How long do Mudras take to master?

[KingAce]

So I'm not to keen on the Ninja Lore. However one of my characters on my server, is a shinobi. My question is, how long do Mudras take to master? I'd imagine they'd take quite a long time. Years maybe? Decades? I doubt it'd take months or so to master ALL mudras. Learning and then obviously practicing, wouldn't take long. However completely mastering the whole art? I feel like it'd take a long time. Anyways, my question is, how long does it take to master all Mudras?

Edited January 10, 2019 by KingAce
Forgot tag :p

[Sounsyy]

Depends entirely on the person! Shinobi are ranked however according to their mastery of mudras.

 

"Genin" = learning or having mastery over one mudra and single mudra techniques, lowest rank

"Chunin" = mastery over two-mudra techniques, middle rank

"Jonin" = mastery over three-mudra techniques, highest rank of ninja

 

Yugiri and Oboro are jonin rank and they've both been training for years to achieve that level of mastery.

 

 

Encyclopedia Eorzea - Yugiri Mistwalker: “Having witnessed the terrors wrought by the Garlean Empire, a young Yugiri made the pilgrimage from her Raen home to the village of the shinobi, seeking tools with which she might fight the Empire. Through years of inhuman trials, she learned the ways of the shinobi - how to fight from the shadows - eventually earning the rank of ‘jonin.’ Having thus mastered ninjutsu and being given the epithet ‘Mistwalker,’ she pledged herself to the remnants of the Doman general’s clan. Thereafter, she waged a war against the Garlean Army."

 

Oboro: "'Chunin' is our word for a shinobi who has attained full mastery of two-mudra techniques. In our tradition, when a student is deemed by his master to show such potential, she is led to a waterfall outside the village to conduct intense training."

 

Encyclopedia Eorzea - Katon: “By joining earth with heaven, the ninja calls a great gout of flame to erupt from the ground and lick hungrily at the sky. Only shinobi who have mastered two-mudra techniques such as Katon may earn the rank of chunin, or ‘middle-ninja.’”

 

Encyclopedia Eorzea - Mudra: “Known as ‘mudra,’ the ritual hand gestures that allow a ninja to harness mystical energies can be considered the simplified components of more complicated incantations. By manipulating the aether present in heaven (ten), earth (chi), and man (jin), and further combining their effects in predetermined sequences, the shinobi is capable of manifesting an impressive array of arcane phenomena.”

 

Encyclopedia Eorzea - Rabbit Medium: “When classifying ninjutsu by the broader definitions of the arcane arts, one might describe the mudra of summoning as a fusion of both teleportation and summoning magicks: an aether-enhanced creature is bound into service, then forcibly transported from its domain to the shinobi’s location. While not all ninjas are capable of such techniques, any failed mudra can result in the conjuration of a curious rabbit-like manifestation from some unknown dimension.”

 

 

Sorry I couldn't give you a more definitive timeframe, but hope this helps!

[Damien]

To be honest, I doubt there's any real limiting factor to learning the mudras beyond when their tutors feel they are ready. I think this is best reflected in Oboro's quote mentioned by Sounsyy above - "who has attained full mastery." I'd like to think they give you the first mudra and once they feel like not only you can use it, but use it well - be it under pressure or at the best times, -then- they give you the next mudra and time to learn the new skills that lets you access. That way the student builds up a better idea of when to use each mudra, rather than learning them all at once.

 

So it depends on the student, and whether their teacher feels like letting them do more mudras is in their interest. Teaching them all outright might be to their detriment - knowing all the mudra combination does not equate to mastery over them. As how long that mastery takes, it's sensible to leave it vague. 

[Koko]

I agree with Damien. I think that fundamentally it's not about the Mudras themselves, but actually the skillset that your masters might deem appropriate for a Shinobi to possess before you're "trusted" with another Mudra. Perhaps anyone with good manual dexterity could learn the Mudras quick and effectively, but the point of a Ninja is to use them in combat; to have them so devoted to muscle memory and knowing so well when their application is appropriate that you couldn't simply master all of them in a month because they are part of the lifestyle of a Ninja. Knowledge of a Mudra =/= Mastery of a Mudra, and Ninjutsu is not exclusively the study of Mudras.

 

How long? I couldn't say, likely depending on how intensely you train, how effective your masters are, and your own capacity, but I'd like to think that the Ninja fantasy sort of implies that you know each and every one of the Mudras in such an in-depth manner that you'd probably need months of training to be deemed worthy of a Mudra, then months of training to commit that Mudra to memory and all it adds to your already solidified technique. 

 

It might help to think of it as earning a black belt in a Martial Art. You could have it in 2 years with intense daily training, or in 5 years with a couple training sessions a week.

Edited March 18, 2019 by Koko