Yoda Hiroko - Ninja Attack!: True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws

Trivia

A NOT-SO-CLEVER RAPTOR?

Although Katoh is a historical figure, his tale reads like a fable for young ninja. The moral of the story is that it can be detrimental to reveal too much of ones abilities--particularly if they are of the sort that involve sneaking around and killing people. As the old Japanese saying goes, A clever hawk hides its talons.

ITS A DOGGY DOG WORLD

The art of ninjutsu includes a variety of methods for handling guard dogs. Collectively referred to as Ouken no Jutsu , literally Techniques for Dog Encounters, they include:

Goken no ho Bringing a dog of the opposite sex along, distracting the guard dog with carnal attention.

Inu kuguri no ho Based on extensive study of canine behavior, this involves exploiting knowledge of dog instincts and habits to avoid disturbing them.

Gukenjutsu For situations where time is not of the essence, this technique involves sneaking up to a guard dog again and again with treats, getting it used to your scent and appearance before a mission.

One of Katohs fatal mistakes was failing to exploit any of these techniques before killing Kenshins beloved dog.

So we have a record on both sides of bread being carried away. It appears the Americans might well have given Sawamura, who was conceivably assigned inconspicuously to the boarding party, the items he took back to his masters. This certainly makes more sense than his swimming, knife clenched in teeth, from shore and then somehow boarding the heavily armed and constantly guarded war-frigates without anyone noticing. And unromantic though it may be, it fits perfectly with the ninja modus operandi of always blending in. What better place to hide than among the members of an envoy with permission to come aboard?

In reality, Sawamuras role was probably closer to that of a secretary asked to keep his eyes and ears open during a critical meeting than of an Edo-era James Bond. Yet it is also a perfect illustration of just how times had changed for the ninja. Although feared as shadow warriors during the Age of Warring States some two hundred and fifty years earlier, ensuing centuries of relative peace essentially robbed them of their raison dtre. Sawamuras mission represents the end of an era perhaps lamented by the ninja, but undoubtedly a boon for the average citizen of Japan. Perry successfully concluded treaty negotiations in 1854, opening Japanese harbors and ushering in a new era of modernization and prosperity for the nation. And regardless of the actual strategic value of the items Sawamura spirited off of the Black Ships, his remains the last official ninja mission on record.

Trivia

MAN OF MYSTERY

In spite of Sawamura being the most recently living individual covered in this book, there is surprisingly little official information about him on public record--another bit of evidence that suggests his mission may have been purely a local interest. His descendants, apparently a bit touchy about being associated with shadow warrior lore, take pains to convince anyone who asks that Sawamura was not a stereotypical ninja or assassin. The family still occupies the same fortified homestead of their ancestors, though it is not open to the public.

Susquehanna, the Black Ship that Sawamura visited

THE PURLOINED LETTER

The two pages Sawamura obtained from the Susquehanna are written not in English but rather in Dutchunsurprising, as Dutch (along with Portuguese) was a lingua franca between the West and Japan during its period of isolation from the outside world. In fact, the Sawamura family retains the papers to this day. According to the Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum, the content is more banal than strategic: one page consists of the phrase Still waters run deep. The other muses on the perfection of British ladies in bed, French in the kitchen, and Dutch in housekeeping. One can only speculate that this information came in handy on the nations first official diplomatic mission to Europe several years later.

NINJA GONE BAD

1746 A.D.

Name: NIPPON ZAEMON

BirthDeath: 1719-1747

Occupation: Gizoku (Honorable Thief)

Cause of Death: Execution

A.K.A.: Hamashima Shobei (birth name)
Chikushi (Haiku pen name)
Nippon Daemon (in Kabuki)

Preferred Technique: Swordsmanship

Hobbies: Composing Haiku

Gang Affiliation: The Shiranami Five

Existence: Confirmed

The Man

This natural-born swordsman who preferred a life of crime to that of a martial artist dubbed himself Nippon Zaemonessentially, Mister Japan. Operating out of what is now Shizuoka prefecture, he and his gang terrorized a wide swath of the countryside west of Edo. As fond of sticking it to the Man as he was of the stick-up itself, Zaemons penchant for shaking down the rich while steadfastly refusing to physically harm any of his victims made him a folk hero (think John Dillinger with a katana instead of a Tommy gun).

Like Dillinger, his notoriety quickly earned him public enemy status and the questionable honor of being the subject of Japans very first wanted poster, which only helped cement his rep as a bad-ass with a heart of gold. While he wasnt a true ninja, he and his pals took a big page from the ninja playbook.

He targeted the upper crust: successful farmers, merchants, heirs and heiresses, and those transporting money on their behalf. Its officially confirmed that he stole some 2,622 ryo of gold (2.2 million US dollars in modern currency) over the course of his career, an absolutely astounding sum of money at the time.

It helped that Nippon Zaemon surrounded himself with the criminal elite. His right-hand man Nakamura Sazen, a talented strategist and a dandy to boot, actually managed to secure a job with the imperial family in Kyoto. He used his position to send Nippon Zaemon official lanterns marked with the royal crest, the Edo-period equivalent of a secret-service badge and a virtual free pass to anywhere in the country.

The Moments of Glory

Not one to lurk in shadows, Nippon Zaemon pounced on his victims in broad daylight, dressed to the nines. He would begin with a bold declaration of whom they were having the honor of being robbed by, and depart with a promise that everything stolen would be used to help the poor. Word of his antics struck a chord with the other half, who conveniently ignored the fact that he never seems to have actually distributed any of this ill-gotten wealth to the needy. (This probably says more about class relations at the time than it does about any actual belief in him as Japans answer to Robin Hood.)

A statue of Kabuki hero Nippon Daemon in Asakusa, Tokyo

Only two crimes truly warranted the full attention of the authorities in the hierarchy-obsessed Edo period: murdering ones parents or murdering ones master. Nippon Zaemon changed all that. Fed up with the local enforcers inability to tame Mister Japan and his merry men, the shogunate released a detailed wanted poster, complete with a police sketch of his appearance in 1746. It was a first in Japan.

Shaken by the sight of the poster, Nippon Zaemon went into hiding. Dropping out of his criminal network, he began staying at the homes of friends he had made, penning and exchanging haiku verse of the sort popularized by Matsuo Basho. And rather than going underground, he hid in plain sight, touring the many countryside haiku roads (tourist paths that led to scenery conducive for producing poems).

The End

On January 7, 1747, Nippon Zaemon surrendered himself to the authorities in Kyoto, and on March 11th, he was executed, his head displayed on a garrote for all to see. But his legend lived on. In 1862, more than a century after his death, a kabuki play starring a character based on Nippon Zaemon as the leader of a gang of five super-bandits called the Shiranami Five opened to raves. (Pop-cultural historians cite the play as the direct historical ancestor of the Power Ranger style kids show so popular in Japan and abroad today.)