Is Ninjutsu the best self defense art?

Answer 1

Ninjutsu was never a self defense art. It was a Japanese military profession for spying, intelligence gathering, infiltration, espionage, and assassination. Ninjas were members of a clan that you could not join, but were born into the family profession. The main advantages of ninjutsu were similar to today's military black ops special forces soldiers. The ninjas relied on advanced knowledge of chemicals, poisons, and the art of stealth, and camouflage to avoid detection.

Their intent was to avoid a direct conflict, blend in, and escape undetected. If they ever encountered an enemy soldier face-to-face, they tended to use weapons, distractions, and tricks to defeat a better fighter. The fighting tactics they employed were borrowed from other established Martial Art systems, but the Ninja did not invest time attempting to become a better fighter, but rather used whatever means necessary to exploit their opponent's weakness - - including fear of the ninja and their reputation for allegedly being able to appear and disappear (the art of invisibility). This was nothing more than illusion, distraction, and blending into the environment such as hiding in the shadows, above in rafters of buildings, on rooftops and in treetops, or dressing as a common person trusted among their enemies.