Japan’s last-surviving ninjas are reportedly delighted that their ancient and almost extinct guild is to be revived, a tad unexpectedly, by a 21St Century advertising agency.
Haruki Nakamura, the last surviving ninja grandmaster had planned to let his ancient art die with him.
'In the age of civil wars or during the Edo period, ninjas' abilities to spy and kill, or mix medicine may have been useful,' Nakamura says.
'But we now have guns, the internet and much better medicines, so the art of ninjutsu has no place in the modern age.'
With this in mind, he had regretfully decided against training his son in the ancient ways.
“There would be no point,” he says simply. “What would he do with them?”
But then fate, in the somewhat surprising form of a Sydney advertising agency, threw them a lifeline.
Haruki explains. “One of my son’s friends saw an ad for a ninja on an online job site. He rang my son, Riku, and told him.
We were amazed. We didn’t know they even had ninjas in Australia.”
Of course, Riku’s training has been a little bit different to that enjoyed, or rather endured, by his father.
“When I was growing up, I had to learn how to use Nunchaku, Shuriken (ninja stars) and of course, the Katana sword,” Haruki explains.
He sighs. “It was very tough. I used to have to start at 5am every morning.” He looks at his hands ruefully. “Often my blisters were so bad, I couldn’t hold my pen at school.”
Haruki smiles and places a fatherly arm around his son’s shoulders. “But now Riku is learning the arts of a modern-day ninja.
Instead of using our beloved Yumi, (longbow) and Kusarigama (sickle and chain) he has learned to become an incredibly swift and accurate typist. Over 100 words a minute. And he’s using this skill to create passionate and engaging human-centric copy.”
He looks at his son proudly.
And in place of the Fukiya, (blow gun) and Bo (Japanese fighting staff) he has been immersing himself in the sacred arts of Adobe Suite.
Apparently, he is now “killing it I believe is the modern expression” with Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote.
And with these newly-acquired skills he is hoping to develop strong aesthetic sensibilities in typography, brand design, and art direction.
Riku nods excitedly and chips in.
“It is sad to see the old ninjutsu arts of assassination and sabotage being put to the sword. But my new abilities in building and nurturing collaborative working relationships across the agency and team business, still make me, as a modern-day ninja, very proud.’
Riku is set to start his new role in July, and is understandably eager for the challenges ahead.
“I will be joining a fast-paced, high-performance culture that embraces a strong work ethic and a positive can-do attitude. I only hope that my ninja skills are good enough.”
Haruki says he has only one regret. “I am sad that he will no longer get to wear the Shinobi Shozoku (black ninja suit) that is our traditional costume.
He looks at his son and suddenly his impassive face is creased by a delighted smile. “But I must admit, he does look rather good in the single-breasted wool and mohair Prada suit I bought him in Ginza.”
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