The purpose of this paper is to take up the Honda clan as a research example of the Daimyo vassals of the Edo period, and to consider the ninja that the Honda clan had. The Honda clan has survived until the Meiji Restoration as a Fudai-Daimyo, but many historical materials are left behind because it was not interrupted on the way. In this paper, we examined the names, personnel, duties, etc using these historical materials. 　Considering the names, it became clear that the Honda clan had two ninja groups called “Shinobi-Doushin” and “Kanto-Shinobi”, and that they were divided into their home country and Edo. According to the consideration of the vassals, it became clear that the first ninja was one of the soldiers given to Honda Tadakatsu by Tokugawa Ieyasu, In addition, there were few vassals who continued to serve for generations only in the position of ninja, and it was confirmed that there were multiple ninjas who were replaced on the way. 　The duties assigned to these ninjas include search, castle security, incident investigations, and investigations of vassals, and it became clear that the activities changed with the passage of time.

View full abstract