SUBJECT FILE NO. SA-0010
BUSHI ARCHIVE
Hattori Hanzō
Hattori Hanzō
Captain of the Iga Guard
SECTION I -- SUBJECT PROFILE
| Name | Hattori Hanzō |
|---|---|
| English | Hattori Hanzō |
| Origin | Japan |
| Lifespan | 1542–1596 |
| Gender | Male |
| Century | 16th C. |
| Clan / Role | Strategist |
| Title | Captain of the Iga Guard |
SECTION II -- OVERVIEW
Born in 1542 to a Mikawa-based branch of the Iga jōnin elite, Hattori Masanari — better known by his hereditary name Hanzō — entered Tokugawa Ieyasu's service in his teens and remained beside him through the most dangerous decades of the Sengoku.He fought conventionally with a long spear at Anegawa, Mikatagahara, and Nagashino, earning the nickname Oni-Hanzō, 'Demon Hanzō,' less for stealth than for sheer ferocity.
His most legendary service came in 1582, when news of Nobunaga's death at Honnō-ji caught Ieyasu deep in enemy territory.Hanzō led his lord across the perilous Iga and Kōga mountains in the Iga-goe escape — a 200 km route through hostile peasant uprisings — and delivered him alive to Mikawa.
As reward, Ieyasu gave him command of two hundred Iga retainers, the so-called Iga-gumi, who guarded the western gate of Edo Castle for the next two and a half centuries.The gate is still called Hanzōmon today.
SECTION III -- CHRONOLOGY
SECTION IV -- NOTABLE STATEMENTS
“Win first, fight after.”
SECTION V -- FIELD NOTES
[A]The Iga-goe Crossing
When the Honnō-ji news reached Ieyasu in Sakai with only thirty-four men, the entire central plain became a kill zone of bandits and Akechi sympathizers. Hanzō, drawing on Iga networks his father had cultivated for generations, wove a route through the mountains, paying off some clans, fighting through others, and brought Ieyasu home alive. Without that crossing there is no Edo period.
SECTION VI -- LEGACY & IMPACT
Hanzō became the founding figure of the Tokugawa intelligence apparatus and, in later legend, the archetype of the Japanese ninja — though the historical Hanzō was a regular samurai officer who happened to lead Iga specialists. The Hanzōmon gate, the Hanzōmon subway line, and a thousand video-game characters all derive from his name.
SECTION VII -- MAJOR DEEDS
- [01]Iga-goe escape (1582)
- [02]Founding of the Iga-gumi guard
- [03]Edo Castle perimeter system
- [04]Spear technique passed to the Hattori line
