Hanzo Hattori - Ninja of Igaby
Stephen K. Hayes Japan’s
legendary ninja Hanzo Hattori appears in countless ninja movies and novels
dressed in black, flying through the sky, swimming underwater, tunneling
beneath the ground, and vanishing into the darkness. Ironically, the name of
this real-life ninja is rarely found in historical encyclopedias. His life
story is fuzzy, which is to be expected, since he was a ninja, a master of
the art of invisibility. Hanzo was a
member of the Hattori family, the leaders of the ninja community of Iga
Province in feudal Japan. It is thought that there may have been as many as
four ninja who took the name Hanzo Hattori. The ninja who made famous the
identity of Hanzo Hattori was named Masanari. He was said to have begun
training on Mt. Kurama north of Kyoto at the age of eight, and became a
full-fledged ninja at age twelve, and was known as a master ninja at age
eighteen. His father Yasunaga served Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, the lord of Mikawa
and the grandfather of future shogun leyasu Tokugawa. Though Hanzo was born
and raised in Mikawa, he often returned to Iga, home of the Hattori ninja
family. The Iga and
Koga regions were the birthplace of ninjutsu, and there were over 70
clandestine organizations carrying out the art. In the surrounding mountains
there were large institutes for training in military tactics. Onmyodo,
a Chinese system of divination propagated in Kyoto by Abe Seimei, had been
brought from the capital. The village of Yagyu, along the Kyoto-Nara border,
was home to a venerable school of sword technique. And the Hozo-in temple
in Nara supported of a unique school of spear fighting. All the arts
necessary for ninjutsu could be acquired within a radius of 45 miles from
Iga. In a folk
song from Mikawa in the late 1500s and early 1600s, Hanzo Hattori is
identified as one of the three bravest retainers of the Tokugawa Shogun Lord
Tokugawa has brave retainers. The
Iga-Koga region is a small mountain ringed basin in the center of Japan’s
Kinki district. Though it was rather inaccessible, it absorbed the culture of
Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagoya over the years because of its proximity to them. For
about 100 years from the Onin War through the Warring States Period (middle
of the fifteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth century), Iga and
Koga remained unconquered by an outside warlord. Its mountains discouraged
attack. More importantly, its inhabitants never attempted to expand their
dominion beyond the basin. But the region was not immune to violence. Each
village had a castle behind whose walls arms were stored and plots were
hatched. Warriors
specializing in demolition, political warfare, and gathering intelligence
were based in the region. Tanba Momochi and Nagato Fujibayashi, both of Iga,
established rival ninjutsu organizations based on conventional techniques of
warfare, and were especially proficient in areas of unconventional warfare. Their
schools improved upon techniques of the time and developed new ones by
incorporating the teachings of the various martial schools in the vicinity. In legend,
Hanzo Hattori is known as a superhuman ninja warrior. It was said that he
could sit behind a hand-held fan, bow, and then suddenly disappear, only to
reappear in the next room. He was also master of the art of using a rope to
capture an enemy who sneaked up behind him as he sat in seiza posture.
He was renowned as an "other-worldly" warrior, capable of
psychokinesis and psychomancy. He could discern clairvoyantly the plans and
strength of an enemy army. A
well-known story is told about Hanzo and Ieyasu Tokugawa, then the future
shogun of Japan. The general was fond of the martial arts, and was a sharpshooter,
a master swordsman, and an excellent swimmer himself. One day in his
twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth year, when he was living in Mikawa, he grabbed
Hanzo Hattori by the scruff of the neck, dragged him to a river, and pulled
him underwater. While Hanzo continued to calmly hold his breath, Ieyasu had
to break the surface, gasping for air. He crawled ashore, pale and exhausted.
"How long can a ninja stay underwater?" he asked. "One or two
days, Lord. However long you request," replied Hanzo, who then dived
beneath the water. Several hours passed and there was still no sign of him.
leyasu became worried. He and his retainers began calling Hanzo's name. Then
Hanzo rose to the surface with bursting air bubbles. He was not out of
breath, but smiling. He handed leyasu something, and the general let out a
cry of surprise. It was the short sword he had put on after dressing on
shore. "I was
not beneath the water all the time," Hanzo proudly told his astounded
listeners. "After diving beneath the water, I swam ashore, hid behind a
rock, and napped. When I was called, I dove underwater and surfaced. I
apologize for taking your short sword, Lord, but this is ninjutsu."
leyasu was deeply impressed. leyasu
Tokugawa later established a central government that lasted nearly 300 years
and spanned fifteen generations of his family. He could not have done that if
he had not been a leader talented in engaging and using men of ability. He
used men from various backgrounds for gathering intelligence. Ieyasu received
immeasurable support from ninja like Hanzo. During the Warring States Period,
ninja were the preferred agents for demolition and gathering intelligence.
