The New Winds

Shinobi equipment is versatile, concealable, and surprising. The majority of a shinobi’s work is intelligence gathering and harassment rather than outright assassination. Defeating a foe is therefore a lesser priority than escaping alive with the valuable data one has gathered.

The Six Tools Of The Shinobi
When a shinobi is unsure what tools to bring on a mission, the six tools are a good place to start. A spy who is caught and searched appears to be merely a well-prepared traveler if found with these. The six tools are:
Amigasa

Sekihitsu

Herbal medicines

Tenugui

Uchitake

Bamboo cane

Amigasa
The easiest way to conceal one’s face from both the sun and prying eyes is to wear a hat. The amigasa, a traditional hat made of straw and woven rushes, is an appropriate addition to various outfits. Folding the amigasa allows a shinobi to carry a concealed item in it without having a bulge in their clothing or carrying a bag, which guards at a checkpoint may be inclined to search. On wilderness missions, an amigasa doubles as a net to help the shinobi catch fish and frogs to eat. An even larger variant of this hat, shaped like a basket with a small window in front, is worn by a mendicant order of Shinseist monks in order to represent the unimportance of the self. While the basket version is an excellent way to conceal one’s face, it has fallen out of favor among shinobi since the release of a Kabuki play featuring a ninja using it as a disguise.

Bamboo Cane
A hollow bamboo cane can be used in self-defense or to complement a disguise as a traveler or beggar. Its interior can double as a blowgun. It can also conceal objects, messages, or a flexible weapon, perhaps a rope or chain with a hook to aid in climbing or to entangle an enemy. Some canes even have mechanical catches that allow them to hide a thin spear blade within their length.

Demon Mask
These intimidating masks are not a particularly common tool for shinobi, but those who don them do so for several reasons: it protects and obscures the face, it intimidates foes, and like the imposing masks of many suits of samurai armor, it sends a strong message of the wearer’s intentions. Rumors say that some demon masks are actually made from the severed and collected faces of oni, allowing an individual who wears one to access demonic powers at great peril to the purity of their soul. However, if such wicked artifacts truly exist, surely they were swept up long ago by the Kuni Witch Hunters or the Scorpion Kuroiban and hid-den away from mortal hand

Disguise Kit
Essentially a more practical and full-featured version of the makeup kit, a disguise kit allows a shinobi to alter their appearance radically. False mustaches and beards; hair extensions; prosthetics for ears, noses, and fingers; and concoctions for changing the appearance and texture of the skin by adding lesions or scars are all contained in a disguise kit.

Herbal Medicines
Shinobi often must keep strange schedules. On castle missions, they sometimes stay up all night to gather information or harass foes after spending a day working in disguise. In the wilderness, they must remain alert for long periods of time when working as scouts or sentries. Herbal medicines, kept in pill form in small medicine cases or as tea brews, allow the shinobi to stave off hunger, thirst, drowsiness, or pain.

Invisible Ink
Certain inks are visible only under specific circumstances: when exposed to a flame of a certain heat, when the surface they are written on is dipped in a specific chemical, or when held up against the light. Shinobi frequently use such inks to conceal secret mes-sages on paper that appears to hold only mundane information.

Makibishi
Makibishi, or caltrops, are small sharp objects scattered on the ground to deter a pursuer. Sometimes they are made of four to nine iron points in a star shape, but a handful of water chestnuts can work in a pinch

Metsubushi
The term metsubushi refers to any kind of tool or substance used to distract an enemy or impair their senses, most commonly blinding powder made from sand, lime, ash, or pepper. Blinding powder stings the eyes, causes sneezing and crying, making it hard for the victim to see or fight. Another type of metsubushi comprises mixtures of flammable substances that explode in distracting bursts of flame or catch clothes on fire when they strike a target. An eggshell emptied and then filled with such substances is ideal for throwing as a smoke bomb, or it can be attached to the end of a rope or chain in place of a weight for a particularly disorienting blow.

Mizugumo (Water Spider)
A mizugumo consists of five air bladders made of animal hide and pine resin and strung together. To use a mizugumo as a flotation device, the shinobi places it on the water’s surface underneath their torso and paddles with their arms and legs. The item’s name comes from the shinobi’s appearance while using it: the shinobi skates along the water’s surface like the Rokugani fishing spider.

Modified Scabbard
Shinobi sometimes alter knives’ or swords’ sheaths to do double duty as another weapon or tool. Adding extra space lets the shinobi hide secret messages, money, or other items best kept concealed. Giving the scabbard a removable end allows the shinobi to use it as a blowgun or as a snorkel when hiding underwater. Loading a knife’s sheath with metsubushi can make it easier and more efficient to throw into an enemy’s eyes.

Opening and Closing Tools
When social engineering fails, there’s always breaking and entering. An opening and closing kit includes pliers, drills, oil, a hammer, spikes, and cutting or sawing implements used for breaking into sealed locations. It also contains iron clamps of various sizes in a bracket shape with spiked ends; these can hold a door closed and require a pursuer to spend time forcing the door while a shinobi escapes.

