Hattori Hanzō, also known by the name Hattori Masanari, was the third son of Hattori Yasunaga, a samurai who served the Matsudaira clan. In his childhood he was called Tigachi Hanzō. His father held the highest rank in the shinobi hierarchy, that of jōnin, and Hanzō followed in his father’s footsteps, choosing the same path.
Although Hattori was born in Mikawa Province, which was the domain of the Matsudaira clan and later became the territory of the Tokugawa clan, he maintained close and extensive ties with Iga Province, which was considered the homeland of the Hattori clan.
In 1558, when Hanzō had not yet reached the age of sixteen, he proved himself a brave and skilled warrior during a nighttime attack on Udo Castle, located in Nishi District of Mikawa Province. That night, Hanzō led a detachment of approximately fifty to sixty shinobi saboteurs who secretly infiltrated the enemy stronghold, killed the guards, and set fire to the castle in several places, after which the enemy was forced to surrender. For this outstanding feat, Tokugawa Ieyasu rewarded Hanzō with a precious spear, which the descendants of the Hattori family preserve to this day as a sacred relic.
In 1562, Hanzō distinguished himself by rescuing Ieyasu’s daughters from Kaminogo Castle, where they were being held hostage. In January 1569, acting on Tokugawa’s orders, he captured Kakegawa Castle in Tōtōmi Province. During the fighting at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570 and at Mikatagahara in 1572, Hanzō, thanks to his exceptional abilities, accomplished many feats and displayed remarkable fearlessness, for which he received the nickname “Hanzō the Devil,” or Oni no Hanzō. He was regarded as a recognized master of military strategy and spear fighting.
In 1579, Hanzō was appointed as one of the assistants to Ieyasu’s eldest son, Tokugawa Nobuyasu, in carrying out ritual suicide; however, he was unable to carry out this task out of respect for Nobuyasu.
In 1582, after the death of Oda Nobunaga, Hanzō accompanied Tokugawa Ieyasu during his extremely dangerous escape from Sakai to Mikawa through provinces filled with the followers of the traitor Akechi Mitsuhide, who were hunting for Ieyasu. At Hanzō’s suggestion, their route passed through Iga Province, where he had many loyal and trustworthy associates. As a result, Ieyasu managed to reach Mikawa safely, unlike, for example, Anayama Baiketsu. Anayama Baiketsu, who had first served Takeda Shingen and later defected to Ieyasu, chose a different route to Mikawa and was ultimately killed by Mitsuhide’s men.
Thanks to his knowledge of the actions and intentions of various daimyō, as well as his outstanding talent as a military commander, Hattori Hanzō earned great respect from Tokugawa Ieyasu and was appointed head of the secret service, the ommitsu-gashira. While leading this service, Hanzō established positions known as “gardeners” (oniwa-ban) within Ieyasu’s castle, assigning the most experienced shinobi to these posts. These “gardeners” performed the duties of bodyguards and scouts, capable both of dealing with spies and of carrying out covert operations in enemy territory.
In 1590, Hanzō took part in the siege of Odawara Castle, the stronghold of the Hōjō clan, for which he was granted an estate in Tōtōmi Province with an annual income of eight thousand koku of rice.
After Tokugawa’s headquarters was moved in June of the same year to Edo, the future capital of Japan, Tokyo, Ieyasu, in gratitude for Hanzō’s loyalty, granted him the rank of hatamoto, that is, a direct vassal of the daimyō, increased his income by another eight thousand koku of rice, and bestowed upon him a residence located in front of one of the gates of Edo Castle. These gates later became known as Hanzō-mon, the “Hanzō Gate.” During this period, Hanzō had under his command one hundred and fifty yoriki police officers and three hundred dōshin guards. Around the same time, he accepted the honorary title of Iwami no Kami.
Hattori Hanzō died at the age of fifty-five in 1596. His heir was his son, Iwami no Kami Masanari. The name Masanari was written with different characters than his father’s name. The younger Masanari served as the head of security of Edo Castle and was killed in 1615 in battle with the defenders of Osaka Castle.
