Lecture No.2: The duties of Iga-mono at Todo Family - from two different aspects in their normal / emergency situation-(1st term)
The duties of Iga-mono at Todo Family - from two different aspects in their normal / emergency situation (summary)
Lecturer: Satoshi Higashitani
The rolls of the Iga-mono at Todo Family are a little bit different from the general image of ninja. This lecture was a report to introduce the duties of Iga-mono in two different modes in their everyday life or in an emergency, based on the historical sources in "The History of Iga City" Vol.5 references / early-modern times (Kinse) - edited by Iga municipal office/2012.
As examples about for their duties in war-time/an emergency, two reports were mentioned: one is a job-report written by an Iga-mono who went from Iga to Ise to collect information at the Ikki riot in Ise / 1797 (9th year of Kansei), and the other one is a report on the inspection in 1858 (5th year of Ansei) in a Russian ship which was off the coast of Kanagawa at that time.
For writing a report about the Russian ship, they tried to get their target information from or through their interests and they were on board under the guide of a government official of the Shogunate. This activity was called "investigation" in their report which was totally different from spying or sneaking into etc.
Iga-monos were ordered by their masters try to report on something in detail and these two reports good examples in order to understand precisely the nature of their duties in times of emergency.
We also have some episodes introduced on duties Iga-mono had on their ordinary days.
In the documents called "Ura-Gomon Gokachu Deiri hikae (written in 1841 - 12th years of Tenpou)", we found that Iga-mono performed their jobs on shift/rotating basis and their job was recording the flow and situation of the traffic, such as passers and deliveries and also their in and out.
They worked at the checkpoint of castles like other "ordinary" samurais and their salaries (annual salary, divided in several times and with extra pay for special missions).
About their missions at Todo-clan and their ways of living at that time, more detailed investigations based on the administrative records of Todo clan and also on other contemporary resources are required.
