World Tour: Ninja Warriors

 Of all the civilizations in the new Middle Ages, Japan just might be the closest to the 20th century, chronologically. This is because right before the Meji restoration, and a concentrated effort towards industrialization and Westernization, Japan had spent centuries in enforced, strict isolation. This meant that it figured out the absolute zenith of workable feudal, agrarian society. There is one aspect however, is quite different from historical Japan. The legitimization of the Ninja.

 The popular image of the ninja was very much flourish, men wearing shadowy outfits, climbing up walls, using theatricality and mysticism, and weapons that seemed exotic and interesting. Strips malls and mail-in catalogs promised amazing Ninja secrets. In truth, the ninja costume was a stagehand uniform, the weapons often farm implements which were not particularly efficient. Those "Ninja Schools" of dubious historical veracity. And most of all, in Japan, Ninja were considered very, very dishonorable, the very antithesis of Bushido, even if it's believed everyone was doing it. However, Ninja were already becoming romantic figures in 19th century Japanese figures, like your Robin Hoods or Billy the Kids, and in the late 20th and early 21st century they were a major, major part of Japan's oversized reach a cultural soft power. More than one foreign dignitary would ask questions about Ninja, if they could maybe see one. These sort of questions might have led to Japan to re-enter isolation, but the Ninja would soon lose the stigma it had in the original feudal Japan. And those strip mall schools? Well, after 900 years they have indeed become ancient, and much more codified into techniques that actually work.

 Today, the dishonorable assassin are largely referred to, in the word that was actually much more common used, as "shinobi". In the new Middle Ages, Ninja might best be understood as something close to "Yeoman", but even this does not fully capture the unique nuances of the Japanese social order. But it's generally understood as an unmounted warrior who is neither the nobility nor strictly speaking, a peasant. Really, that's another thing to understand is that when Japan industrialized, it industrialized hard, and the concept of "middle class virtue and ethic" absorbed, it was absorbed by ninjutsu. They have their own schools, their own sports, their own units in armies, and the Japanese social order has adjusted them into being a fixture, not a subversion. The stagehand costumes aren't used, though similar outfits are worn for ceremonies or tournaments. But of course, the Ninja assassins still do exist. After all, individuals trained from childhood in deadly arts and in the ability to be inconspicuous are very useful for the Daiymo.