Ninjas are known for being incredibly quiet, sneaky, and quick. They’ve got their signature black outfit, and can throw ninja stars faster than the speed of light. Or could they?

They weren’t actually called “Ninja” back in the day. Historic Japanese documents show that they were actually known as “shinobi no mono” during the medieval period. “Ninja,” which is the mock-Chinese translation of the same Japanese historical documents, didn’t become a popular term for them until the 20th century.

It was peace in Japan that caused their decline. Their ‘golden years’ actually took place when Japan was constantly ravaged by wars.

Ninjas weren’t trained assassins. They were actually trained in spy-craft, infiltration, covert operations, and explosives. While some ninjas were used to perform assassinations, there is hardly any mention of the subject in their manual.

The ninja manual contained a ton of recipes for waterproof torches, land mines, hand grenades, and even poisoned gas.

As far as we know, the first historical mention of a ninja was in a chronicle written in 1375. It talks about how ninjas were ordered to burn down enemy buildings on a dark and stormy evening.

Ninjas, unfortunately, didn’t wear masks. There isn’t any evidence that supports the idea that ninjas wore masks. What they did do, was cover their faces with their long sleeves when they were within eyesight of an enemy. If they were working in groups, they sported white headbands which helped them see each other in the moonlight.

Throwing stars weren’t really part of their repertoire. The stars were used as weapons by the samurai, and never really had any connection to ninjas until the 20th century thanks to comics and television.

Ninjas didn’t kill themselves after failed missions. They were taught that it was better to abort a mission than to go through with it and mess it up. Some historical evidence does suggest that ninjas may have burned their own bodies to avoid being identified if they were ever caught.

Ninjas did not practice the art of Ninjutsu. In fact, there is no historical evidence supporting the idea that ninjas practiced any particular form of hand to hand combat. Ninjutsu was invented by a Japanese man in the 1950s and was introduced to America in the 80s.

In he late 1600s, something of a “ninja bible” was written. Known as the Bansenshukai, there are only around 450 copies left in all of Japan, and the majority of them are kept secret.