The sheath of a ninja-to could be used as a
snorkel, which enabled ninja to hide in the water for a long time.
Some ninja-to had another small blade in their
handles to sneak-attack the enemy.
Kunai
The kunai was a very convenient tool and a
weapon for ninja. It looks like a spearhead with a short grip, about 30
cm in length.
It serves as a knife, a gimlet, a shovel,
a small hammer and a throwing dagger. It can be compared to the army knife
of today.
As a thrown weapon, it was much more powerful
than a shuriken.
Kozuka
Similar to the shuriken and the Kunai, the slim and light design of the kozuka enable it to be thrown over great distances.
Shuriken
The word shuriken means ``a dagger hidden in
a palm'', so all daggers small enough to hide in a palm were called by
this name.
As a shuriken can hardly penetrate armor protection,
it was usually used against an unarmed opponent.
Poison is sometimes used with the shuriken.
Makibishi
A makibishi is a small spike to sting the sole
of a foot.
When a ninja was chased by enemy soldiers,
he scattered numerous makibishi to the ground.
As Japanese shoes ( zori ) were made of grass
in those days, the makibishi could easily penetrate the shoes.
The spike of a makibishi was often hooked,
thus it would be very painful if someone stepped on a makibishi.
Some ninja used another version of makibishi,
which exploded when someone stepped on it. It was called bakurai-bishi
.
Mizu-gumo
Literally called "Water Spiders", these two pieces of wooden footwear enables ninja to "walk on water". As Japanese are rather small in size and are thus quite light in weight, they could either glide on the water surface or run on water.