Ninja or Samurai?

What is, in your opinions, the better, and which would you rather be?

Fear.....Fear attracts the fearful.....The strong....the weak....the innocent....
Fear is my ally

Funny that you have this on a CMA board...but, I'll answer. I've always been fascinated with the samurai. Their code, their training, their lives. A fellow named (I believe) Turnbull has some fantastic books about samurai history, with some beautiful illustrations. In my opinion, a samurai would be most fearsome on the battlefield...but the ninja would be trained not to be there. :)

-Radhnoti

Stephen K Hayes mentioned in The Ninja and their Secret Fighting Art that: "The ninja were commoners...and thereby free of the samurai's rigid code of honor and prescribed way of handling situations."

I would rather be a ninja rather than samurai because being a samurai only limits you to a few actions because of their need to maintain their family's honor.

:confused:
I was under the impression that a large number, perhaps even a majority, of ninja were samurai in disguise? The mask sort of freed them from their honorable inhibitions? Oh well...maybe not.

-Radhnoti

Nobody really has any definite info on what ninja were/weren't because no records describing their life in detail survive from that time. A lot of what we think we "know", like wearing the traditional black costume and carrying the sword on the back--have no basis and cannot be verified. In fact, much of what we think about them come from No plays which have a reputation of stretching the truth for dramatic effect.

Having said that, I'd still rather be a samurai--but then I'm something of a Japanophile anyway.

;)

K. Mark Hoover

Um...no offense but your wrounge, heh. There are plenty of documents handed down to Hatsumi Sensei from his sensei and so on so forth down the lign. Ninjas are VERY confusing, i sugest you get the book by Dr. Hatsumi, The Essence of Ninjutsu, its VERY VERY Good/informative.

- Psirus

Ride the winds of Shinobi.

No, I'm right. There are no surviving records from the period of feudalism that can be trusted for historical accuracy re: ninjas. Most of what we think we know about ninjas today is a total modern construct that stems from early Victorian interest in Japan. It's also misinformed and exagerrated for dramatic effect--and for marketing purposes.

Supposedly vaunted records "handed down" between ninja-wannabes--and embellished over time to enhance a clans reputation and a master's "lineage"--are not proof and can not
be accepted as such for historical and archeological purposes.

K. Mark Hoover

You must really not like Ninjutsu...
I can say that i believe Hatsumi BECAUSE he is AGAINST teh comercailization of ninjutsu, as i said, read The Essence of Ninjutsu, than talk to me, adios (im not trying to be rude)

- Psirus

Ride the winds of Shinobi...