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To complete their task, ninjas had
many tools and weapons to choose from. For
close engagements, they could use a blowgun known as a fukiya or a
small dirk
that they spat at people called a fukumi-bari. For arson, they
could use a
small bow with incendiary devices attached to the arrow or small hand
grenades
called nage teppo (“Ninjutsu” 106). A more common weapon used by
ninjas, and
one of the most recognized weapons, were Shuriken, which are commonly
called
ninja stars. There were two main types of shuriken, bo shuriken,
which were
straight and had one or two points, and hira shuriken, that had
anywhere from 3
to ten points. Shuriken could be thrown at an enemy or could be
used for other
purposes, such as cutting, and some could be used as a saw of sorts
(“Ninjutsu”
108).
The other most recognized weapon of the ninja was
their sword, or
shinobigatana. This sword was shorter and duller than regular
samurai swords.
The sword also had a square hand guard that could be used as a base on
which
they could stand. The scabbard was also used as a tool to
bludgeon other
soldiers, a hearing aid, a breathing tube, and a method of storing
chemicals or
powders (“Ninjutsu” 106).
Ninjas had plenty of tools for a variety of
situations. If a ninja was being
pursued, they had tools to kill or slow the pursuer. They used
Jirai, which
were landmines with fuses and igadama spikes that stuck up and when
stepped on
would go through the shoes of those chasing. Also, there was a
powder called
metsubushi, which was thrown in the face of the enemy causing temporary
blindness allowing the ninja time to escape. Sometimes, the task
of the ninja
was to cause panic and confusion. To do this, the ninja had their
hand grenades
and they also had something called hyakura-ju, which was many guns in a
barrel.
When the guns went off, a loud noise was made which would startle and
confuse
the enemy. Fighting and confusing enemies wasn’t the only thing
that ninjas had
to do. Getting to where they needed to be was also
difficult. For example,
they would have to scale walls and cross moats. To get across the
moats, the
ninjas had small, collapsible one-man rafts and things that attached to
the feet
aiding the ninja’s crossing of the moat by literally making them float
while
standing. For aiding their scaling, they had claws, ropes and
hooks, which
would help them climb walls. They also had saws and chisels to
cut or break a
small hole in the wall to crawl through (“Ninjutsu” 106).
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