• John Man travelled throughout Japan while researching the book, visting the birth sites of the ninja and interviewing those who still pratice the art of ninjitso.

• Ninjas continue to enthrall fans from all walks of life and their influence can be seen throughout popular culture, from movies and graphic comics to video games and children’s cartoons to the martial arts and more This is the ultimate resource on everything ninja: the history, the lore, the practices, the warriors, essential for every aficionado.

• Man is an acclaimed British historian, travel writer, and devoted student of Asia. He has written highly successful biographies of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Kublai Khan.

The medieval equivalent of the Special Forces, the Ninja were the original men in black, elite “shadow warriors” with nearly mystical powers. Spies, assassins, saboteurs and secret agents, Ninja have become the subject of countless legends that continue to enthrall us in modern movies, video games, and comics, and their arts are practiced by dedicated acolytes who study their techniques today.

Though they were not blessed with gifts of flight or invisibility as commonly mythologized, Ninja were superbly trained warriors with remarkable skills in combat, climbing, deception, disguise and camouflage. In Ninja, John Man goes in search of the true history of these mythological fighters. Join him on a  fascinating journey from their birth in a civil war Japan in the fifteenth century to the modern-day, where a self-declared “last Ninja” surfaces at the month-long Ninja festival in Iga.

A meticulously researched, entertaining blend of mythology, anthropology, travelogue, and history, Ninja is as thrilling ride, as colorful and intriguing as the warriors it so vividly brings to life.