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Kōga-ryū
Kōka-ryū (甲賀流, "School of Kōka"; occasionally transliterated as "Kōga") is an umbrella term for a set of traditions of ninjutsu that originated from the region of Kōka (modern Kōka City in Shiga Prefecture). The samurai of Kōka-ryū were known as "Kōka-no-mono", and operated as ''shinobi'' throughout Japan's turbulent Sengoku period. History The beginnings of the Kōka-ryū may be traced to near the end of the Muromachi period. While the district of Kōka, in Ōmi Province, was under the jurisdiction of the Rokkaku clan, it was a kind of autonomous municipality, composed of localized unions called ''sō'' (). All important decisions in the municipality were made by a majority vote from the union representatives. This kind of system was uncommon for the period in question. At this time, the leaders of the Rokkaku clan, using Kannonji Castle as a base, started to steadily build up military might. They made light of commands from the Ashikaga shogunate and eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fujita Seiko
, born , was a prominent Japanese martial artist, researcher and author. Regarded as the 14th and final heir to the Kōga-ryū Wada-ha Ninjutsu tradition, he was highly respected by his peers and a core member of Japan's classical martial arts community. Biography Isamu Fujita was born in Tokyo, and studied Kōga-ryū Wada-ha (Ninjutsu) under the tutelage of his grandfather, Fujita Shintazaemon, 13th Soke of the Wada branch of Kōga-ryū Ninjutsu. He was educated at both Waseda and Meiji universities, and initially began his career at a newspaper company. He went on to study several other martial arts and was also noted as an author, researcher and collector of ancient scrolls. According to some references, "opinions are divided if he was a real ninja or a mere budō researcher." During World War II, Fujita taught Koga Ryu Ninjutsu in the Army Academy of Nakano (Rikugun Nakano Gakkō). Fujita later worked as a government security specialist. In later years he was influential i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōka, Shiga
280px, Kōka "ninja house" 280px, Shigaraki ware ceramics is a city in southern Shiga Prefecture, Japan. (The word 'Kōka' is often rendered as 'Koga' in English, especially when referring to the "Koga Ninja".) , the city had an estimated population of 89,619 in 36708 households and a population density of 190 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kōka occupies the entire southern end of Shiga Prefecture, and is thus long east-to-west. At the eastern end of Kōka, the southern ridge of the Suzuka Mountains with one elevation of 1000 meters runs from northeast to southwest, forming the boundary with Mie Prefecture. The highest altitude point in Kōka is Mount Amagoi in this range. Neighboring municipalities Shiga Prefecture * Ōtsu * Rittō * Konan * Higashiōmi * Ryūō *Hino Kyoto Prefecture * Wazuka * Minamiyamashiro * Ujitawara Mie Prefecture * Yokkaichi * Suzuka * Kameyama *Iga * Komono Climate Kōka has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mochizuki Chiyome
Mochizuki Chiyome (望月 千代女), also known as Mochizuki Chiyojo (望月 千代女) or Mochizuki Chiyo (望月 千代), was a 16th-century Japanese poet and noblewoman. She is known for creating a group of kunoichi in service of the Takeda clan. Biography Chiyome, a descendant of the 15th-century ninja Mochizuki Izumo-no-Kami () of the Kōga-ryū, was the wife of Mochizuki Moritoki, a samurai lord of Shinano's Saku District and himself a distant relative of Izumo-no-Kami. After Moritoki was killed in the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, Chiyome was left in the care of the ''daimyō'' Takeda Shingen, the leader of the Takeda clan and an uncle of her late husband. It was then when Takeda approached her and tasked her with creating an underground network of kunoichi (female ninja) for use against rival warlords. Takeda's plan was to have fully trained female operatives who could act as spies and agents used to gather information and deliver coded messages to his allies; Moc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iga-ryū
is an umbrella term for ninjutsu traditions that come from the Iga region, according to Japanese legend. It became one of the two most well-known ninja traditions in Japan. The ''Iga-ryū'' traditions originated in the Iga Province in the area around the towns of Iga, Ueno, and Nabari (modern Iga City and Nabari City in Mie Prefecture). ''Iga-mono'' is a synonym for Iga ninja. History Since the Nara period, the Iga district had supplied lumber to jisha (寺社, temple-shrines). But in the Kamakura period, jisha declined in influence while shugo (governors) and jitō (manor administrators) grew dominant. The power of these functionaries then waned in Iga while that of bushi (warriors) rose instead. Iga was divided into local jizamurai regions locked in guerrilla war for which Iga warriors developed specialized skills and tactics. During the early Muromachi period, the people of Iga became independent of their feudal overlords and established a kind of republic—''Iga Sokok ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ōmi Province
was a province of Japan, which today comprises Shiga Prefecture. It was one of the provinces that made up the Tōsandō circuit. Its nickname is . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Ōmi was ranked as one of the 13 "great countries" (大国) in terms of importance, and one of the "near countries" (近国) in terms of distance from the capital. Ōmi bordered on Wakasa and Echizen Provinces to the north, Mino and Ise Provinces to the east, Iga and Yamato Provinces to the south, and Yamashiro and Tanba Provinces to the east. Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, is located at the center of the province. History The area of Ōmi has been settled since at least the Yayoi period, and the traces of several large settlements have been found. During the Kofun period, the area appears to have been dominated by several powerful immigrant clans, most notably the Wani clan, originally from Baekje. The names of "Ōmi" or "Lake Biwa" do not appear in the '' Kojiki'', ''Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninjutsu
, sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some traditional Japanese schools, which integrated study of more conventional martial arts (''taijutsu'') along with '' shurikenjutsu'', '' kenjutsu'', ''sōjutsu'', '' bōjutsu'' and others. While there is an international martial arts organization representing several modern styles of ''ninjutsu'', the historical lineage of these styles is disputed. Some schools claim to be the only legitimate heir of the art, but ''ninjutsu'' is not centralized like modernized martial arts such as judo or karate. Togakure-ryū claims to be the oldest recorded form of ninjutsu, and claims to have survived past the 16th century. History Spying in Japan dates as far back as Prince Shōtoku (572–622). According to Shōninki, the first open usage of ''ninj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ninjutsu Organizations
, sometimes used interchangeably with the modern term , is the martial art strategy and tactics of unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage purportedly practised by the ninja. ''Ninjutsu'' was a separate discipline in some traditional Japanese schools, which integrated study of more conventional martial arts (''taijutsu'') along with ''shurikenjutsu'', ''kenjutsu'', ''sōjutsu'', ''bōjutsu'' and others. While there is an international martial arts organization representing several modern styles of ''ninjutsu'', the historical lineage of these styles is disputed. Some schools claim to be the only legitimate heir of the art, but ''ninjutsu'' is not centralized like modernized martial arts such as judo or karate. Togakure-ryū claims to be the oldest recorded form of ninjutsu, and claims to have survived past the 16th century. History Spying in Japan dates as far back as Prince Shōtoku (572–622). According to Shōninki, the first open usage of ''ninjutsu'' d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foreign Ninja
This article lists non-Japanese people who were ninja, or similar covert agents influenced by ninja. Strictly, there were very few foreigners recognized as ninja except for legendary figures. However, some other foreign soldiers and agents engaged in infiltration and espionage with Japanese forces. Foreign-born ninja in Japan Foreign-born kanja "Kanja"(間者) is the Japanese word for spy. Ninja could act as kanja though their activities were not limited to espionage and ninja sometimes used kanja as their subordinate. This list includes foreign-born Japanese spies who were not recorded as ninja at that time. Legendary foreign ancestors of ninja According to '' Bansenshūkai'', ninjustu was invented by ancient Chinese hero Fuxi and developed by Yellow Emperor though this account is considered fiction to give authority to ninja. Also according to ''Bansenshūkai'', ''The Art of War'' of Sun Tzu was oldest account of ninjutsu, the art of espionage. Foreign age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Budō
is a Japanese term describing modern Japanese martial arts. Literally translated it means the "Martial Way", and may be thought of as the "Way of War" or the "Way of Martial Arts". Etymology Budō is a compound of the root ''bu'' (武:ぶ), meaning "war" or "martial"; and ''dō'' (道:どう; ''dào'' in Chinese), meaning "path" or "way" (including the ancient Indic Dharmic and Buddhist conception of "path", or '' mārga'' in Sanskrit). Budō is the idea of formulating propositions, subjecting them to philosophical critique and then following a "path" to realize them. ''Dō'' signifies a "way of life". ''Dō'' in the Japanese context is an experiential term in the sense that practice (the way of life) is the norm to verify the validity of the discipline cultivated through a given art form. Modern budō has no external enemy, only the internal one: the ego that must be fought. Similarly to budō, ''bujutsu'' is a compound of the roots ''bu'' (武), and ''jutsu'' (術:じゅ� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sōke
, pronounced , is a Japanese term that means "the head family ouse" In the realm of Japanese traditional arts, it is used synonymously with the term '' iemoto''. Thus, it is often used to indicate "headmaster" (or sometimes translated as "head of the family" or even " grand master"). The English translation of ''sōke'' as "grand master" is not a literal translation but it does see use by some Japanese sources. It can mean one who is the leader of any school or the master of a style, but it is most commonly used as a highest level Japanese title, referring to the singular leader of a school or style of martial art. The term, however, is not limited to the genre of martial arts. Sōke is sometimes mistakenly believed to mean "founder of a style" because many modern sōke are the first generation headmasters of their art (''shodai sōke''; 初代宗家), and are thus both sōke and founder. However, the successors to the ''shodai sōke'' are also sōke themselves. Sōke are genera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ji-samurai
The were lords of smaller rural domains in feudal Japan.Harold Britho, 'The Han', in John Whitney Hall, ed., ''The Cambridge History of Japan, volume 4: Early Modern Period'' (Cambridge UP, 1988), 183–234, They often used their relatively small plots of land for intensive and diversified forms of agriculture. One of the primary causes for the rise in the number of smaller land holders was a decline in the custom of primogeniture. Towards the end of the Kamakura period, inheritance began to be split among a lord's sons, making each heir's holdings, and thus their power, smaller. Over time, many of these smaller fiefs came to be dominated by the ''shugo'', constables who were administrators appointed by the shogunate to oversee the provinces. Resentful and mistrustful of the interference of government officials, people under their control banded together into leagues called ''ikki''. The uprisings that resulted, particularly when the ''shugo'' tried to seize control of entire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the '' kuge''. In the term, means 'large', and stands for , meaning 'private land'. From the '' shugo'' of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku to the ''daimyo'' of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of ''daimyo'' also varied considerably; while some ''daimyo'' clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the ''kuge'', other ''daimyo'' were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period. ''Daimyo'' often hired samurai to guard their land, and they paid the samurai in land or food as relatively few could afford to pay samurai in money. The ''daimyo'' era ended soon after the Meiji R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
