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traveling back and forth to a nearby farm to visit relatives. Thinking that the boy might be a useful source of information, Yoshikane summoned him and put the idea to him, bribing him with a bolt of silk and talk of high office and all the food and clothing he could ever want. The young man happily accepted, his only condition being that he have an accomplice in the form of one of Yoshikane’s farmhands.
    So the two spies, ninjas in all but name, went to Masakado’s residence as night watchmen, each carrying a load of charcoal. Over two nights, Koharumaru took his accomplice around, showing him the armory, Masakado’s sleeping quarters, and the four gates. Yoshikane’s man then returned to report to his boss.
    All to no purpose. Masakado infiltrated Yoshikane’s army, discovered the plot, executed the young servant, and was ready when Yoshikane’s attack came. Yoshikane’s soldiers dropped their shields and ran away, dispersing “like mice unable to find their holes, while those who gave chase showed the strength of a hawk leaving the hunter’s gauntlet.”
    In the end, Masakado’s victory was in vain. A few months later he himself was defeated, killed by a stray arrow, and beheaded, his head being exposed in Kyoto as a warning to other rebels.
    The stories of Yamato and Masakado do more than show the importance of deception. They also highlight opposing themes in Japanese history: the capital, the emperor, and unity set against the provinces, warlords, and diversity. It would take seven hundred years for that conflict to be resolved in favor of capital, emperor, and national unity. Along the way, shadow warriors would play vital roles, though largely obscured by the glitter and drama and public displays of their counterparts, the samurai.

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    HOW TO BE A SHADOW WARRIOR, PART 1: MIND AND SPIRIT
    If a ninja steals for his own interests, which is against common morals, how can the gods or Buddha protect him?
    Ninja instructional poem
    It seems almost magical, this art of night stealth that enables you to make yourself invisible.
    Foreword, the Shoninki
    THE FIRST TO REVEAL THE SECRETS OF THE NINJAS WERE THE ninjas themselves, long ago.
    Throughout their history, the ninjas were by definition secretive. It would have been against all their training and teaching—indeed, self-destructive—to make public their way of life. But the secrets were revealed, not long after Japanese unification made the ninjas an irrelevance. Why? Perhaps it was to help train recruits into the contingent of two hundred ninjas taken on by the shogun as secret police, perhaps it was simply to record a way of life that seemed about to vanish. Whatever the motive, it was done at least three times. The best of these records is the Shoninki ( Sho Nin Ki , “true ninja tradition” or “Account”), probably written by Natori Masatake, a samurai in the service of the shogun, a century after the ninjas’ Iga homeland was destroyed in 1581.
    Probably written by Natori Masatake. He does not name himself, but a friend who provides the foreword mentions a name that has enabled scholars to agree on an identification, even though this Natori used several names, as was common in Japanese history. There are three versions of his book in English (see bibliography). I rely on the one translated and edited by the British ninjutsu scholar Antony Cummins and his Japanese colleague Yoshie Minami, because it best takes into account the difficulties of dealing with seventeenth-century Japanese. What follows is a combination of indirect and direct quotes, presenting the essence of Natori’s teaching.
    To modern eyes, the most surprising thing about the Shoninki is what it leaves out. Being used to seeing ninjas on film—more on that later in the book—you might expect (a) many weapons, and (b) a list of martial arts moves. But weapons get short shrift, and there is absolutely nothing about martial