In honor of tonight’s supermoon/lunar eclipse, a quote from “The Secret Traditions of the Shinobi, Hattori Hanzo’s Shinobi Hiden and other Ninja Scrolls”, Edited and Translated by Antony Cummins and Yoshie Minami, page 70-71.
-The Art of Hiding-
On the first day of a big year, [get close to] a dead woman before her funeral, and take from her one strand of hair. Steal it without being seen by anyone else. Use a shujinenshi and wrap the strand inside it. Keep it in a pure place.
Then, when it is the night of a lunar eclipse, [take some wood,] and with a blade carve a kanazashi. In your mind, continually chant the spell listed below, and repeat it countless times until the lunar eclipse ends. At this point you should finish carving the hairpin. Use this pin in your hair, and if an urgent or emergency situation in which you need to hide arises, you should pray seven times with the spell listed below. Envisage black clouds forming around you, which will hide your form; in this manner, you can immediately when need arise. Then, if you wish to end the spell, you should take a bite of the sun, which will allow your form to be seen again.
-The Spell [of Concealment]-
Rai De Seishin Kou Ten Kou Setsu
The above skills in this scroll are being given for the [receiver’s] many years of achievements, and it is imperative that [the secrets] should not be given away to anyone, even to those who are of the same school. - Konyo
