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2.99 AVERAGE
2.99 AVERAGE
A quick, fun read about the history of ninjas, and the complementary history of Japan.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Real rating: 3.5
Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior is a very interesting book, at least to me, seeing as the ninja is one my many obsessions resulting from my interest in ancient (and modern) Japanese culture.
The information on the ninja of ancient Japan in this book is very well put together and fascinating, but, surprisingly, not very plentiful. There are excerpts from ninja texts (one of my favorites being "A well trained ninja looks like a very stupid man" from the Shoninki)and ninja history (which was fun to read, a lot of it relating to a book set in ancient Japan that I have written for myself). There are recounts of famous ninja myths and stories, some of them to be debunked, but that's about it for true ninja fact, or much relating to the ninja at all.
This book is very scattered, and long tangents about nothing ninja-related erupt in random spots. Throughout the book, John Man strives and stretches to turn the Japanese poet Basho into a ninja through rumors and his own analysis; says anyone who practiced secrecy and survival is a ninja, no matter the time period or the country; talks a great deal about James Bond's inaccurate ninja in the movie You Only Live Twice; goes over the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in an unusual few paragraphs (I am a fan, so I'm glad they got a mention, even if it was brief and was just a somewhat false recounting of their origin story without any analyzing of how ninja-like the Ninja Turtles really are); there is a lot of trying to relate Shogendo practitioners to ninja even though the two groups are separate in so many ways; and there are a few World War Two stories near the end.
The book does end on an incredible story of Hiroo Onoda (who unfortunately died in 2014), a lieutenant in the Japanese army in WW2, surviving away from civilization in the Philippines for 30 years as he refuses to believe the war was over. Yet another tangent that distracts from any real ninja information, but an interesting one at that.
I know that the ninja, fittingly, are one of the most mysterious and hard to study people of the past, so I can forgive this book for being scarce on real ninja info, seeing as what it does have is interesting and isn't just a recant of info and stories in movies, worse books, and the internet.
There obviously was a lot of effort and research put into this book and I give the author 3.5 stars for trying and finishing a book that shines in a lot of places. I was just hoping for more hard information on the true ninja of ancient Japan.
Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior is a very interesting book, at least to me, seeing as the ninja is one my many obsessions resulting from my interest in ancient (and modern) Japanese culture.
The information on the ninja of ancient Japan in this book is very well put together and fascinating, but, surprisingly, not very plentiful. There are excerpts from ninja texts (one of my favorites being "A well trained ninja looks like a very stupid man" from the Shoninki)and ninja history (which was fun to read, a lot of it relating to a book set in ancient Japan that I have written for myself). There are recounts of famous ninja myths and stories, some of them to be debunked, but that's about it for true ninja fact, or much relating to the ninja at all.
This book is very scattered, and long tangents about nothing ninja-related erupt in random spots. Throughout the book, John Man strives and stretches to turn the Japanese poet Basho into a ninja through rumors and his own analysis; says anyone who practiced secrecy and survival is a ninja, no matter the time period or the country; talks a great deal about James Bond's inaccurate ninja in the movie You Only Live Twice; goes over the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in an unusual few paragraphs (I am a fan, so I'm glad they got a mention, even if it was brief and was just a somewhat false recounting of their origin story without any analyzing of how ninja-like the Ninja Turtles really are); there is a lot of trying to relate Shogendo practitioners to ninja even though the two groups are separate in so many ways; and there are a few World War Two stories near the end.
The book does end on an incredible story of Hiroo Onoda (who unfortunately died in 2014), a lieutenant in the Japanese army in WW2, surviving away from civilization in the Philippines for 30 years as he refuses to believe the war was over. Yet another tangent that distracts from any real ninja information, but an interesting one at that.
I know that the ninja, fittingly, are one of the most mysterious and hard to study people of the past, so I can forgive this book for being scarce on real ninja info, seeing as what it does have is interesting and isn't just a recant of info and stories in movies, worse books, and the internet.
There obviously was a lot of effort and research put into this book and I give the author 3.5 stars for trying and finishing a book that shines in a lot of places. I was just hoping for more hard information on the true ninja of ancient Japan.