstantiality.7”
― Antony Cummins, The Book of Ninja: The Bansenshukai - Japan's Premier Ninja Manual

“It is dangerous if you give orders based on guesswork alone.”
― Antony Cummins, The Book of Ninja: The Bansenshukai - Japan's Premier Ninja Manual

“the morale of the entire clan is maintained or not;”
― Antony Cummins, The Book of Ninja: The Bansenshukai - Japan's Premier Ninja Manual

“shinobi”
― Antony Cummins, The Book of Ninja: The Bansenshukai - Japan's Premier Ninja Manual