Terminology

Basic terms essential to the intelligent ninja.

Cho ho- Espionage
Fuyika- Blowgun.
Jika-Tabi- Outdoor tabi, made of cloth or leather with a rubber or gum sole.
Kama- Japanese sickle, used as a weapon by some ninja.
Kamae- Stance/position.
Kasuri- Chain, some have weighted ends.
Kasuri-gama- A chaiin with one weighted end and a kama attached to the other end.
Kata- A martial arts form, a series of techniques, strung together to make memorization and comprehension of purpose easier.
Katana- Traditional Japanese sword, used by samurai.
Nin-The kanji is of a blade over a heart, it has come to mean patience, and endurance and is also used to mean stealthy or secretive.
Ninja-to/Ninja-ken- The sword of the ninja, a short sword with a square guard and a straight blade.
Ninjutsu- The art of invisibility/endurance/patience. The techniques of the ninja.
Nokizaru- A rooftop monkey
Saru- Monkey
Sarutobi- Monkey Jump, a folktale hero from various Japanese stories. A very agile, acrobatic ninja.
Shinobi- another reading for nin.
Shinobigatana- The sword of the ninja, a shorter version of the katana, that was kept in a katana length sheath to allow fast unexpected drawing.
Shinobi no mono- another reading for ninja.
Shuko- Climbing claws, two connected rings of leather worn on the hands the topmost of which has small spikes protruding to aid climbing.
Shuriken- Hand hidden blade. A small knife or blade, that was used to fight in hand to hand combat as well as a long range weapon and distraction.
Taijutsu- Body arts/techniques. Usually used to refer to the empty handed combat components of ninjutsu.
Taihenjutsu- Body movement arts/techniques.
Tetsubishi- A flat metal caltrop used to injure to feet of pursuers or strategically placed to injure the feet of enemies during their escape.
Tabi- Japanese split toed footwear.
Tobi- Jump
Ukemi- Receiving Body. A part of taihenjutsu that involves taking hits, painlessly and silently falling and rolling.
Zenpo Kaiten- Forward rolling.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License