In the evening, a man with black-framed glasses and a dark jumper sits at a desk reading an open, freshly printed book with a painting in it; beside it an e-reader, a steaming tea bowl, a brush on an inkstone and a stack of old books. A paper lamp gives warm light, and through the window a stone lantern glows in the garden at dusk.
The book, years later

The Book

All of kogakure.de as a book, more than 500 pages on the history, philosophy and techniques of the ninja. As an ebook and a PDF, in German and English, free.

Version
1.0.0
Pages
510
Last updated
November 9, 2026

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本文: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 画像: © Stefan Imhoff

In the evening, a man with black-framed glasses and a dark jumper sits at a desk reading an open, freshly printed book with a painting in it; beside it an e-reader, a steaming tea bowl, a brush on an inkstone and a stack of old books. A paper lamp gives warm light, and through the window a stone lantern glows in the garden at dusk.
The book, years later

Support

This book is free, and it will stay free. Behind it are more than thirty years of collecting, reading and writing, around 360 images and a glossary of about 760 terms.

If it is worth something to you, you can support it, once or regularly, with whatever amount suits you. Ko-fi takes PayPal, cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. It helps to keep kogakure.de running and the book going.

Support it on Ko-fi

You can also support the book without paying: pass it on and tell others about it.

What’s in the book

The book holds the articles of this website, rewritten and set as a book, with a preface of its own. Each part opens with a painting and its name plate in brush script.

A spread of the book: on the left a painting of riders on a mountain path, on the right the name plate 歴史 and the title “Part I, History”.
The beginning of Part I

Each chapter begins the same way: with its painting, its name plate and a short excerpt.

A spread of the book: on the left a painting of an old man with a long beard in a forest, on the right the name plate 天狗, the title “Origins of Ninjutsu” and an excerpt.
The beginning of a chapter

Japanese terms stand in the margin with their characters and their meaning, and figures carry their number.

A spread of the book with running text, a figure and Japanese terms in the margin.
Terms in the margin

At the end come the glossary of about 760 terms and, in the PDF, an index.

A spread of the glossary in two columns, the terms in bold, with their characters and meaning.
The glossary

The formats

The ebook (EPUB) adapts to any screen. Read it on an e-reader or in a reading app, on a Kindle through „Send to Kindle“.

The PDF shows the pages as the book is set, with an index and links you can click. It is accessible (PDF/UA).

You may pass the text on under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence. The images are protected by copyright and may not be reused on their own.