what kind of ninjutsu games would kids play?

[DuskB4Dawn]

i once heard from someone that ninja were trained at an early age and were taught games to teach them ninjutsu skills. maybe hid and seek. perhaps climbing and swimming?
if this was true what type of games do you think the would play?

 

[shirobanryunotora]

i once heard from someone that ninja were trained at an early age and were taught games to teach them ninjutsu skills. maybe hid and seek. perhaps climbing and swimming?
if this was true what type of games do you think the would play?

during my 1990 visit to japan i asked a similar question of shihan nagato who has kids of his own btw-his opinion was along the lines that he didnt think the kids of the early ninpo peeps would have had much time to play though had the impression that their early chores and etc would stress flexibility and balance and as they got older the stress would be on strength and targeting-apparently there are scrolls that show kids daily jumping over hemp/bamboo plants so that as the plants grew the jumps would need to be higher etc-so games that stress these factors would be appropriate i guess-til the next rr

 

[Dean Whittle]

So when you spoke to Nagato-sensei 21yrs ago what did he indicate he was teaching his own children?

With respect

 

[shirobanryunotora]

So when you spoke to Nagato-sensei 21yrs ago what did he indicate he was teaching his own children?

With respect

he took several of the students at that nights training to his home where we met his family-he stressed he wasnt teaching ninpo as such at that stage though he admitted to letting them do mainly flexibility and balance work due to their age at the time such as by letting them crawl,climb,play and the like in their room as they saw fit and which he encouraged etc they were not rough or in danger yet got themselves into and out of precarious positions very easily etc-it was night and we did not see them outdoors unfortunately.

 

[Dean Whittle]

And how old were they at the time?

 

[shirobanryunotora]

And how old were they at the time?

Hmm not sure-did not ask specifically-inclined to say probably well under 10-small children but not infants as such-one was chatty-the older one-not quite sure to be honest of their exact age at time-if important could check with some of the other students when i hear from them next-or you could? Try Ed Lomax or Andrew Jarvis or Craig Turbett or Andrew Macdonald etc

 

[Dean Whittle]

Robert,

It's really not that important, the question was just out of interest.

Thanks for the response.

 

[KirkhamsEbooks.com]

A lot of games we play even now could apply

Hide and go seek
Tag for evasiveness
An old game we played as kids called headlight tag where we couldn't let a car's headlights rough us

If you think about it, many of the games we play as kids (52 now) already have war and combative strategies.

Rick