Requires
- Buildings:
- Arts:
Basic Building Statistics (can be modified by difficulty level, arts, skills, traits and retainers)
- Cost: 3500
- +1 rank(s) for ninja recruited in this province
- +5 experience for all kisho ninja recruits
Description
Shadows are the best defence.
Although ninja may be regarded as dangerous, troublesome and underhanded, there is no denying their usefulness to a daimyo. An enemy who meets a knife in the dark will be just as dead as one killed in battle. The ninja here can be encouraged along two paths: to become better killers, or to act as smugglers, and improve the income of the province. Ninja "clans" were not uncommon in Japan, as families tended to pass the secrets of ninjutsu between father and son. The matter was never openly talked about. Much of what is commonly believed about ninja is largely movie invention: even the ninjato, the ninja sword, has no proven historical basis. A ninja almost certainly carried a katana, the finest sword he could, if he carried a sword at all. Shuriken (darts, stars and other projectiles) were also carried and used. One, possibly apocryphal tale, illustrates the dedication and danger of the ninja. Having been hired to assassinate a lord, the ninja allegedly waited down a toilet, surrounded by faeces, for the bottom of his target to appear in the appropriate place, then thrust home his blade. The victim's death must have been surprising, agonizing and swift! The ninja must surely have been blessed with a strong stomach, or no sense of smell, to spend days in such hideous conditions.