was a fictional

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

of the final phase of the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

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 ...

. In the

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

he is one of the Sanada Ten Braves, and next to Sarutobi Sasuke, he is the most recognized of the Ten. As in the case of Sasuke, Saizō might be a fictional creation of the Meiji-period popular literature, possibly based on Kirigakure Shikaemon. His family name, meaning "Hide in the fog", is written with two kanji; kiri (霧) is the character for "fog", and gakure (隠) is the character for "hide". According to the historian Stephen Turnbull and non-fiction writer Joel Levy, there is a historical record of a failed assassination attempt by a ninja called Kirigakure Saizō, sent by the warlord

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

to kill his rival

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

(Tokichiro Kinoshita). According to another version of this incident, presented by the martial artist and researcher Donn F. Draeger, the "careless ninja" Saizō was captured while only spying on Hideyoshi, which actually saved the life of the warlord because he was about to be killed by a double agent, Yusuke Takiguchi; Saizō's life was then spared on the condition of declaring loyalty to the

Toyotomi clan The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primary ...

. Saizō is said to be a master of Iga

ninjutsu , and are terms for the techniques and skills used by spies and scouts in pre-modern Japan known as ninja. Some of these techniques are recorded in ninja scrolls, some which have been published and translated. The study of these scrolls have c ...

. Sarutobi Sasuke, a Kōga ninja, is thus often portrayed as Saizō's arch-rival, and after they both converted to Sanada's cause, best friends and partners. The name Kirigakure literally means "Hidden Mist", as such Saizō is often associated with fog and, by extension, illusion magic. In contrast to Sasuke, who is often rendered with an almost

feral child A feral child (also called wild child) is a young individual who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, with little or no experience of human care, social behavior, or language. Such children lack the basics of primary and ...

appearance, Saizō usually appears as a calm, elegant, mature, handsome and sometimes feminine young man. The martial artist and author Stephen K. Hayes compared the portrayal of Saizō in the Japanese children books to this of another ninja "romantic figure" of the bandit hero

Ishikawa Goemon was the leader of a group of bandits during the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan. Over time, and especially during the Edo period (1603-1867), his life and deeds became a center of attention, and he became known as a legendary Japanese outlaw h ...

. Stephen K. Hayes, ''The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art'', Tuttle Publishing, 1990 (p. 30)

In popular culture

After Sasuke, Saizō is the only other one of the Ten who is relatively often recurring in the modern works of fiction. In the manga and anime series '' Samurai Deeper Kyo'', Saizo is a fanatical yet humorous loyalist of Sanada Yukimura. In the film '' Goemon'', Kirigakure Saizō was portrayed by Takao Osawa (and

Takeru Satoh is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his leading role as Kamen Rider Den-O (character)#Ryotaro Nogami, Ryotaro Nogami in the ''Kamen Rider Den-O'' franchise, and as Himura Kenshin in the live-action ''Rurouni Kenshin (film), Rurouni Kenshin ...

in the role of young Saizō). He also appears in the film '' Kamen Rider Den-O: I'm Born!'' and the manga series ''BRAVE10'', and is the subject of the fourth and the seventh films in the '' Shinobi no Mono'' series (''Shinobi no Mono: Zoku Kirigakure Saizō'' and ''Shinobi No Mono: Shin Kirigakure Saizō''), as well as a

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

in the video game '' Onimusha Tactics''; in ''Shall We Date?: Ninja Love'', he is either a romance option or the player character. He also makes an appearance as one of the antagonist in the manga and anime series '' Mushibugyo''. There are also several more or less indirect connections. In the

Super Sentai The is a Japanese superhero team media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi. The shows are of the '' tokusatsu'' genre, featuring live action characters and colorfu ...

series ''

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger is a Japanese ''tokusatsu'' television series. It was Toei Company Limited's eighteenth production of the Super Sentai metaseries. It aired from February 18, 1994, to February 24, 1995, following its predecessor '' Gosei Sentai Dairanger'' and ...

'', one of the main characters, Saizou, played by Hiroshi Tsuchida, is a modern descendant of Saizō. In a highly unusual portrayal in the video game '' Kessen'', Saizo is one of a trio of Yukimura's female ninja bodyguards. The modern ninja named Saizo are also player characters in the video game series '' Power Instinct'' (Saizo Hattori) and '' Breakers Revenge'' (Tobikageno Saizō), while the title character in the manga and anime series '' Igano Kabamaru'' was raised and trained by his grandfather Saizō Igano. A village named Kirigakure ("Hidden in Mist") appears in the manga and anime series ''

Naruto ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...

'', with its first appearing mist character Momochi Zabuza using fog techniques befitting the lore.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirigakure Saizo Japanese folklore Japanese spies Japanese ninjutsu practitioners Fictional ninja ja:真田十勇士#霧隠才蔵