They were farmers. They would kill samurai by sneaking up on them when they didn't expect it. They'd also be useful informants cause they could see troop movements and report them to their lords.

The whole all black clad master swordsmans shit is all Hollywood and Japs selling bullshit to the west to make them look cool.

They sprang from some edgy buddhist sect and were hired for political assasinations

>>439539
Afaik there were also samurais who were ninjas. It's not either or strictly speaking.

>>439539
Yeah black is a terrible color when trying to blend into darkness, it stands out, red and blue work better. It's really hard to see foxes at night cause of their red/orange coats.

>>439590
>>439539
They weren't supposed to be black, they were a VERY dark shade of red

>>439539
The black clad bit is from kabuki theatre. You didn't have extras or chorus in kabuki, so any disguised assassin would be immediately obvious to the audience simply by being on stage. However, stagehands dressed in black and sometimes with covered faces, were often on stage and were supposed to be ignored by the audience. A stagehand, someone just walking through the scene with no relevance to the action whatsoever, suddenly drawing a weapon and killing a major character, would be shocking.

>>439599
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyn-wz5Mk_I

makes sense

>>439539
>The whole all black clad master swordsmans shit is all Hollywood
It's not really hollywood, they've been viewed that way in Japan for ages.

>>439496

Contrary to popular belief, they were not farmers or peasants. They were typically Samurai from certain specific areas of the country. I've also never seen any compelling evidence to show that they wore those black outfits or had all those special tools. It's probably an Edo period romanticization.

>>439590

>Yeah black is a terrible color when trying to blend into darkness, it stands out, red and blue work better.

Explain

>>439991

he means dark colors, like navy blue.