Fūma Kotarō
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Fūma Kotarō (風魔小太郎?) was the name adopted by the leader of the Fūma clan (風魔一党 Fūma-ittō?) of ninja during the Sengoku era of Japan.This clan then led to be the top ninja clans in Japan until this day.
The usage of the name started with the first leader of the clan. Originally surnamed "風間" (Fūma), with a different kanji, it was later changed to homophone 風魔. Each subsequent leader of the school adopted the same name as its founder, making it difficult to identify them individually. The best known of these, Fūma Kotarō, is the fifth. He served under Hōjō Ujimasa and Hōjō Ujinao.
This school was in the service of the Hōjō clan of Odawara. They were famed for their cavalry strategy, leading to speculations that they were descendents of nomadic tribes.
One of his most famous battles was in 1581 when the Takeda had set camp across the Osegawa river from the Hōjō in Ukishimagahara. The Fūma ninja had crossed the river and attacked the Takeda camp several times and had succeeded in causing mass chaos in the camp.[citation needed]
Legend has it that in 1596, Kotarō was tracked down by Hattori Hanzō, an officer in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is believed that he was responsible for Hanzō's death by luring Hanzō into a small channel, where he trapped his ships with the tide. His troops then set fire to the channel with oil while Kotarō's ship was at a safe distance. When the Tokugawa shogunate came to power the Fūma-ryū was reduced to a band of pirates who attacked a series of Tokugawa installations.
With the fall of the Hōjō clan, the now masterless Fūma school and Kotarō became a band of thieves. They were finally caught and punished in 1603 by the Tokugawa authority.
His eyes were said to open upside down.
[edit] In fiction
See Japanese historical people in popular culture.
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