Japan File: Ninja Submarines wrote:UNDERWATER DRAGONS
Did the Japanese really invent the submarine? Butch Read recounts the tale of the infamous ninja dragon boats and their exploits in the Inland Sea.
n the popular culture of today, it's pretty hard not to have heard at least a little about the amazing abilities of the ninjas of Japan's feudal past. Their abilities to leap incredible heights or their seeming powers of invisibility are just two of the more well-known wonders. And martial artists who have done some reading probably know about the ninja dwarf who was dispatched to do away with the daimyo (feudal lord) and did so after hiding in the bottom of the daimyo's toilet submerged in effluent. When the daimyo finally came in he lost his life with a lance up his anus. The ninja dwarf then resubmerged and, breathing through a straw, waited for the right moment to make his escape. What is not so well-known is that not all ninjas based their activities solely on land. Several branches of ninja families fought mainly on and under water.
Funakainin, as they where known, plied the waters of Japan in semi-submersible paddlewheel driven vessels. These vessels rode underwater mainly, except for their bows which were in the shape of dragons' heads. This gave rise to their name ryu-o-sen, or dragon boat.
During the Tokugawa Shogunate one famous ninja leader, Fuma Kotaro, proved rather effective in his subversive activities. Hattori Hanzo, another famous ninja of the time, was called upon by Tokugawa to put an end to Kotaro's activities. Hattori had dozens of large boats with heavy guns built in order to scour the Inland Sea and destroy Kotaro's crew. The funakainin had only a few boats and nearly no arms.
Just off the Suo coast Hattori's heavy guns hit their targets. All of Kotaro's boats were hit and started to burn, except one, which seemed to be floating disabled just out of range. Wary of a trap, Hattori ordered a slow advance. As they moved up the tide changed and all the boats were dragged into a narrow channel. Hattori ordered his crews to come about but the helmsmen all yelled back "No rudder!"
Ballast was supplied by sandbags which could be dumped through a hatch in the bottom of the boat in order to raise the boat to the surface. The hatch also served to allow funakainin to exit the dragon boat unseen underwater and, using snorkels, swim to their target boats and disable them by either drilling holes in the hulls or cutting the rudder ropes. Air supply inside the dragon boat was limited, but sufficient for funakainin to raid and retreat with expediency.
Kotaro's men had swum up unnoticed and cut the rudder ropes. As the government boats drifted closer to the burning wrecks the possibility of catching fire became apparent. Hattori ordered all the gunpowder dumped overboard, but the order came too late. As the boats drifted menacingly close Hattori ordered his men to abandon ship only to realize, again too late, the water was covered with a layer of oil. As the first burning wreck reached the edge of the oil most of Hattori's men were condemned to a fiery death.
Most funakainin were loyal to their daimyo, but some left their families to become plunderers and pirates. One notorious group plied the Inland Sea stealing from coastal villages, until their hiding place was discovered. Their vessel was a mysterious monster-headed boat that breathed fire.
Village fishermen said it would move around a point of Awaji Island and then just disappear. The government gunboats said the same thing. The dragon head on the boat was actually a lookout big enough to accommodate a man and a small fire, to keep him warm and to produce smoke.
At one end of Awaji Island the sheer cliffs housed a low arched cave that was not easily seen, even at low tide. Underwater, the cave entrance was quite large, and so was the interior, large enough to house a dock and the pirates' headquarters.
These resourceful ninja would time their attacks using the rising tides to their advantage. When their mission was accomplished they would head straight for the unseen cave in their semi-submersible vessel and appear to disappear.
One day a young boy out fishing in a dinghy accidentally slipped into their cave and saw everything. He told his father who told the warrior commander who in turn brought in the government naval forces to put an end to these pirates' raiding parties.
As with most weaponry, eventually a way to decommission the dragon boats was found. Since they travelled at a fixed depth and worked without the aid of sonar devices, faster moving surface boats with rotating blades set underwater (maruhabune) could approach almost unnoticed and tear the skins of the semi-submersibles apart, thus putting an end to that era of ninja history.
There's some nice history fun.
