What is common fighting style for a ninja?

Answer 1

The fighting style made famous by the "shadow warriors" known as ninja was called ninjitsu. The word is a combination of nin, meaning "stealth", and jitsu, a suffix commonly applied to the names of Martial Arts which translates (loosely) as "the technique (skill) of". Thus, ninjitsu can be taken almost literally as "the technique of stealth".

The style, as its name implies, focuses on evasion tactics, battlefield psychology, and a multitude of weapons to either disarm or confuse an opponent, attack from a distance (from concealment), or to evade pursuers. Ninjitsu also includes hand-to-hand combat and some convential Japanese weaponry (spear, Archery, etc.), but also includes dirks and throwing knives, the famed shruiken or throwing stars, "black eggs" (hollowed out egg shells filled with powdered glass or an irritant, preferably thrown into the eyes), the kama or one-handed sickle, lenghts of chain for disarming, and the ninjato (a straight-edged sword, shorter than a katana and capable of veryquick and lethal strikes.)

Ninjitsu is most famous for its emphasis not on straight forward combat, but on what might be considered "dirty fighting". This translates into using poison, attacking silently from behind, the use of disguises to get in close, and generally striking in any way to catch an opponent off-guard. The reason that such a style exists in a land that emphazised the concept of "honor", is that its practicioners were the ninja: spies, thieves, and assassins utilized by the ruling elite (the famed samurai) of Japan to perform actions that the noble himself could not, given the restraints of the samurai code of conduct (bushido.)

Ninjas were not, by and large, trained to be soldiers or formidable warriors. They were feudal Japanese commandos, taught to get in, accomplish their mission, and get out, with as little fuss as possible. As such, a ninja's goal in any fight was to either end it quickly and silently or escape, but preferably not to engage at all. Ninjitsu mirrors that philosophy, teaching its disciples how to move quietly in the shadows, to strike with quick and deadly force, and to sow as much confusion and fear in the minds of his opponents as possible.

While ninjitsu offers a variety of fighting techniques, its greatest strength is a form of ancient and highly effective psychological warfare. Ninjitsu warriors were capable of sizing up an enemy, determing his (mental) weakpoints, and attacking those points with brutal efficentcy. So great were the ninja in utilizing this battlefield psychology alongside their physical techniques that a sort of msytique grew up around them. It was whispered that the ninja could walk through walls (paper walls sliced with a knife) and on water (pontoon shoes), scale a sheer surface like a spider (gloves with small metal hooks), and disappear or turn invisible like a ghost (smoke bomb.)

And if the odds were in the opponent's favor or all else fails, the ninja were to taught to run away. No glorious death in battle, no honorable fight to the finish. A ninja used any means to escape, so as to return later and finish the job. A successful completion of the mission was everything. Failure was not an option. That is the code of the ninja, and the practical application of the "skill of stealth".

The ninja as a class of fighter have long sinced vanished into the pages of history, yet ninjitsu itself is still taught and practiced, albiet by a small yet dedicated scattering of agile warriors. How the modern versions of this shadowy martial art stack up against the ancient forms is hard to say; the ancient ninjitsu masters handed down their techniques orally to their students, who (as with any student of martial arts) revised and altered the discipline to suit their own fighting style, and thus handed down a slightly altered version of the art to their students, who then repeated the cycle. Few (if any) actual records or scrolls have ever existed detailing the specifics of ninjitsu and its practical applicaiton.

If anything, this is to be expected from a style that thrived only in the shadows.