9. Women Could Be Ninjas
The fact that ninjas often came from lower classes and held everyone in equal esteem, despite their wealth (notwithstanding those who hired them and paid them for their work), meant that the art was open to anyone, including women. Ninjas were masters of disguise, and they quickly realized that the best masters of disguise were women, just because no one expected that the ladies were actually highly skilled fighters. These female ninjas were known as kunoichi, and they often easily invaded enemy strongholds disguised as dancers, servants, or even concubines. They could act as a type of Trojan horse and then enable a more significant force of ninjas to enter the stronghold.
The most famous of the kunoichi was Mochizuki Chiyome, a Japanese noblewoman who lived in the sixteenth century. Her husband was a samurai lord who died in battle, leaving her in the care of the nearby daimyo. She was then recruited by the daimyo himself to recruit and train a force of female ninjas to engage in battle against the neighboring warlord. Many of the women that she contracted were orphaned girls or prostitutes, who were in vulnerable positions and could, therefore, be more easily trained to act as seductresses and assassins.