"Construction of the Ueno Castle and its castle town" (summary)
Lecturer: Kenji Fukui
Ieyasu Tokugawa expected a war with Hideyori Toyotomi. He placed his Daimyos around the Osaka Castle in order to prepare for the coming war. Takatora Todo received favorable treatment despite the status of a non-hereditary feudal lord and also received Iga with Kokudaka being 100,000 koku, Ise with 100,000 koku and Iyo with 20,000 koku. In 1608 (13th year of Keicho) Takatora was ordered to transfer his fief to Ueno. He started to renovate the Ueno castle on a large scale in 1611 (16th year of Keicho). He built a high stone-wall (at about 27m (15 ken) in height) at the west side of the castle to prepare for the attack from Oosaka-gata. He arranged his castle town-lots, and set Honmachisuji-str., Ninomachisuji-str. and Sannomachisuji-str. as well as Higashikatamachi, Nakanokatamachi and Nishonokatamachi. These streets and towns crossed each other at the right angles. Iga Kaidou was maintained from Ueno to Tsu for distribution of goods in the future.
In 1614 (19th year of Keicho) Takatora appointed 10 people as his "Shinobi no Shu" from Goshi. They had quite good skills as ninja and their families had a long lineage in Iga. They received their houses in the castle town. Therefore that part of the town was called "Shinobi machi". These 10 Shinobi no mono had their big residences with walls etc. in their home town. Due to the fact that they were upper ranked shinobi, we are not sure whether they could do easy kind of jobs like spying by themselves or not. A Musokunin in early Edo period, named Awa Family, had 20 Hikan (Genin/retainer).
Main Musokunin in later Edo period could have up to 10, at least 2 or 3 Genin as their followers. Therefore their duties as Shinobi could have been taken by these Genin. In 1645 (2nd year of Seiho) their name was changed from Shinobi no mono to Iga-mono, because the "Shinobi no mono" sounded too strong in a time of peace. In 1651(4th year of Keicho) there were 20 Iga-mono on duty and 6 Ninja Yashiki were found in their Shinobimachi. Since Genroku period, there wasn't any Iga-mono Yashiki in the castle town. In 1717 (2nd year of Kyouho) the number of Iga-mono was minimized from 20 to 16 but they were still on duty at Kahan-Bugyo. After the 5th year of Anen (1776), Iga-mono were on duty at Fushin Bugyo. They were in charge of guarding the castle, watching the Bushis, people in town, and farmers and inspect their information.