Nearly 900 years have passed since Nishina Daisuke created the Togakure school of ninjutsu. Since then the stories of the ninja have been told many times, and they will probably be told many times more, because the ninja are a tale filled with all the elements of romantic history: it is set in an exotic time and place, filled with both supremely honorable and deeply corrupted characters, and then imbued with secrets. Much of the mystery surrounding the "shinobi" or ninja comes from a lack of knowledge, and from the many uninformed writers who have taken imaginative liberties with the known facts. Secretive societies, as the shinobi truly were, have always captivated the mind of people outside of them. This type of romantic ideal of the ninja is fine for entertainment but as history it is, at best, a waste of time, and even worst, extremely misleading. Since the ninja were historical, and not just a mythological phenomenon, new information and evidence is continually being discovered, clarifying some of the mystery and uncertainties, though not nearly all of them. And as more information is continually coming to light, rediscovered from the dusty recesses of archives and libraries, the motives of the ninja - Those mysterious men, both warrior and monk - become more understandable and accessible. Surprisingly, here with the Hidden Lineage authored by Sean Askew, an actual practitioner of the Togakure Ryu, uncovering these mysteries makes the ninja story itself become more, not less, fascinating.
