Oniwaban
The Oniwaban (お庭番衆, Ones of the Garden) was a group of onmitsu government-employed ninja established by the 8th Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751).
History
During the Edo period, onmitsu (the term meaning a spy or an undercover detective) acted as secret agents in security and espionage functions, mainly intelligence and information gathering, sometimes with aid of kobushikata, small groups of lower-class agents posing as mobile manual laborers and working under Iga ninja supervisors. The oniwaban followed a strict set of regulations, which, in some cases, forbade them from socializing with the general public. It is believed that during the tumultuous time of the Bakumatsu revolution that the oniwaban were even sent to the United States to spy not only on the shogun's opposition, but on the Americans as well.[1]
Tokugawa Yoshimune established the Oniwabanshu as an elite cadre of originally about 20 handpicked onimitsu, providing him with information about daimyo feudal lords and shogunate officials,[2] while also protecting high-ranking officials of the government and acting as security guards in the Edo Castle. They were possibly quartered in the garden of the castle, hence the name.
In popular culture
Oniwaban characters have been depicted in the films and television series Abarenbō Shōgun (spies and bodyguards for Yoshimune, including Akane, Ayame, Gorōta, Hayate, Osono, Jūmonji Hayato, Koyuki, Kaede, Nagisa, Ōtsuki Hanzō, Saizō, Satsuki and Sukehachi), Ōedo Sōsamō (main roles as an undercover group of secret agents, including Isaka Jūzō, Jūmonji Koyata, Konami and others) and Oniwaban (titular roles); in the manga/anime series Chou SD Sengokuden Bushin Kirahagane (Jyuuha Gundam), Gin Tama (Ayame Sarutobi, Zenzo Hattori and Jiraia), Lone Wolf and Cub, Rurouni Kenshin (featuring the mostly unemployed Oniwabanshu group in a time period after end of the shogunate, including Aoshi Shinomori, Beshimi, Han'nya, Hyottoko, Okina, Shikijō and Misao Makimachi), The Dagger of Kamui (the oniwaban monk Tenkai) and Yoshimune (Kunoichi); and in the video games Inindo: Way of the Ninja and Red Earth (Oniwabanshu leader Kenji). In the anime series Sailor Moon the name of the villain of the weekOniwabandana (Ninjana in the English version) is an obvious pun on the oniwaban.[3]
References
- ^ Joel Levy, Ninja: The Shadow Warrior, Sterling Publishing Company (p. 44-45)
- ^ John Whitney Hall, The Cambridge History of Japan: Early modern Japan, Cambridge University Press (p. 443)
- ^ the oracle :: Oniwabandana
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