lead=yes is a Japanese term for onna.
Although kunoichi have appeared in numerous creative works, including novels, TV-dramas, movies, and manga, Mie University historians have concluded that there are no historical records of female ninja performing reconnaissance and subversive activities in the same manner as their male counterparts. However, the late 17th century ninja handbook Bansenshukai describes a technique called in which a female is used for infiltration and information-gathering, which Seiko Fujita considered evidence of female ninja activity.
The word "kunoichi" was not used frequently in the Edo period. This is probably because in this era, the kanji letter "女" was not written in regular script but usually in cursive script, and the cursive script of "女" cannot be decomposed into "く", "ノ", and "一".
The eighth volume of the ninja handbook Bansenshukai written in 1676 describes , which can be interpreted as "a technique to utilize a woman". The Bansenshukai compiles the knowledge of the ninja clans in the regions of Iga Province and Kōka. According to this document, the main function of the kunoichi was espionage, finding functions in enemy house services, to gather knowledge, gain trust or listen to conversations.Seiko Fujita, From Ninjutsu to Spy Warfare (忍術からスパイ戦へ). Higashi Shisha, 1942. pp 83. This "technique to utilize a woman" was employed for infiltration purposes when it was difficult for a man to infiltrate. There is a technique in which a kunoichi uses a double-bottomed wooden chest to infiltrate a person into a building by telling the wife of the house that she is retrieving a wooden chest. Both of these techniques however are described as "techniques through the usage of a woman", and while Seiko Fujita considers these techniques to be evidence of female ninja, Yoshimaru and Yamada consider 'female ninja' not to have existed as such.
Another early mention of kunoichi exists in the poem compilation Enshūsenkuzuke by Waki Enshū from 1680, and was used to refer to Sei Shōnagon, a female poet.
Iga FC Kunoichi, a women's football club which is based in the city of Iga, takes its name from the term.
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