Female ninja
Kunoichi
(
Japanese
:
くノ一
, also くのいち or クノイチ
)
is a Japanese
cant
term for "woman"
(
女
,
onna
)
.
[1]
[2]
In popular culture, it is often used for female
shinobi
or practitioner of
ninjutsu
(
ninpo
). The term was largely popularized by novelist
Yamada Futaro
in his novel
Ninp? Hakkenden
(
忍法八犬?
)
in 1964.
[1]
Although kunoichi have appeared in numerous creative works, including novels, TV-dramas, movies, and
manga
,
Mie University
historians have concluded that there are no historical records of female ninja performing reconnaissance and subversive activities in the same manner as their male counterparts. However, the late 17th century ninja handbook
Bansenshukai
describes a technique called
kunoichi-no-jutsu
(
くノ一の術
, "the
ninjutsu
of a woman")
in which a woman is used for infiltration and information-gathering, which
Fujita Seiko
considers evidence of female ninja activity.
Etymology
[
edit
]
The term is thought to derive from the names of characters that resemble the three
strokes
in the Japanese
kanji
character for "woman"
(
女
,
onna
)
in the following
stroke order
:
- "
く
" is a
hiragana
character pronounced "
ku
"
- "
ノ
" is a
katakana
character pronounced "
no
"
- "
一
" is a
kanji
character pronounced "ichi" (and meaning "
one
").
The word "kunoichi" was not used frequently in the
Edo period
. This is probably because in this era, the kanji letter "女" was not written in
regular script
but usually in
cursive script
, and the cursive script of "女" cannot be decomposed into "く", "ノ", and "一".
[1]
History of use
[
edit
]
Recent research by Mie University historians Y?ji Yamada, Katsuya Yoshimaru, and others indicates that there are no historical records of the existence of female ninja who conducted reconnaissance and subversive activities in the same manner as their male counterparts.
[1]
[2]
According to Yoshimaru, kunoichi came to mean "female ninja" in the creative works largely due to the influence of Futaro Yamada's
Ninp?ch?
series.
[1]
During the Edo period, kunoichi was used as a cant term to refer to a woman and had no meaning for a female ninja. However, the term has very few examples of usage, most likely because the writing style at the time was not composed of the three strokes attributed to kunoichi.
[1]
The eighth volume of the ninja handbook
Bansenshukai
written in 1676 describes
Kunoichi-no-jutsu
(
くノ一の術
, the
ninjutsu
of a woman)
, which can be interpreted as "a technique to utilize a woman".
[1]
The
Bansenshukai
compiles the knowledge of the ninja clans in the regions of
Iga
and
K?ka
. According to this document, the main function of the kunoichi was espionage, finding functions in enemy house services, to gather knowledge, gain trust or listen to conversations.
[3]
This "technique to utilize a woman" was employed for infiltration purposes when it was difficult for a man to infiltrate.
[1]
[3]
There is a technique in which a kunoichi uses a double-bottomed wooden chest to infiltrate a person into a building by telling the wife of the house that she is retrieving a wooden chest. Both of these techniques however are described as "techniques through the usage of a woman",
[1]
and while Seiko Fujita considers these techniques to be evidence of female ninja,
[3]
Yoshimaru and Yamada consider 'female ninja' not to have existed as such.
[1]
Another early mention of kunoichi exists in the poem compilation
Ensh?senkuzuke
by Waki Ensh? from 1680, and was used to refer to
Sei Sh?nagon
, a female poet.
[1]
Iga FC Kunoichi
, a women's football club which is based in the city of Iga, takes its name from the term.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]