A ninja popularity boom has been developing in Japan over the past decades, and the public has been flooded with movie, TV, and paperback novel ninja characters. Almost exclusively, the ninja have been portrayed as overlooking all concepts of right and wrong and all morality in order to accomplish their self-serving aims. Recent trends in the Western world have also attempted to potray the ninja as mere technicians of violence who feel justified in supporting any cause for the right amount of money or power. From polar extremes of the political spectrum, mercenaries and terrorists alike enjoy claiming a kinship to the netherworld ninja heroes of feudal Japan as depcited in the popular media.

None of these concepts comes anywhere close to the real ninja. Uninformed writers and self-promoting entertainers have merely used the art of ninjutsu to cater to audiences seeking the exotic and unusual. I must say that there is really nothing wrong with the entertainment industry bending the lore of the ninja to fit the demands of the public. However, it is a little surprising that Japanese and American audiences would believe that the weakly-researched flights of fancy fiction writers were the true essence of ninjutsu. It is even more amazing, and a little amusing, that after awhile, the writers and entertainers become recognized as ninja authorities, and soon, anxious followers are busy billing themselves as actual practitioners of ninjutsu. This is happening in Japan and also the West.

Founder of the system, Daisuke Nishina of Togakure Village, after the defeat at the hands of Heike troops, Daisuke escaped from his birthplace in Nagano and took up residence in the remote region of Iga. There, he took on the name Daisuke Togakure, and later was credited with founding the Togakure ryu ninjutsu.