Samurai and Ninja: The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior Myth that Shatters the Bushido Mystique

by Antony Cummins

The myths of the noble Samurai and the sinister Ninja are filled with romantic fantasy and fallacy.

Samurai and Ninja expert Antony Cummins shatters the myths and exposes the true nature of these very real—and very lethal—medieval Japanese warriors. The Samurai and Ninja were in fact brutal killing machines trained in torture and soaked in machismo. Many were skilled horsemen and sword-fighting specialists, while others were masters of deception and sabotage. Some fought for loyalty, others for personal gain. What these warriors all shared in common was their unflinching personal bravery, skill and brutality.

In Samurai and Ninja, Cummins separates myth from reality and shows why the Japanese were the greatest warriors of all time:
He describes the Samurai and the Ninja as they really were in earlier times when battles raged across Japan—not in later times when war became obsolete and Japanese warriors became philosophers, scholars and courtiers.
He describes the social context of the day and the feudal world into which the warriors were trained to fight and die for their lords.
He exposes the essentially brutal nature of warfare in medieval Japan.

This book is illuminated by many rare Japanese manuscripts and texts which are translated into English for the very first time.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, History, Martial Arts, Asia

222 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2015

Reviews

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author claims that he wants to "correct" many of the mistaken perceptions and outright myths about the samurai and shinobi ... and to a (very) limited extent he succeeds.

The author does occasionally do a good job of highlighting places where the history of samurai is misunderstood or exaggerated, but the tone is patronizing and condescending throughout, so much so that it detracts from the material. Moreover, while a lot of what he says is true (based on other, well-researched and well-sourced books I've read on the subject), his lack of citations and supporting material basically boils the book down to "No, don't listen to them. Listen to me. My version is true ... because I say it is!"

While the samurai section is okay, the shinobi section is very weak, consisting mostly of excerpts from manuals of the time (which *does* stand in sharp contrast to the poorly-sourced part about the samurai...).

There are far better books on this subject. Read those.

[Eirik Dalheim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the topic is interesting, and the introductory chapters are compelling, the presentation as a whole is extremely disorganized and choppy. Especially the part on shinobi/ninja suffers from mainly being a list of excerpts from shinobi manuals and scrolls, without attempts at synthesis from the author. The part on samurai is better, but still suffers some of the same drawbacks.

Cummins states in the preface that he wants a less academic approach, but I honestly feel this could heighten the quality of the book.

[Manolo González · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part (Samurai) is pretty good, well detailed and easy to understand, however the Second part (shinobi) lacks of content and is more like a compilation of “ninja,s tactics and techniques”, don’t get me wrong, it’s really interesting, but not what I was looking for when I bought the book.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another one of those "saw in the library and had to borrow it" sort of books. And after reading it, well, I want my own copy.

Unlike the previous ninja-related book I read, The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, Samurai and Ninja is neither a novel, nor does it take an idealistic/unrealistic view of ninja/samurai. Instead, the book tries to strip away the misconceptions that most of us hold about these two groups of warriors, and tries to give us an accurate picture of what they are.

The book is broken into four parts. The first part basically just tries to get rid of all those mistaken impressions we've gotten from movies and books (like the Kouga Ninja Scrolls, I suppose). The second and third parts, which actually make up the bulk of the book, focus on the samurai and ninja respectively. The last part is about how the author is trying to resurrect the samurai and ninja school Natori-ryu.

It sounds weird, but what convinced me that the author knows his stuff is was how he kept trying to avoid generalisations. Apart from the fact that samurai and ninja changed as time went on, he also took great pains to emphasise that not all samurai and ninja were the same. Some were richer than others, some were hired in plain sight, and some were hired in secret, etc.

Since I'm not very familiar with the samurai and ninja world, a lot of this was new to me. I found the skills of the ninja interesting, and the translations of the Japanese texts were fascinating (and also, I still can't read them. I guess it's a sign to study ancient Japanese?). But the most surprising thing I learnt was that the samurai were headhunters. And that heads could be used to divine the future. The section of head-hunting was pretty detailed, like how they cut of the head, what they did with it, the five types of heads, etc. I was reading it on the train, so hopefully no one thought I was planning to revive that particular aspect of the samurai.

Basically, this book is very accessible, and I think a really good introduction into the world of samurai and ninja. If I ever write a story featuring them, you can bet that I'll buy this book as reference. Or maybe I'll just buy it because it's interesting.

This review was first posted at With love from Japan, Eustacia

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is attempting to tell the "real story" of the samurai and the ninja and he is doing it poorly. The way of life that he tries to dissuade the audience from believing he says in his explanations did in fact happen but after the Warring States Period (1573). So essentially what we are taught to believe is true just at a later period in time. Additionally, he writes as though everyone has a distorted view of these noble warriors. There is a lot of information in here but his writing style turns out dry. Thus what is truly fascinating gets lost in his lecture.

[C Teahouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although there’s a lot of things to learn from this book, the structure of it is maddening. I really don’t need to read 100 pages of directly translated ninja scrolls to get what the shinobi-mono were. Presenting the documents without analysis is kind of pointless. Same goes for the sections on samurai that are just directly translated guides for assembling camps and building fortifications. Examples are good, but your whole book shouldn’t be examples with no context.

Also this whole book is in passive voice, which just drives me crazy.

[Shaun · Rating 1 out of 5]

More drivel for this author that cant seem to step back from his own ego and figure out what should really be researched properly and shown to the western world. I thought this 1980s ninja samurai craze was over.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super thorough and informative! A must-have book for anything on samurai and ninja.

[Jenna-Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple but expansive. I got what I paid for

[ERIKA · Rating 2 out of 5]

the samurai section was awesome, but the shinobi section was severely lacking🥱

[Steven Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short but interesting book I checked out from the library. I thought it might be something to add to my reference collection, but it is not. An interesting read if a bit dry in the way that some British books are. For those who view Bushido with a romantic bent, this book will piss you off because it portrays the samurai and ninja as brutal feudal warriors imbued with machismo. The book details the brutal warfare of feudal Japan and that part is particularly interesting reading. I found the layers of castle defenses, the clever traps, and ways of preventing ninja (a very Japanese problem) from climbing walls interesting.

[Bianca Criscuolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as well as someone not accustomed to the style of writing can. Its written in a way that makes it easy to flip through and learn cool intreating things about the "The Real Story Behind the Japanese Warrior" however I found it a hard one to just sit downed read. Not something I regret buying thought, I learned much and it truly is a fascinating topic.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed, direct, and dry. At times insightful and and times including unnecessary information. Lots of lists.