was a famed 16th century ninja master during the Sengoku period

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

who was also known as .

Biography

There are many versions of his story and many mysteries surround him. According to the legend he practiced sorcery, performing amazing feats such as swallowing a bull in front of the crowd of over 20 people; his alias comes from his alleged ability to fly. Some researchers believe his reported magical arts were illusion as a type of group hypnosis. However, this belief has never been proven to be the case and therefore is only considered to be a possibility. His date of birth and death are unknown. According to several chronicles during the Edo period, the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' Uesugi Kenshin had heard of Danzō's reputation, which had led for him to invite Danzō to his prime castle. Kenshin decided to test Danzō's abilities by challenging him to sneak into a certain castle and to retrieve a prized naginata (a sword in another version of this story) from one of his retainers, Naoe Kanetsugu. Danzō infiltrated Kanetsugu's heavily guarded castle and not only succeeded in stealing the naginata, but also captured a young servant girl. Kenshin then realized that Danzō would be a very useful ally and took him into his service. However, Kanetsugu plotted to kill Danzō (according to another version it was Kenshin himself who ordered his death, perceiving him to be too skillful and thus dangerous), forcing him to try to defect to Takeda Shingen, Kenshin's rival. Suspecting Danzō to be a double agent, Shingen however ordered him to be killed. Danzō was captured by Takeda's men and executed through

decapitation Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

In popular culture

Katō Danzō makes a prominent appearance in the manga series '' Path of the Assassin'', where he is known as Kite Katō, a fearsome shugenja and nearly unrivaled shinobi. He also appears in a minor role in the video game. '' Samurai Warriors 2'' as a fire ninja bodyguard In the manga and anime series. '' Naruto'', there is a character with the name "Danzō" who leads a secretive covert ops team ROOT and another character called Dan has the surname "Katō". On October 24, 2014, Makai Syojyo Ken held a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

event, where several wrestlers performed as historical figures and a wrestler better known as Psycho performed as Katō Danzō. A female, Karakuri puppet version of Katō Danzō also appears in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order as an Assassin class servant. In Nioh 2, he appears as a wandering ninja hired by Tokichiro to train the protagonist.

References

External links

Kato Danzo, The Ninja Illusionist , Way Of Ninja
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kato, Danzo 1500s births 1569 deaths 16th-century Japanese people Executed Japanese people Japanese magicians Japanese ninjutsu practitioners Ninja People executed by Japan by decapitation