The Birth of Ninja Hattori Hanzo - For works up to 1964 -

Abstract

Hattori Hanzo, a vassal of Tokugawa Ieyasu in history, is known as a representative ninja today. Many authors are making Hattori Hanzo play an active part as a ninja in the work. Ninja who were active in the first ninja boom during the Taisho period were Sarutobi Sasuke and Kirigakure Saizo. Itʼs 1955ʼs that the authors made Hattori Hanzo appear on their creative works. Hanzo was depicted as a ninja in novels, comics and animations, TV dramas, movies and theater works. Thus, the recognition that Hattori Hanzo is a ninja deepened between the people. The work which is important in the process that formed the person image as the ninja of Hattori Hanzo is a full-length novel 〝Ａｋａｉ　Ｋａɡｅｂｏｓʰｉ〟 （1960） of Shibata Renzaburo and a short story 〝ɴｉｎʲａ　ʜａｔｔｏｒｉ　ʜａｎｚｏ〟 （1964） of Yamada Futaro. In his work 〝Ａｋａｉ　Ｋａɡｅｂｏｓʰｉ〟, Shibata Renzaburo portrayed Hattori Hanzo as a central figure who is deeply involved with the protagonist and moves the story. Yamada Futaroʼs work indicates that “Hattori Hanzo” is not a specific person, but a name to be inherited. This work accurately expresses the fact that the name “Hattori Hanzo” is an empty vessel and expands the possibilities of “Ninja Hattori Hanzo” in the creative world. Because of the emptiness of the essence of “Ninja Hattori Hanzo”, the authors were able to create their own image of Hattori Hanzo and add their own creations. This gave birth to a variety of Hattori Hanzo.