At night a watchtower burns and thick smoke drifts across a wide field; soldiers with spears run towards the fire while, on the right, a hooded ninja climbs into the crown of a pine.
Katon and mokuton, escape through the smoke into the trees

Gotonpō

A river, a tree, a fire, a hole in the ground, a mirror – after a mission, the ninja used the five elements to get away.

Chapter
6, Strategy & Tactics
Sections
6
Reading time
2 min
At night a watchtower burns and thick smoke drifts across a wide field; soldiers with spears run towards the fire while, on the right, a hooded ninja climbs into the crown of a pine.
Katon and mokuton, escape through the smoke into the trees

After a mission, the ninja had to get away. For this they relied on gotonpō (五遁法), the five methods of escape. Each one uses one of the five elements and rests on the Daoist principle of gogyō 五行: with water (suiton, 水遁), wood (mokuton, 木遁), fire (katon, 火遁), earth (doton, 土遁), and metal (kinton, 金遁), the ninja prepared and carried out the escape.

Suiton – Escape with Water

  • Using still and flowing water to escape
  • Swimming and diving techniques
  • Boats and water tools
  • Silent swimming
  • Swimming without making waves
  • Hiding behind artificial reed islands (kitsune gakure no jutsu, “the art of hiding like a fox”)
  • Staying underwater with a breathing tube or air bags
  • Knowing how water affects a battle
  • Diverting rivers
  • Undermining walls
  • Flooding the land
  • Navigating on water
A marsh at dusk: soldiers with torches search the far bank while a ninja lies motionless in the shallow water among the reeds, a heron standing beside him.
Suiton, hiding behind a reed island

Mokuton – Escape with Wood

  • Using wood and plants to escape
  • Climbing trees and poles (tanuki gakure no jutsu, “the art of hiding like a raccoon dog”)
  • Hiding in treetops and bushes
  • Natural camouflage
  • Making poisons and medicines
  • Building siege engines
  • Knowledge of building structure and construction
  • Climbing with ropes and ladders
On a forest path, four soldiers probe the undergrowth with spears while a masked ninja crouches in the crown of a tree above them.
Mokuton, hiding in a tree crown

Katon – Escape with Fire

  • Using fire
  • Firearms, grenades, mines, cannons, and explosives
  • Exploiting light, shadow, and sound
  • Exploiting dawn and dusk, fog, rain, and smoke
  • Sneaking through the shadows
  • Poison gas and sleeping gas
  • Arson
  • Knowing how fire works in battle
  • Setting fields and forests on fire
  • How wind drives fire
  • Fire arrows and incendiary projectiles
  • Smoking out
A farmstead at dusk: a thatched roof burns, thick smoke drifts across the yard, soldiers run toward the fire, and a ninja vaults over a clay wall under cover of the smoke.
Katon, escape through smoke and fire

Doton – Escape with Earth

  • Using earth, rocks, stones, and walls to escape
  • Hiding in holes, caves, and hollows, and behind rocks
  • Burying oneself in sand and earth
  • Climbing rocks and walls
  • Walking and running techniques for roofs, narrow passages, and slippery ground
  • Knowledge of terrain
  • Knowledge of topography
  • Navigating on land
  • Knowledge of vehicles

Kinton – Escape with Metal

  • Using metal to escape
  • Weapons such as shuriken 手裏剣 and tetsubishi 鉄菱
  • Tools such as saws, drills, and burglary tools
  • Climbing gear such as shukō 手鉤, ashi kō, and kagi nawa 鈎縄
  • Mirrors for dazzling or signaling

How the Elements Combine

The five elements are hard to separate, and usually several come into play at once. A ninja climbing rocks (doton) used metal climbing tools (kinton) to do it. A ninja hiding in a hole in the ground (doton) or in water (suiton) often added plants (mokuton) as camouflage. The categories can be extended at will. Even modern technology such as GPS fits into one of them.

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