Many daimyo used them, though it is likely that no other daimyo controlled
ninja as well as Ieyasu. In this respect, leyasu, too, was like a ninja. The story
of the relationship between leyasu and the ninja of Iga is well known in
Japan. Accompanying leyasu, who had been informed of the betrayal of Nobunaga
at Honno-ji temple, Hanzo Hattori proposed that his lord enter Iga, return to
Mikawa with the help of ninja from Iga and Koga, and then attack the warrior
who had betrayed Nobunaga. Ieyasu agreed to his proposal, and Hanzo then
visited a famous ninja living on the border of Iga and Koga and asked for his
help. While guiding leyasu, he shot a rocket into the sky to signal ninja to
gather at the Otogi pass, on the border of Iga and Koga. When leyasu arrived
at the pass, 300 ninja had already gathered there. Hanzo had Ieyasu ride in a
kago, and he himself stood guard at the future shogun’s side. Guided by the
ninja, Ieyasu headed for Mikawa, safely negotiating difficult places day and
night. Hanzo received reports about the repercussions of the attack against
Honno-ji and the movements of the various daimyo. He, in turn, informed
leyasu, riding in a kago beside him. Two hundred
of the ninja who had served as guards were permanently retained by Ieyasu.
They were organized into the Band of Iga, led by Hanzo. In 1590, when leyasu
entered Edo, they accompanied him. They were given residences outside the
west gate of Edo Castle. The area was named Hanzo-cho, and the west gate, at
the back of the castle, was named Hanzo Mon gate. In a castle
town shrines and temples and the residences of key retainers were arranged to
impede an attack against the castle. The creation of a ninja quarter outside
the west gate was astute, because it was from the back of the castle that the
people within would escape and that an enemy would stage a surprise attack,
and ninja were best qualified to guard such a place. The Band of
Koga ninja who had rendered leyasu distinguished service during the Battle of
Sekigahara, were assigned to the defense of the front gate of the castle. In
peacetime they guarded the castle around the clock. In time of war they spied
on the enemy. Hanzo
Masanari died in 1590 at the age of fifty-five. He was succeeded by his
eighteen-year-old son, whose name was also Masanari, though written with
different Chinese characters. Hanzo’s son had not mastered ninjutsu, and he
mistreated the members of the Band of Iga. The ninja did not consider him
worthy of the name Hanzo, and the band revolted. Armed with guns and bows,
they holed up in a nearby temple and demanded his dismissal. If their demand
wasn't met, they vowed to kill Masanari and to take their own lives. Their
number was large enough that historians consider their action to be the first
strike in Japan. The year was 1605. The Band of Iga was divided into four
factions, each led by a low-ranking samurai. They could no longer boast that
the band was headed by Hanzo Hattori. The Battle
of Winter and the Battle of Summer, fought in Osaka in 1614-15, were the
largest battles ever fought on the Japanese islands. In those battles the
Tokugawa destroyed the Toyotomi. They were a dramatic close to the Warring
States Period, and they were also the stages on which the ninja played their
largest roles. Ninja had
developed the art of sending secret letters by arrow. When Sanada Yukimura, a
brave Toyotomi general and excellent tactician, was busy in a corner of Osaka
Castle hatching schemes, leyasu sent him by arrow a letter offering him a
fief of 100,000 koku of rice. He also had ninja disguised as ro-nin
unemployed samurai infiltrate Osaka Castle, where they gathered
intelligence and engaged in a campaign of disinformation that included
identifying certain members of the garrison as part of a spy network. leyasu
utilized as double agents Toyotomi ninja captured by his troops. He sometimes
let prisoners escape after allowing them to hear false plans. Because
ninja operated in the shadows, the full scope of their activities in the
Battle of Winter and the Battle of Summer will never be known. Some
historians credit the shadowy warriors in the service of leyasu with the
destruction of the Toyotomi. In the
first years of the Tokugawa Period, ninja were active in protecting the
Shogun. As the Tokugawa family consolidated their power and peace came to the
nation, ninja had fewer and fewer opportunities to practice their craft. The
Band of Iga and other ninja organizations drifted apart. Hanzo’s
remains now rest in the Sainen-ji temple cemetery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The
temple also holds his favorite spears. Hanzo’s Gate is now one of the
entrances to the Imperial Palace, and a Hanzo-mon subway line, named for the
gate, runs between central Tokyo and the southwestern suburbs. |
