Japanese Cultural and Martial Arts Academy

A Brief History of Ninjutsu

(Extracts of an interview with Saito Soke, 16th Grandmaster Iga Ryu Ninjutsu)

There were more than 25 ninjutsu ryuha, and among them the most prominent styles were Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu. Later came Kishu Ryu and this came from Iga/Koga Ryu, and was merely a branch of these styles. Initially there were only 2 major ryuha and they were Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu. The next styles were Koyo Ryu and Ninko Ryu, and these came from the middle parts of the rugged mountain area of Honshu. The content of the documents of Koyo Ryu and Ninko Ryu were simplistic in comparison to documents of the Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu. The techniques of the Koyo Ryu and Ninko Ryu were often very simple and are still techniques used by the Yamabushi (they are still linked to the Yamabushi Heiho). If the styles of the Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu are examined closely there are only very subtle differences between them. Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu are infact the same style and are of perfect similarity, even differences in the kanji characters are minimal.

The same person compiled the ninja "bible" called the Bansenshukai used by both the Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu. If I use modern terminology, the name of the author in the Koga Ryu edition was Koyo Onshi Fujibayashi Sabuji Yasutake while the name of the Iga Ryu edition author was Inyo Onshi Fujibayashi Sabuji Yasutake, and hence the only difference is the "nickname" used by each ryu for the author of its' edition.

The Koga Ryu is referred to as Koga Goju Sanke (53 Koga Families) and the Iga Ryu is referred to as Iga Yonjuku Ryu (49 Iga styles). This means that each individual ninja lived at a different location with different administration while using the same language and performing the same job, one is referred to as Iga Ryu while the other is referred to as Koga Ryu.

In olden times, through political necessity, a large area was split into the regions of Iga and Koga. The reason that Iga and Koga separated was due to temple and aristocracy territorial land disputation. Under these circumstances the Koga Ryu served the governing aristocracy to maintain their position while maintaining their close contact with the free land of Iga. Koga belonged to Omi (Shiga prefecture), which was controlled directly by the authority of the aristocracy, whether Koga liked it, or not. The distinction between Iga Ryu and Koga Ryu first appeared during the Sengoku period (1467 - 1576 A.D.). The battle that the ninja of Iga and Koga are famous for is called "Magari no Jin", and this is the point in history when people started referring to Iga and Koga ninja separately.

There are two important relevant notations in the history of the Koga Ryu

En no Gyoja Shugendo at Handozan (location of En no Gyoja's shugendo training) was located in the middle of the Koga district. (En no Gyoja was the founder of Shugendo).
In olden times the Koga district was not differentiated from the Iga district, as it existed within part of the greater Iga area. Therefore the inhabitants of Iga and Koga were infact the same group of people.

Three years after Emperor Korei was crowned the Yamato government proclaimed the area would be officially known as Iga. At the same time the Ise area was officially called Isezuhiko and the Iga area was officially called Isetsuhime (according to the Nihon Shoki - "Chronicle of Japan" completed in 720A.D.). The inhabitants of Iga and Ise were of the same origin, Iga means inside the mountain, while Ise means flat/plain fields. When kanji was introduced the names were adapted to Iga and Ise. The exact date of separation of the Iga and Koga areas is not known but some scholars estimate it to have been around the later stages of the Nara period (710A.D. - 788A.D.). The governing authority of the time adapted the characters that were used for the name Iga to use very similar characters to create Koga for the new district's name. Therefore the name of the new district was a modern adaptation of "Iga" and did not have its' origin in olden times and hence has no meaning. Both regions maintained these same characteristics until the Tokugawa period.

Koga Ryu Ninjutsu learnt Heiho (ninjutsu, bujutsu, heigaku) in Handozan. Handozan was the location of shugendo (yamabushi training) of En no Gyoja Kaiki. The first shugendo location was Yoshino, and then Handozan was founded and later came Heizan. Until the establishment of the 49 Temples of Shingon Shugendo in Iga, Handozan was the only shugendo place located in the northern part of Iga, and influential people classed as Dogo (mainly Hattori blood relatives from Iga and Koga) trained here. Handozan, the seed of ninjutsu, was the dojo credited with transmitting the founding yamabushi heiho to Iga. This dojo was also Koga's Dogo heiho training location. The people of Iga (mainly northern Iga) learnt Heiho with the people of Koga at Handozan until the establishment of the 49 Temples of Shingon Shugendo by Kobo Daishi Kukai, founder of Koyasan Shingonshu. Members of the Hattori family lived in both the Iga and Koga areas and this created a strong bond between the people of these two regions. The Hattori family had the greatest influence in both areas as they had blood relatives living in both Iga and Koga.