See also
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Hatano Hideharu
Hatano Hideharu was the eldest son of Hatano Harumichi, the head of the Hatano clan. However, in childhood he was adopted by his uncle, Hatano Motohide, and was therefore formally regarded as Motohide’s heir. From the time of Hideharu’s grandfather, Hatano Tanemichi, the Hatano clan had been a vassal of the powerful Miyoshi house, which exerted considerable influence over the Ashikaga shoguns and effectively shaped the political situation in the region. Early in his career, Hideharu served Miyoshi Nagayoshi and, judging by surviving records, held a fairly high position within his lord’s hierarchy, as he was among the select group invited to the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Ōgimachi in 1557.
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Fukushima Masanori
Fukushima Masanori, a samurai from Owari Province, served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and took part in the Battle of Shizugatake, where he distinguished himself so conspicuously that he was awarded the honorary title of one of the “Seven Spears of Shizugatake,” meaning the warriors who had shown the greatest valor in the battle. As a reward for his courage and martial prowess, he was granted land producing an income of 5,000 koku of rice.
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Uemura Masakatsu
Masakatsu was a member of the Uemura clan and the son of Uemura Masatada; from an early age he served Tokugawa Ieyasu. During the Ikkō-ikki uprising in Mikawa Province in 1563, having converted from the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist sect to the Jōdoshū sect, he took part in suppressing the rebels. After these events, Masakatsu was appointed a military governor and was granted land holdings. According to a number of sources, he was one of the so-called “Three Governors of Mikawa” (Mikawa sanbugyō), together with Amano Yasukage (1537–1613) and Koriki Kiyonaga (1530–1608).
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Tomoe Gozen
Gozen is regarded as one of the few historically documented examples of true female warriors of feudal Japan, known as onna-musha or onna-bugeisha. Although Japanese history records countless women who at various times were forced to take up arms—for example, in defense of their castles—Tomoe Gozen was, without any doubt, a genuinely skilled and accomplished fighter. She was the wife of Kiso (Minamoto) Yoshinaka, although The Tale of the Heike describes her more as a female vassal. Yoshinaka rose in rebellion against the Taira clan and, in 1184, captured Kyoto after his victory at the Battle of Kurikawa. After the Taira were driven into the western provinces, Yoshinaka began insistently asserting that he alone was worthy of assuming leadership of the Minamoto clan and taking on the mantle of its head.
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Tachibana Muneshige
Tachibana Muneshige was born the eldest son of Takahashi Shigetane, one of the principal retainers of the Ōtomo clan and commander of Iwaya Castle. In childhood, he bore the name Senkumamaru. His early years coincided with a period of intense military confrontation between the Ōtomo clan and other powerful warrior houses of Kyūshū—namely the Shimazu, Akizuki, and Ryūzōji clans.
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Tachibana Dosetsu
Tachibana Dōsetsu is the name by which Hetsugi Akitsura is more widely known; the name of this lineage is also found read as Hekki or Bekki. For a long period, Akitsura served the Ōtomo clan, the daimyō of Bungo Province, and took part in wars against the Ōuchi family, the principal enemies of the Ōtomo in northwestern Kyushu. In the 1560s, Akitsura seized the castle of the Tachibana clan, which had rebelled against the Ōtomo, and thereafter adopted the surname Tachibana. Around the same time, he took Buddhist vows and assumed the name Dōsetsu, which means “Snowy Road.”
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Taira no Masakado
Taira no Masakado embodied the quintessential samurai of his era—self-assured, harsh, and unyielding. In his youth, he served in the palace guard and repeatedly proved his bravery while suppressing unrest. Thanks to these achievements, Masakado sought the post of chief of the capital’s military-police office (the kebiishi-chō), but he was rejected: by that time, nearly all court positions—now little more than privileged sinecures—were controlled by members of the powerful Fujiwara clan.
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Sakakibara Yasumasa
Yasumasa was the second son of Sakakibara Nagamasa and was born in Ueno in Mikawa Province. From a young age, he began serving Tokugawa Ieyasu and eventually rose to the position of one of his most trusted generals. His wife was the daughter of Osuga Yasutaka. Ieyasu first noticed the young Yasumasa during the suppression of the Ikkō-ikki uprising in Mikawa in 1564. Thanks to his demonstrated abilities, Yasumasa was granted the privilege of using the character “yasu”—the second character of Ieyasu’s own name—in his own. Although he was the second child in his family, he became his father’s heir, though the exact reasons for this remain unknown.