Portable Boat
A portable boat consists of a number of wooden panels that can be stacked and transported easily in a compact box. When the shinobi needs to cross water, they disassemble the box and slot the wooden pieces into one another to create a small raft and oar.

Rope Ladder
A rope ladder consists of rungs joined by braided cloth or hair with hooks at one end that folds up easily for portability. It can be a great way for shinobi to extract a target who lacks a spy’s expertise in climbing. Some resourceful shinobi even learn to use rope ladders as weapons. Shinobi can cast a rope ladder at an enemy to entangle or distract them, or they can use it to tie up an incapacitated foe.

Sekihitsua
Sekihitsu is a pencil made of soapstone, graphite, or chalk. It lets a shinobi blaze trails or write secret mes-sages to others on the same mission. The shinobi may also jab the pencil into a vital point, using it as a weapon of last resort if caught undertaking skulduggery.

Sokutoki
The sokutoki is an incense box, often beautifully lacquered and decorated. Incense boxes are one example of various forms of shinobi tools disguised as or doubling as everyday objects. They are beautiful but not distractingly uncommon, and guards and nosy acquaintances are unlikely to check them, as it would be rude to handle an item so personal to someone else unless they offered it. A shinobi can load an incense box with blinding powder. Then, once they have maneuvered close to their target, they can discharge the powder through a tube into the target’s eyes with a quick, simple motion that is less dramatic and more accurate than flinging the powder from a pocket.

Tenugui
tenugui is a rectangular cloth, usually around three feet by one foot. Shinobi customarily carry one or two extra cloths to replace part of a damaged mask, to filter water, or even to ensnare and choke out a sentry.

Uchitake
An uchitake (lighter), which consists of a short bamboo tube full of coals, aids in starting fires quickly and efficiently. Arson is one of a spy’s oldest and most reliable weapons

Shinobi Weapons
Shinobi weapons tend to be concealable and easy to draw quickly to slay or incapacitate an unwary target. Most of them do double duty as a tool of some sort. Many of the weapons listed here can be used for some innocuous purpose

Swords
Honor may be stronger than steel in Rokugan, but the bite of a shinobi’s blade is no less sharp than that of an honorable samurai’s. Shinobi turn even their blades into instruments of deception

Ninjatō
The ninjatō is a single-edged sword that is shorter than a katana and sports a straight blade rather than the katana’s traditional curve. This makes it easier to produce (the blade is often forged from a single slab of metal instead of folded, then sharpened on a stone) but also less durable and effective as a weapon than a katana. However, its small size means it can be easily carried while running across rooftops and climbing walls, and it is still quite good at slaying unwary targets.

Shinobigatana
Everyone knows that shinobi carry a ninjatō, and that means that if one wears a ninjatō on a deep-cover assignment, anyone who sees the scabbard knows there’s something suspicious afoot. While the ninjatō serves well enough in the field, it can give away a spy in an instant.

Ever eager to innovate on deception, the Scorpion Clan has developed a new form of ninjatō. Its name is written with the same characters but pronounced “shinobigatana.” The shinobigatana is largely identical to an ordinary tachi or katana and worn in a full-length sheath, but it has a shorter blade, making it compatible with the aggressive, percussive style of swordplay the ninjatō favors. The shorter blade allows its wielder to draw it faster than a swordsman would draw a full-length longsword. While its short length is a disadvantage once swords are drawn, shinobi prefer to avoid pitched battles anyway; its advantage on the draw suits it to taking out a suspicious guard quickly and quietly. Even when drawn, it is easily mistakable for an ordinary katana or wakizashi without close inspection. The extra space in the scabbard can also hold messages, medi-cine, poisons, or other secrets. A shinobigatana appears to be a katana until examined closely

Bows
While shinobi are not fabled for their archery, bows are excellent weapons of ambush, assassination, and generally sowing chaos in enemy line

Folding Half-Bow
A hankyū, or shortbow, has a low draw weight and is accurate only at relatively short distances. However, combined with a shinobi’s mobility, it can be very effective, especially for delivering toxins or incendiary material. Shinobi hankyū often fold in half for easy storage within a case

Specialist Weapons
The truest of shinobi weapons are the humblest and most esoteric—tools repurposed for subterfuge, stealth, and murder. From strange hooked spears and chains to weapons more bizarre still, the shinobi’s arsenal is, above all, surprising.

