Ninjutsu is a stealth and espionage-oriented art which saw its greatest development in the 13th to early 17th centuries in Japan. Its practitioners, the ninja, were warrior-assassin-spies; most belonged to the Iga and Koga mountain clans. They were the supreme reconnaissance experts and saboteurs of their day.

Never mind all the mythical mumbo-jumbo surrounding this style, or more accurately this way of life, as the unarmed combat part of this way is more accurately called Taijutsu. The myths and legends surrounding the ninja were just that - legends - but helped the ninja in their work by giving them supernatural abilities and inflicting terror in their targets.

In the 17th century, a ban and crackdown forced the ninja to become even more secretive about the practice of their art; the heyday of the ninja was over, and most people believed the art and its practitioners were extinct.

In recent years however, ninjutsu has come down out of the mountains again and been practiced more openly; it has been imported to and is taught in the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, several martial artists, especially in the U.S., have set about redeveloping ninjutsu. They claim no association with the historical ninjutsu style, but practice most of the same tactics and skills.