Hattori Hanzo

This article describes the second of four Hattori Hanzos. For the others, see Hattori .

Image from the 17th century

Hattori Hanzō ( Japanese 服 部 半 蔵 ; * 1541 in the province of Mikawa ; † 1596 ), also known by the first name Masanari / Masashige ( 服 部 正 成 Hattori Masanari / Masashige ), was a famous samurai and ninja of feudal Japan . He was the leader of the ninja from Iga . He was also called Oni no Hanzo ( Eng. The demon Hanzo ). Since Hattori Hanzō was the name of the head of the family, he should not be with his father Hattori Yasunaga ( 服 部 保 長 ), his eldest son Hattori Masanari ( 服 部 正 就 ), his second oldest son Hattori Masashige ( 服 部 正 重 ) and also not with anyone else Tokugawa Ieyasu's follower , Watanabe Hanzō, called Hanzō the spear , may be confused.

Life

Hattori Hanzo was the son of Hattori Yasunaga, from whom he took the name Hanzo. By marriage he became a vassal of the Matsudaira clan (later called Tokugawa ). As such, he was loyal to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Although Hanzo was born and raised in Mikawa Province , he often returned to Iga Province , the seat of the Hattori family. Since Iga was next to Kōga (now Kōka ) the birthplace and stronghold of the ninja arts, the region had all the prerequisites to make Hanzō a very capable fighter. He was very skilled in sword fighting, tactical procedures, spear fighting and ninja disciplines.

Hattori Hanzo fought his first battle in 1557 when he was sixteen years old: He took part in the attack by Tokugawa Ieyasu on Uzuchi Castle in Mikawa . It was here that he received his first reward for his excellence on the battlefield. He was also involved in the Battle of Anagawa in 1570 and the Battle of Mikatagahara in 1572. His services there earned him the nickname "Hanzo the spirit", then "Hanzo the devil". But his most important act occurred in 1582 after Oda Nobunaga's death.

At the time, Ieyasu and his followers were near Osaka and learned of Oda's death just enough to avoid Akechi Mitsuhide's forces. But their destination, Mikawa, was still a long way off, and Akechi's forces would be systematically searching for them. Then Hanzo suggested taking the route through Iga, since he had relationships with the samurai there. He was then sent ahead by Honda Tadakatsu . As hoped, the men in Iga agreed to show Ieyasu the way and at the same time offered to escort him to Mikawa. This could not be commanded by Anayama Beisetsu, a man of Tokugawa who had insisted on taking another route.

Hanzō Hattori died in 1596 at the age of 55. Although there is no evidence, there is a presumption that he was killed by ninja of the Fūma clan, who were in the service of the later Hōjō clan from Odawara . Legend has it that the clan's leader, Fūma Kotarō, ambushed Hanzō and killed him with the help of his people.

His successor was his 18-year-old son Masanari, who, however, uses different characters to write. He earned the name Iwami no Kami , and his men were tasked with protecting the castle in Edo . However, the son had never acquired the ninja skills and treated the ninja from Iga badly. They did not consider him worthy to bear the name Hanzo and demanded that he resign. If he didn't, they swore, they would kill him first and then themselves. After his resignation in 1605, the Iga clan split into four groups led by lower samurai.

Hanzo's grave is in the cemetery of the Sainen Temple in Shinjuku , a district of Tokyo . Some of his lances ( yari ) are also kept there . The Imperial Palace, formerly the Palace of the Shogun, still has a Hanzō-mon (coat of arms), and the Hanzōmon line of the Tōkyō Metro is named after it. The people of Japan in the Kawauchi area still sing songs about Hattori Hanzo. He is known there as "the great lance fighter". There is much speculation about his connections to ninjutsu and the ninja , mainly he is known as a warrior ( bushi ) from Iga.

As a fictional character in popular culture

The character of Hattori Hanzō appears occasionally in Jidai-geki , Japanese period films. The actor Sonny Chiba played this role in the television series Kage no Gundan . In the 1999 broadcast film Fukurō no Shiro ( Eng . The Owl's Castle ) he was played by Jinpachi Nezu. Hanzō also appears in many films about the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu (e.g. Shinobi ).

Like many popular and sometimes mysterious historical personalities, he is not missing in the Japanese manga and anime series. He is a minor character in Samurai Deeper Kyo , Hagane Kinnikuman Nisei / Ultimate Muscle , Kenshin , Basilisk , Naruto , Hunter x Hunter and Oda Nobuna no Yabou . He appears as the main character in Princess Ninja Scroll Tenka Musou , Hanzo no Mori / Path of Darkness and Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou . A fictional descendant of Hattori plays a central role in the second part of the Japanese OVA series Mutant Turtles: Chōjin Densetsu-hen , a Japanese answer to the internationally successful animated series Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles .

In the west, the name Hattori Hanzo is best known from Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill . There a swordsmith (played by Sonny Chiba ) bears this name as a descendant of Hanzo. The Hattori-Hanzo swords are referred to in the film as "the best swords in the world". In the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , an outstanding swordsmith goes by the name Hattori, a reference to Kill Bill .

The character can also be found in various video games: for example in Samurai Shodown , World Heroes , Mobile Legends: Bang Bang where he represents an overwhelming demon assassin Battle Coliseum , Shining Force , Suikoden , Nioh, the Samurai Warriors and parts of Samurai Warriors Empires , Kessen 3 as well as Nobunaga's Ambition II and Total War: Shogun 2 , in which a Kisho ninja hero unit is named "Hanzo's shadow".

literature

• Roland Habersetzer : The Warriors of Ancient Japan - Famous Samurai , Rōnin and Ninja . Palisander-Verlag, 1st edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-938305-07-2 . Contains, among other things, a narrative based on historical sources, in which the role that Hattori Hanzo played in the rise of the later Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu is presented.
• Masaaki Hatsumi : Essence of Ninjutsu. The Nine Traditions . Contemporary Books Inc, 1997

Web links

• Hanzo Hattori - Ninja of Iga

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Hattori is the family name, Hanzō the first name.