History of Ninjutsu: Jigaku Jishū no Maki

自学自習の巻 Jigaku Jishū no Maki (Page 191-193) from the book 忍びと忍術 Shinobi to Ninjutsu by 山口正之 Masayuki Yamaguchi

自学自習の巻 Jigaku Jishū no Maki (The Volume of Self-Study and Self-Cultivation)

In 忍学 ningaku, the method of learning did also greatly esteem self-study and self-cultivation.

Forsooth, it involveth dealings with others, and ninja techniques go not always as theory dictateth. To adapt to change and meet the moment, employing what is called the vertical and horizontal wit, was deemed essential. For example, in teaching the art of swimming, one might suddenly cast a pupil into the river to master the stroke thereby. Such a tale existeth.

Of old, there was a ninja of considerable renown. His son, being importunate, begged to be taught the arts of stealth. The father said, “Very well, I shall teach thee,” and led the son into the mansion of a great house, wherein he placed the son into a chest in the storehouse, hung a mirror, and cried, “Thief! Thief!” whilst fleeing back.

Astonished was the son. Unable to weep or call out, he cursed the cruel deed of his sire. The household, startled, hastened to the storehouse to investigate. Yet no suspicious sign was found. The son, sealed within the chest, found himself at his wit’s end, and, as the household prepared to depart, he clawed at the chest’s bottom board with his nails, making a strange noise.

The household, thinking at first ’twas but a rat, grew alarmed as the sound persisted, traced it to the chest, forced the lock, and opened the lid. The son, awaiting that moment, leapt like a hare and fled. “Seize the rogue!” cried the household in unison, giving chase, whereupon the son, losing escape, wandered to and fro and reached a wellside.

Here, devising a sudden plan, he found a stone of nigh an arm’s span and cast it into the well with a splash. The household, deeming someone had leapt in, surrounded the well, shouting, “A rope!” “A ladder!” in commotion.

Seizing this gap, the son easily escaped the peril and fled homeward. “Father, thou art cruel!” he wailed with trembling voice. The ninja, calm, asked, “How camest thou back?” The son, sobbing, recounted all as it had passed, to which the ninja replied, “Well done. That is the initiation of ninjutsu. Understandest thou?”

In ninja historiography, the well-stone-throwing is called 夜半の嵐の術 Yahan no Arashi no Jutsu (The Technique of the Midnight Storm) ‘Twas inspired by a great pumpkin, hanging from a “kabocha shelf” above an old well, which, its vine severed by a midnight storm, fell into the well with an untimely “splash,” causing the startled household to cry, “A suicide!” The son learned this technique not by teaching, but by self-discovery.

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