What did the Shinobi(Ninja) wear?

The most common image that comes to mind when thinking of the ninja is a person dressed in all black with a mask covering their face, split toed boots/shoes, and possibly some light armor. There is some controversy about the color, or lack of, in a ninja’s outfit.There are those who hold tight to the all-black version, and others who insist that they never wore black at all.

Dr. Stephen Turnbull, a historian specializing in eastern military history, suggested a theory that the all-black version of the ninja originated in Kabuki Theatre. Stagehands working for the theatre would dress in all black while moving props around the stage. The audience could see them, but they wore all black in order to tell the audience that they were not part of the story. A ninja character would dress in the same garb as the stagehands to fool the audience into ignoring him until he revealed himself as part of the story. However, the Kabuki Theatre hypothesis is one of many. There is no real evidence to suggest that this explains the origins of modern ninja myths.

Antony Cummins of the Historical Ninjutsu Research Team says that in kabuki theatre, ninjas would appear flamboyant, performing kuji’in magical hand gestures, carrying scrolls, or generally portrayed like magicians.

Even if the Kabuki Theatre hypothesis is unfounded, that’s not the only argument to say that the ninja never wore black. Some say that true black is actually easy to see at night as nothing in nature appears that dark. Others will tell you that medieval Japanese didn’t have access to black dyes needed to make such a dark cloth. According to the displays at the Iga Ninja museum, dark blue was much more common than black. There’s some economic realities to this. Indigo dye has been well-established in Japan since the 12th century, and it was one of the most popular dyes throughout the Edo period (1600-1868). A certain species of indigo is native to Japan, and it was popular among peasants. That means that they had a good, relatively cheap way to dye clothes dark blue. The same cannot be said of black dyes. One must first under-dye the cloth with indigo or deep red in order to get dark black. Naturally, the extra step meant that black clothing was more expensive to manufacture. This is not to say that black clothing didn’t exist, just that it would have been uncommon among the lower classes.

The Shoninki, a 17th-Century Manual written by Natori Masazumi, says that “the color of [a ninja’s] clothes should be worn of the following colors: brown, dark red, black, or navy blue. These are so common that it is hard to stand out while wearing them.” In this section, he is talking about daytime infiltration. Wearing these common colors would make the ninja indistinguishable from the rest of a crowd. The Yoshimori Hyakushu or “100 Ninja Poems,” written between the 13th century and 1612, says “On a moonlit night, wearing white is unobtrusive. While on a moonless night, you should be dressed in black.”

Black outfits aren’t the only popular misconception about ninja clothing. Even the famous ninja mask must be understood within its historical context. In peacetime, people were often stationed or restricted to certain areas. Any time a person wanted to go somewhere without being identified, they would wear a mask. People would go gambling, go to brothels, etc. wearing a mask. If they didn’t want to be identified, they would wear a mask. It got so prevalent that the government of Japan tried to ban masks. This most likely comes from the Edo Period, the period of peace. So while the “ninja mask” was not actually a ninja mask, they did exist in Japan.

Another group who often wore masks were thieves, called nusubito. Antony Cummins suggests that the ninja costume we usually see is actually a nusubito outfit. The problem here is that nusubito and shinobi (ninja) often crossed paths, and sometimes were one in the same. It just depends on the type of job they are doing.

It would seem that we have many misconceptions when it comes to our popular image of a ninja. That image, masked in all black, is not completely wrong. However, it is only an accurate depiction of one of the many different appearances that a ninja would take on. Once we realize that parts of our image of the ninja were not specific to just them, and that it is only a good representation of a very small part of a ninja’s wardrobe, we can start to see the ninja as they really were. More than just masked assassins, they were masters of espionage and disguise, hiding not only in shadow, but rather everywhere that they need to be.