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What is a Ninja?


Mister E

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I always thought it was a very pretty girls' name.

So... it has come to this.

 

The ninja is the shadow of the samurai.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary elaborates: the ninja is the one willing and very very able to do all the things a samurai would refuse to do.

But at what cost?

 

Ninjas don't exist. They've thrown enough shuriken at me to get that point across. :ph34r:

There is no escape from destiny.

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What can be called "ninja," is not the true ninja. You cannot step on the same ninja twice. It may be too early to say this, but the ninja is dead, and only could ever be known phenomenally, as a subjective experience. What a ninja might be, as a Japanese martial artist in him or herself, it is possible to know only through the synthetic a priori. Indeed, if we knew some other culture that called what we call "ninjas," "gavagais," would it even be possible to make sense of the statement, "This is a gavagai?"

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Ninja does not mean what you think it means. I suspect you mean to ask what is a shinobi?

 

Is there a meaningful difference? To me they always meant the same thing. They comprised of the same Chinese characters, too. I just did a quick google search about the difference and the couple native Japanese speakers who came up seemed to echo my original thoughts. So, is there a meaningful difference I missed? 

 

Soar. 

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You have to break the word down into its individual components.  Nin which sounds like the first sound in nincompoop which is another way of saying stupid and ja which I think is the German word for you.  Clearly, it is some kind German insult.  How it got associated with the Japanese, I have no idea.  Maybe, it has something to do with their alliance in WW2.

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