2. Ninjas Wrote Down Their Craft to Preserve It For Posterity
Before the Tokugawa Shogunate, which brought an end to the Warring States Period and was the beginning of the end for the ninjas, they had to be so secretive that nothing could be written down. Not to mention that as members of the lower strata of society, not many of them were literate. Everything that ninjas needed to know was transmitted first hand, through arduous training by masters of the craft. However, when they were able to come out of the shadows, they began to write down the different aspects of their art so that it could be preserved for future generations.
This practice became particularly crucial as the ninja craft began to change to open fighting rather than stealth, and even more so as the ninjas severely declined under Tokugawa VIII. Some of their manuals include the Ninpiden, the Bansenshukai, and the Shoninki, which provide information about ninja weaponry and strategies. Of course, much was saved – or misrepresented – in Japanese folklore. Ninjas were often popularly described as descending from a demonic figure and being able to control animals, even being able to become invisible. Enter James Bond and the revival of ninjas in pop culture, which equally misrepresented them.