Ninja clothing was made to be light and prevent the wearer from being noticed. #Black #ninja #clothing is often seen in movies, but there was actually no jet-black clothing. Jet-black would cause the form to stand out in the light of the moon, so a dark navy blue dying method was usually used. This #navy #blue dye fulfilled a function of being a sort of viper pattern, much like the #rattlesnake-like pattern in the color of jeans.
When #ninja wrote secret letters, they used special characters that only they could read in order to make the letters unreadable to others. Below are some of the characters, “Shinobi Iroha” and “Jindai Moji”
For health, ninja avoided meat, fish, dairy foods, and sugars in favor of a diet centered on whole-grain rice and vegetables. Also, to avoid being detected when sneaking or hiding, they avoided foods that might lead to body odor. However, they did not avoid these foods completely, but seem to have eaten some foods for strength as well.
Because #ninjutsu is not a #martial #art, #fighting against an #enemy is a last resort, and the #shuriken (#ninja #star) weapon was one method of that self-defense. Since the job of a ninja was to bring back information, there are many #skills for escaping.
The most famous of the ninja weapons is the shuriken (ninja star), but ninja are said not to have carried it so often. This is because possession of one would give away one’s identity as a ninja if they were stopped for identification and inspection along the way.
When not working, ninja lived the same lives as farmers. When they went about their work, they used to #camouflage, so as not to be revealed as ninja to those around them. When they traveled along roads, they changed their appearance from that of commoners and farmers to medicine peddlers or mountain monks, changing between clothing that suited the situation. In #traditional #Ninja writings, there was a camouflage method known as #Shichihoude, which was divided into the seven types of nihilist monk, #priest, #mountain #monk, #merchant, #minstrel and #performer.
When people imagine ninja, they often think of “running fast”, or “ability to fight”, or “powerful”, so there is a rather muscular, large image.
Ninja espionage is primarily composed of intelligence gathering and message transmission. To do so, a ninja has skills to walk quietly enough to be able to sneak into places, as well as to transmit information quickly.
#Iga-#ryu Ninjutsu was skilled in magic. Though Iga was comparatively close to the capital, it hosted many exiles on account of its being situated in a basin surrounded by mountains. Among those exiles, there was a clan descendant from #Mononobe #Uji, as well as peoples who had crossed over, who were skilled in magic and illusions.