Kamayaria
Kamayari is a spear with a hooked protrusion on one or both sides of the blade, similar to a ji. While the hook’s most obvious applications are blocking attacks and dragging foes off horseback, it also has practical non-combat applications. A shinobi might swing from a sturdy tree limb using the hook or might use it to climb a high fence. If the spear shaft has holes in it, the shinobi can use the shaft to mea-sure distances or can slot bars into the holes to use it as a ladder. Finally, the hook is useful for carrying items on long walks

Kusarifundo
When a shinobi begins training with flexible weapons, they first learn the simplest and most reliable: the kusarifundo (literally “weighted chain”). A kusarifundo consists of two weights shaped like hexagonal prisms and connected by a length of chain that reaches from the sternum to an out-stretched hand when pulled taut. Some disguised varieties hide the weights in the head and body of a doll or similar item.

This weapon collapses easily so that it can be concealed in a small pocket or pouch, or held inconspicuously in the palm. To strike with the kusarifundo, the user can cast it out from the palm or swing it in one hand. They can also hold the chain just behind the weights with both hands, pulling the chain taut to block and deflect weapons, striking with the heavy weights, or entangling, throwing, or strangling the foe with the chain. While the bite of the chain links into skin is very painful, the kusarifundo’s strikes are not usually lethal. Magistrates intending to capture a miscreant alive for questioning also employ this weapon. Kusarifundo skills are an excellent foundation for learning more complicated weapons such as the kusarigama or kyoketsu shoge.

Kyoketsu Shoge
More difficult to use than the kusarifundo is the kyoketsu shoge. Its name literally means “to run around in the countryside”—the result of some inside joke no one quite remembers. A kyokesu shoge consists of a long rope, usually made of hair, with an iron loop tied to one end and a dagger with an additional sideways barb (resembling the head of a kamayari) tied to the other. The loop can be thrown over hooks or protrusions, and the barbed dagger can be sunk into soft things, allowing the shinobi to scale a wall quickly

Aside from that, this weapon can be used similarly to a kusari-gama. However, the loop and rope allow for certain difficult maneuvers that the chain of a kusari- gama does not. For example, if the loop is thrown over the blade of a sword or spear, or grabbed by a foe, a well-practiced kyoketsu shoge wielder can snap the rope to send a wave along its length, entangling the offender’s hand or weapon in a square knot

Shakuhachia
Shakuhachi is a traditional Rokugani flute. This popular musical instrument is particularly associated with an order of mendicant Shinseist monks who play it as a sort of meditation, as well to busk for alms. Shakuhachi come in various sizes, but they are generally sturdy and heavy enough that a traveler may use them for self-defense if accosted by highwaymen. Shinobi who must travel long distances like to disguise themselves as these mendicant monks so that their comings and goings will not be questioned and they can carry a reliable weapon without raising suspicion

Tekagi
Tekagi are three back-curved barbs that protrude from a metal band wrapping around a shinobi’s palm (or, less commonly, the sole of the foot). They are primarily a climbing tool, making climbs easier and allowing shinobi to attempt to scale surfaces they otherwise could not. But they can also be used to swing at and bludgeon a foe when they hang loose from the wrist, or to slash them when attached to the palm. Defensively, a pair of tekagi allow a shinobi to snap a metal blade by catching it and applying lateral pressure to the flat of the blade. Because shinobi are used to wearing tekagi, they sometimes punch with a strangely shaped fist, forming a blade with the fist’s protruding knuckles and bracing the fingertips against the tekagi band

Tekken
Tekken are metal knuckles held in the hand or worn with one’s fingers slotted through its holes. They are easily concealed, and deliver a little extra weight and cutting power to a simple strike. They come in various forms, the simplest of which is a hollow semicircle gripped like a handle. Others have individual slots for fingers or are simply rings with spiked protrusions on one side to cause pain, distraction, and bleeding. A hidden pocket in a robe or sleeve is an excellent place to conceal tekken

Shinobi Armor
Generally speaking, shinobi armor is simply the garb of whoever they are seeking to impersonate—ornate lacquered armor when spying on a general, ceremonial robes when at court, and unadorned common clothes when walking among commoners. However, some tasks call for specialized protection

Firefighter’s Coat
Shinobi arsonists usually wear heavy quilted robe tops when attacking enemy territory to reduce the likelihood they catch fire or suffer burns. Firefighters wear this type of coat as well; firefighters in Otosan Uchi were the first to wear it.

Stealth Clothing
Shinobi usually dress similarly to the people around them, disguising themselves as bushi, priests, farmers, or whatever type of person best helps them blend in. However, when hiding in plain sight is not an option, such as on wilderness scouting missions or when infiltrating a town or castle under cover of night, a shinobi wears special camouflage. This outfit consists of a cloth mask made of two three-foot rectangular pieces of fab-ric tied around the upper and lower head to leave the eyes visible, a short robe with a couple of hidden pockets, loose pants, and thick, soft tabi (socks padded for quiet movement)

This apparel is reversible. One side is dyed a dark color to blend in with darkness and mask blood or other stains; it is commonly rust red, but almost any dark hue (other than black, which blends poorly with most shadows) will do. The other side is a brighter color that matches the daytime surroundings of the mission: blue when operating near water, brown or green for forests, white for snow, and so forth