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The old clans mentioned in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki lost their political power before the Heian period, during which new aristocracies and families, kuge, emerged in their place. After the Heian period, the samurai warrior clans gradually increased in importance and power until they came to dominate the country after the founding of the first ...
A ninja (Japanese: 忍者; [ɲiꜜɲdʑa]) or shinobi (Japanese: 忍び; ) was a covert agent, mercenary, or guerrilla warfare expert in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu. [1]
Fūma Kotarō (風魔 小太郎) was the name adopted by the leader of the ninja Fūma clan (風魔一党, Fūma-ittō) during the Sengoku era of feudal Japan. He was a retainer of the Later Hōjō clan. According to some records, [which?] his name was originally Kazama Kotarō (風間 小太郎).
The ninja of the Iga-ryū was also divided into different "classes" and ranks, based solely on the ninja's skill level. This hierarchy was simplified in the writings of the mid-20th-century author Heishichiro Okuse, who labeled them into three general categories: "jonin (upper ninja)", "chūnin (middle ninja)", and "genin (lower ninja)".
The poet Matsuo Bashō was born in Ueno to a powerful ninja family and was trained in ninjutsu before he left to study haiku. [66] During Ieyasu's campaigns to unite Japan under his authority, many ninja from Iga and Kōka contributed their skills. After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, many ninja turned to farming in Iga and Kōka ...
The beginnings of the Kōga-ryū may be traced to near the end of the Muromachi period.While the district of Kōga, in Ōmi Province, was under the jurisdiction of the Rokkaku clan, it was a kind of autonomous municipality, composed of localized unions called sō (惣).
Jinichi Kawakami (川上仁一) b. 1949, head of Banke Shinobinoden, is the last sōke and only heir to authentic ninjutsu. [1] [better source needed] He says he is the 21st head of the Koga Ban family (Iga and Koga Ninjutsu), a mercenary, and the honorary director of the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum. [2]
Hattori Hanzō (服部 半蔵, c. 1542 [1] – January 2, 1597) or Second Hanzō, nicknamed Oni no Hanzō (鬼の半蔵, Demon Hanzō), [2] was a famous samurai of the Sengoku era, who served the Tokugawa clan as a general, credited with saving the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu and then helping him to become the ruler of united Japan.