Lecture No.3: Genealogy of Iga-mono (2nd term)
Genealogy of Iga-mono (Summary)
Lecturer: Hiroshi Ikeda
In the "Buke Myomoku-sho" (compilation of historical data of the Edo period) and "Omi Yochi-shiryaku" (Summary of topography regarding Omi Province) we can find that a description "Shinobi-no-mono" meant Iga-mono and Koga-mono. According to"Sokokushi" Iga-mono was called "Sai-saku" ,Usually they were on duty in Iga and once their masters (Hanshu) had to be in Edo (Tokyo) on duty (called Sankin-koutai), they accompanied their masters as an escort to Edo and guarded them at Edo-Yashiki (mansions for Daimyo in Edo). From this point, we'd like to suggest to sort ninja into two categories, namely, the ninja in its early period (Zenki-Ninother one in its latter period (Kouki-Ninja). The Ninja in the Sengoku-Era were categorized in the Zenki-Ninja group and their function was kind of the one of a 'mercenary' and they sometimes assassinated their enemies. The Kouki-Ninja was a group of Ninja after Genna-Enbu and it had the character of a police army, and their main duties were guarding and investigation. The Iga-mono under Edo Bakufu (Shogunate) had already lost their original characters as ninja and had received their new guard-duty. But the Iga-mono in Todo clan had kept their original function strongly as Zenki-Ninja. In this lecture, we had a close look at the performance of Iga-mono in Todo clan. Our first model of Ninja for our study was Gorobei Soga, the first Iga-mono written in "Kozankojiroku" as well as in "Igaduke-Sashidashicho". Because of some of his good achievements, he could make his career as a Gunshi (strategist) for an estate of 200 koku. A Jinbaori (sleeveless campaign jacket worn over armor) with an embroidered Dokuro (skull) on it, has been handed down to the present Soga Family. And another model of Ninja at that time was Jinzaburo Sawamura, whose father was appointed by Takatsugu Todo for investigation on the "Kurofune" at the arrival of the Matthew PERRY squadron. An English memo has been handed down to Sawamura Family. It seems to have been written at that time but a press bonding "1856" was found, which indicates that this memo wasn't written at the investigation about Perry's ship, but maybe written about Harris's ship instead. Anyway, we can confirm through these models that ninjas have been active at the Todo clan until the end of Shogunate.
