HATTORI HANZO

1541 - 1596

Quentin Tarrantino made him a 21st century (or whenever it is) swordsmaker in his worldwide sensation movie Kill Bill; but this is a movie where a supposedly Japanese assassin is played by a decidedly Chinese actress (Lucy Liu) who fights using the very Japanese sword ('katana') with unmistakably kung-fu techniques; as a matter of fact it's all the same to me whether these creatures go to bed together or kill each other or both.

The real-life Hattori Hanzo was a vassal of the Matsudaira clan. His own clan of Koga consisted of mainly ninjas, and this specialized department of martial arts got the clan jobs for the Tokugawa shogunate for no end. Hattori's skill in ninjutsu was enough to get the entire clan a healthy living for two centuries.

Click here for story and pictures of how Hattori hanzo saved Tokugawa Ieyasu's life when Oda Nobunaga died in Akechi Mitsuhide's attack in Kyoto.

The tools of Hattori's trade are family heirloom in 2005