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The History of Japanese Ninjas

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In today’s society, ninjas have evolved into turtles or movie extras. Both are very poor representations of what a ninja truly was in Japan in the ages past. Ninjas were not reptiles or someone to trifle with either. These highly trained assassins have a back story shrouded in mystery, warlords squabbling to gain their favor, training and operations of a dark nature.
The well-known black-garbed assassins, known as ninjas, are commonly considered to be Japanese in origin. Though ninjas themselves are from Japan, their philosophy or ideals actually came from China. In the fourth century, a man named Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War. This collection of ideas heavily influenced the way of the ninja. Therefore, the idea of the ninja came from China, but the ninjas were trained and fought in Japan.
In the tenth century through the fifteenth centuries, the ninjas were in heavy demand. Japan was a fractured nation at this time. There was no true central power to unify all the different nobles. Without this central power the warlords fought each other. During this time ninjas were used regularly (Grabainowski). However, in the Tokugawa period, Tokugawa was able to unify Japan. This meant that the ninjas were no longer needed. Some ninjas are still being trained today but not nearly as many as in the tenth century.
In Japan's civil war, warlords continuously fought one another in hopes of gaining enough land and resources to be capable of conquering all of Japan (Bertrand). To do this
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