Friday, February 24, 2012

Are ninjas popular in your country?


Have you heard of ninjya/忍者? The ninja are a group of secret agents that were active in feudal Japan between the Kamakura and Edo Periods. If you are interested in finding more information, please see the Wikipedia link below.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=
375120135836358&set=o.236124369767028&type=1&
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja

A while back, some photos shared on Facebook made me wonder how popular ninjas were worldwide. First, the first picture caught my eyes since the caption "Back off, man, I have ninjas" was very impressive. I wondered who had first added the caption to the picture of a white cat surrounded by four black cats. I had no way to know it, but I found that the original poster on Facebook is a Spanish speaking person. The picture was shared by many people there. I was a little surprised by the fact that a lot of people worldwide can understand the image of ninjas.
I thought that ninjas were more popular than I expected.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=
10150559685602285&set=
a.55468612284.69313.680192284&type=1&theater

The next day, my friend shared an interesting picture which describes how non-Japanese people think of Japan. Please see the second picture. The picture is so funny and true that it's also shared by many people on Facebook. When I first saw the picture, I understood what it intended to convey. However, I didn't expect ninjas to be used to describe Japan. Then, I also shared this picture on Facebook to see the responses to it. I've received some interesting comments.

A friend of mine said that she has seen a Swedish guy curiously and seriously asking his Japanese teacher if he is a ninja or a bushi/武士 (The guy asked that when he studied Japanese at school in Japan). Another friend said that according to Reuters, ninjutsu/忍術 is popular among Iranian women and about 3000 to 3500 women train in ninjutsu in independently run clubs throughout Iran working under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports' Martial Arts Federation.Ninjitsu are the arts of the ninja. I can imagine what ninjutsu is, but I don't know exactly what it is. (Please click here and see the YouTube video). I'm wondering why ninjutsu has become popular there and who teaches it to the local women.

How popular do you think ninjas are in your country?