Shinobi is another name for ninja. Real fucking ninjas.  I mean, not like cave-dwelling ninjas but these guys will fuck you up.  Or entertain and perform. 

Chief: When did you guys start performing as Shinobi-Try?

Shinobi: It actually started in December 2004 with three members including me.  First, it was only for a one time performance for a college event, one of us still was a student then.  This guy and I had belonged to the same gymnastics club in college and we had a common friend who was a dancer.  So the three of us figured we might be able to create something totally new if we corroborated our acrobatic moves and his dance. 

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And the ninja concept?  Where did it come from?

Well, besides the fact that I’ve always liked ninja stuff since I was little, I used to learn Budo – Shorinji Kempo (a form of martial arts) - so I knew basic moves and katas from that.  First we picked up some of those moves and mixed that with what we had, and gradually created new stuff.  Like, you could probably say what we do is like ninjas from American comics, you know, not only Budo moves but it has a European taste in it too.  

Right on! So if it was supposed to be a one time thing, what made you guys decide to keep it up?

We videotaped our show and put it up online, and we got all these responses from all different kinds of people saying what we did was cool and all that.  And then some people, some event planners for various organizations, contacted us and suggested we do something bigger than just a college event.  We were all about that and figured if we wanted to do something bigger, it’d be better if we belong to an entertainment agency. And that’s how we came about.  Members have actually changed a few times during these years, we now have five main members and two sort of substitutes but only me and one other guy are part of the original members.  Others have left and joined at different times.  We’ve renamed our group twice.  First it started as SHINOBI, then Shinobi 2nd, and then thirdly we became Shinobi-Try.

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Oh, so Shinobi-Try’s “Try” means like trying for the third time?

Yes, we have a Japanese proverb that goes, “3度目の正直” - it’s close to ‘The third time’s the charm’).  But it also means the triangle of budo, acrobatics and dance - we think that the balance of that triangle is the center of our performance.  Also, our ninja style is not a Japanese traditional style but more like the one that appears in American comics, so it’s like we reimported the foreign idea of ninja, right?  And you know how “try” in Japanese can mean coming over from overseas?  Yep, so it also means that too!