Famous Ninja
Three families ruled Iga – the Hattori, Momochi and Fujibayashi. They produced Hattori Hanzō and Momochi Sandayū, the man who may have lived two lives.
- Chapter
- 1, History
- Sections
- 4
- Reading time
- 6 min
The Hattori Family
Eighty people. That is how many members of the three Hattori families survived when Oda Nobunaga conquered Iga. Until then, the Hattori had been one of the most famous families in the province.
Their roots ran in two directions: to China, and to Ōtomo no Saijin, a high-ranking member of one of the most important families in Japan. The Ōtomo served the imperial family, above all for their knowledge of warfare. Later, the sons of the Hattori were allowed to found branches of their own.
According to some sources, Iga Heinaizaemon no Jō Ienaga gave the eldest son, Hattori Hei Taro Koreyuki, the right to bear the name Kamihattori. The middle son, Hattori Heijiro Yasuyori, founded the Nakahattori name, and the youngest, Hattori Heijiro Yasunori, the Shimohattori name.
Each branch had its own mon 紋 “family crest”
: the Kamihattori bore yahazu nihon (“two arrow nocks”
), the Nakahattori ichitomoe (“a single comma-shaped tomoe”
), and the Shimohattori yaguruma (“eight arrows in a ring”
). A crest of their own shows that the families held the rank of samurai. Modern history books, too, describe Hattori Hanzō as a samurai from Iga.
After Nobunaga’s conquest, the 80 survivors scattered across Japan. The Kamihattori fled to the village of Nagaoka in Echigo. The Shimohattori found protection with the Tokugawa in Mikawa or with the Ochi family in the village of Takatori in Yamato Province. The Nakahattori withdrew up into the Takano Mountains.
Hattori Hanzō
Hattori Hanzō Masanari (1541–1596) is considered the most famous ninja in history. His father, Hattori Hanzō Yasunaga, had become a vassal of the Tokugawa through marriage; at the time, the Tokugawa were still known as Matsudaira. Hanzō’s family belonged to the Kamihattori branch. Whether it descended from the Heitaro or the Chigachi is unknown.
Hanzō grew up with the martial arts, and they remained his main occupation all his life. In 1557, at sixteen, he went into battle for the first time: that night, Tokugawa Ieyasu attacked Uzuchijo in Mikawa, the castle in Udo. Hanzō performed so well that he earned his first reward and the nickname “Hanzō the Ghost”
. Even the Tokugawa took notice. The Battle of Anegawa followed in 1570, and the Battle of Mikatagahara in 1572. His skill earned him a second nickname: “Hanzō the Devil”
.
The Hattori were not watari 渡り, ninja who sold their services to the highest bidder. They stood loyally by the Tokugawa. When Akechi Mitsuhide assassinated Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa was staying in a village near Ōsaka and came under attack from Akechi’s troops. Hanzō and Taro Shiro, a ninja from Kōga, came to his aid with 300 ninja. Using goton jutsu 五遁術 and other special techniques, they brought him safely to Okazakijo.
For his many services, Hanzō, whose full name was Hattori Masanari (服部正成), received a fief of 8,000 koku and command of the Iga dōshin, the Iga foot troops in Tokugawa service. He died in Edo in the winter of 1596/97, probably of illness. A later legend tells his death differently: Hanzō led a force against ninja of the Fūma-Ryū from Kanagawa and pursued them out to sea in boats. Working underwater, the Fūma ninja destroyed the oar, poured oil into the water, and set it on fire as Hanzō’s men tried to swim ashore. No one survived the flames. His name and command passed to his son Masanari (正就).
In the area around Kawauchi, people still sing songs about him. There he is known as “the great lancer”
, a warrior of great strength. Few know of his ties to ninjutsu; he is remembered as a bushi 武士 “warrior”
from Iga.
The Two Identities of Momochi Sandayū
Besides the Hattori, the Momochi and the Fujibayashi were the best-known ninja families of Iga. Some sources trace them, too, back to Ōtomo no Saijin and the Ōtomo family. The province is reported to have been divided in three: the Momochi controlled the south, the Hattori the center, the Fujibayashi the north. Next to Hattori Hanzō, Momochi Sandayū was the best-known ninja leader.
In the Tenbun era (1532–1555), Momochi Sandayū was grandmaster of the Momochi-Ryū and the Gyokko-Ryū (玉虎流), and he was known as a skilled ninja.
According to tradition, he kept three houses to hide his identity. One stood in Ryūguchi Sanbonmatsu in Yamato Province and had been built by the daimyō Kitabatake Tomonori; the others were in Hojiro Yamato and in Takiguchijo. He also had three families and switched between them. In the 1570s he seems to have lived mainly in Ryūguchi Sanbonmatsu, after the village had considered making him one of its leading men.
Many sources report that Momochi Sandayū and Fujibayashi Nagato were one and the same person. That would explain why Fujibayashi appears in no source on Oda Nobunaga’s conquest of Iga in 1581, while heroic deeds are told of Momochi.
During the invasion, Oda Nobunaga had Momochi’s house in Takiguchijo near Iga Ueno burned down. Momochi escaped with his men and held out in Sanbonmatsu until news reached him of Nobunaga’s assassination on June 21, 1582. He probably died not long after the invasion. His grave was found in 1960 in the old family cemetery near the village of Nabari on Mount Okaone, about 24 kilometers from Iga Ueno – on a hill near one of his houses.
In the Tenshō era (1573–1592), Momochi Sandayū II took over the Gyokko-Ryū and the Kotō-Ryū (虎倒流) from Momochi Sandayū. Who became the next sōke 宗家 “head of a Ryū”
of the Momochi-Ryū is unknown. According to the schools’ tradition, the Gyokko-Ryū and Kotō-Ryū passed in the Bunroku era (1592–1596) to Momochi Tanba Yasumitsu, also known as Tanba no Kami (丹波守) and lord of Ryūguchi Castle. In the Genna era (1615–1624), Momochi Taro Daemon, lord of Shokudai Castle in Ueno, took over the seat of the clan. After that, the two Ryū left the Momochi family and went their own ways in Iga Province.
Other Famous Ninja
Well-known members of the Momochi family included Momochi Jindayu Yasumatsu, Momochi Sannojo and Momochi Chuzuburo Yasumatsu, among many others. How well the family’s methods worked is shown by the story of a kunoichi くノ一 named Tanaka Sadako: when she hid, she was said never to be found.
Descendants of Momochi Sandayū still live in one of his houses, but they no longer have any connection to his ninja tradition. The family sold the last of its ninja tools to museums and collectors two or three generations ago.
Little is known about the Fujibayashi, except for the popular but unproven idea that Fujibayashi Nagato and Momochi were one and the same person. Even if the Fujibayashi never existed as a ninja family, Fujibayashi Yasutake, the author of the Bansenshūkai, may still have belonged to the ninja families – or, through being related to them, gained enough knowledge to write the books.
According to tradition, the Fujibayashi ruled their clan from the castles of Yubano and Ayama.
