Hattori Hanzo

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Hattori Hanzo

, also known as , the son of Hattori Yasunaga, was a famous Samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial society Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character ? was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau....
.

Hanzo was born a vassal

Vassal

A vassal in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudal of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fiefdom....
of the Matsudaira (later Tokugawa

Tokugawa clan

The was a powerful daimyo family of Japan. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa and were a branch of the Minamoto clan by the Nitta clan. However, the early history of this clan remains mystery....
) clan, and served Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Japanese name|Tokugawa}} was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868....
; he would later earn the nickname because of the fearless tactics he displayed in his operations. His nickname distinguishes him from another Tokugawa samurai, Watanabe Hanzo

Watanabe Moritsuna

was a Japanese samurai of the Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan....
, called .

gh Hanzo was born and raised in Mikawa Province

Mikawa Province

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Hattori Hanzo'

Start a new discussion about 'Hattori Hanzo'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

, also known as , the son of Hattori Yasunaga, was a famous Samurai

Samurai

Vassal

Tokugawa clan

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Watanabe Moritsuna

was a Japanese samurai of the Edo period, who served the Tokugawa clan....
, called .

Biography

Though Hanzo was born and raised in Mikawa Province

Mikawa Province

is an old provinces of Japan in the area that today forms the eastern half of Aichi Prefecture. Mikawa bordered on Owari province, Mino province, Shinano province, and Totomi Province provinces....
, he often returned to Iga, home of the Hattori family. He was an extremely skilled swordsman, tactician and spearman. In the surrounding mountains, there were large institutes for training in martial skills. Onmyodo

Onmyodo

is a traditional Japanese esoteric cosmology, a mixture of natural science and occultism. It is based on the Chinese philosophies of Wu Xing and Yin and yang, introduced into Japan at the turn of the 6th century, and accepted as a practical system of divination....
, a Chinese

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
system of divination

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized process or ritual. Diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency....
propagated in Kyoto

Kyoto

Sorry, no overview for this topic
by Abe no Seimei

Abe no Seimei

was an onmyoji, a leading specialist of onmyodo during the middle of the Heian Period in Japan. In addition to his prominence in Japanese history, he is a legendary figure in Japanese folklore and has been portrayed in a number of stories and films....
, had been brought from the capital. The village of Yagyu, along the Kyoto-Nara

Nara, Nara

is the capital cities of Japan of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture....
border, was home to a venerable school of sword technique. The Hozo-in temple in Nara supported a unique school of spear fighting, the Hozoin-ryu

Hozoin-ryu

is a traditional school of Japanese martial arts that specializes in the art of spearmanship . Hozoin-ryu was founded by Hozoin Kakuzenbo In'ei in c....
. Hattori, who fought his first battle at the age of 16, went on to serve at the battles of Anegawa

Battle of Anegawa

The 1570 came as a reaction to Oda Nobunaga's sieges of the castles of Odani Castle and Yokoyama, which belonged to the Azai clan and Asakura clan clans....
(1570) and Mikatagahara

Battle of Mikatagahara

The was one of the most famous battles of daimyo Takeda Shingen's campaigns, and one of the best demonstrations of his cavalry-based tactics....
(1572), but his most valuable contribution came in 1582, following Oda Nobunaga

Oda Nobunaga

was a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of History of Japan. He was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a deputy shugo with land holdings in Owari province....
's death.

Hattori Hanzo died in 1596 at the age of fifty-five of natural causes. However, there is a popular legend that a ninja, Fuma Kotaro, killed Hanzo in battle. He was succeeded by his eighteen-year-old son, whose name was also Masanari, though written with different kanji

Kanji

are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....
. His son was given the title "Iwami-no-Kami" and his men would act as guards of Edo Castle. Hanzo’s son mistreated the members of the Band of Iga.

To this day, artifacts of Hanzo's legacy remain; the Tokyo Imperial Palace

Kokyo

is the imperial main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in Chiyoda, Tokyo close to Tokyo Station and contains various buildings such as the main palace and the private residences of the imperial family....
(formerly the shogun

Shogun

is a military rank and historical title for Hereditary Commanders in Chief of the Armed Forces of Japan. The Japanese word for "general", it is made up of two kanji characters: sho, meaning "commander", "general", or "admiral", and gun meaning military troops or warriors....
's palace) still has a gate called Hanzo's Gate, and the Hanzo-mon

Tokyo Metro Hanzomon Line

The is a Rapid transit line in Tokyo, Japan, administered by the Tokyo Metro. Its color on maps is purple. Stations on the Hanzomon Line carry the letter Z followed by a number....
subway line which runs from central Tokyo

Tokyo

, officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshu. The twenty-three special wards of Tokyo, each governed as a city, cover the area that was once the Tokyo City in the eastern part of the prefecture, and total over 8 million people....
to the southwestern suburbs is named after the gate. Hanzo’s remains now rest in the Sainen-ji temple cemetery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The temple also holds his favorite spears and his ceremonial battle helmet.

In popular culture

Hanzo is one of the two main characters in the historical manga

Manga

, , are comics and print cartoons , in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 20th century. In their modern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art....
Path of the Assassin
Path of the Assassin

is a well-known gekiga or manga created by the writer Kazuo Koike and the artist Goseki Kojima. Unlike their previous collaborations on Lone Wolf and Cub and Samurai Executioner, this story focuses on two historical figures from 16th-century Japan....
written by Kazuo Koike

Kazuo Koike

is a prolific Japanese manga writer, novelist and entrepreneur.Early in Koike's career, he studied under Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito and served as a writer on the series....
with artwork by Goseki Kojima

Goseki Kojima

was a Japanese people mangaka.Kojima was born on the same day as Osamu Tezuka. After getting out of junior high school, Kojima painted advertising posters for movie theaters as his source of income....
.

In the movie Kill Bill
Kill Bill

Kill Bill is the fourth film by writer-Film director Quentin Tarantino. Originally conceived as one film, it was released in two separate volumes due to its running time of approximately four hours....
, the swordsmith Hattori Hanzo

List of Kill Bill characters

The following is a list of characters from the film Kill Bill. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the film was released in two separate parts, Kill Bill Vol....
(portrayed by Sonny Chiba

Sonny Chiba

, also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese people actor. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience....
) is named after this historical figure.

In the video game series Samurai Shodown and Inindo, the ninja Hattori Hanzo is named after this historical figure.

Hanzo also appears in the Koei hack and slash series "Samurai Warriors" as well as "Warriors Orochi" as a ninja serving under Tokugawa.

Hanzo's name is referenced in the Ninja turtles Anime OVA: Mutant Turtles: Choujin Densetsu-hen; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legend of the Supermutants as the Ancestor of a ninja names Hattori Kinzo

Hattori Hanzo

Biography

In popular culture

See also

External links