63-year-old engineer is Japan's 'Last Ninja'
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Mr Jinichi Kawakami, known as the last ninja, tells his story at the Iga Ninja Museum, June 29, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Mr Jinichi Kawakami, known as the last ninja, introduces traditional Japanese concealed weapon or "shuriken" at the Iga Ninja Museum. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Mr Jinichi Kawakami is known as the last ninja at the Iga Ninja Museum. The 62-year-old former engineer doesn't sound like the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Mr Jinichi Kawakami known as the last ninja at the Iga Ninja Museum. The 62-year-old former engineer doesn't sound like the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Mr Jinichi Kawakami known as the last ninja introduces traditional Japanese concealed weapon "shuriken" at the Iga Ninja Museum, June 29, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Staff from the ninja performance unit, perform during a ninja show at at the Iga Ninja Museum on June 30, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
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Mr Hanzo Ukita, head of ninja performance unit, performs during a ninja show at at the Iga Ninja Museum on June 30, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mr Jinichi Kawakami, known as the last ninja, tells his story at the Iga Ninja Museum, June 29, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mr Jinichi Kawakami, known as the last ninja, introduces traditional Japanese concealed weapon or "shuriken" at the Iga Ninja Museum. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mr Jinichi Kawakami is known as the last ninja at the Iga Ninja Museum. The 62-year-old former engineer doesn't sound like the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mr Jinichi Kawakami known as the last ninja at the Iga Ninja Museum. The 62-year-old former engineer doesn't sound like the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mr Jinichi Kawakami known as the last ninja introduces traditional Japanese concealed weapon "shuriken" at the Iga Ninja Museum, June 29, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Staff from the ninja performance unit, perform during a ninja show at at the Iga Ninja Museum on June 30, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
Mr Hanzo Ukita, head of ninja performance unit, performs during a ninja show at at the Iga Ninja Museum on June 30, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP
IGA, Japan (AFP) - A 63-year-old former engineer may not fit the typical image of a dark-clad assassin with deadly weapons who can disappear into a cloud of smoke. But Mr Jinichi Kawakami is reputedly Japan's last ninja.
As the 21st head of the Ban clan, a line of ninjas that can trace its history back some 500 years, Mr Kawakami is considered by some to be the last living guardian of Japan's secret spies.
"I think I'm called (the last ninja) as there is probably no other person who learned all the skills that were directly" handed down from ninja masters over the last five centuries, he said.
"Ninjas proper no longer exist," he said as he demonstrated the tools and techniques used in espionage and sabotage by men fighting for their samurai lords in the feudal Japan of yesteryear.
