Hattori Hanzo was a famous Bushi, (term for samurai seen in Bushido) in the Sengoku Era of Japan. He was born in the Mikawa Province in 1542 Japan died in 1596 in Edo, son of the samurai Hattori Hanzō Yasunaga, who was in service of the Matsudaira Clan, which later became the Tokugawa Clan. He spent a lot of his time in the Iga Province, which was home to the Hattori family.



Much of Hattori Hanzo's life is unknown and although there are various accounts of his supposed acts, one of the few credible events that took place was the escort of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a future shogun who would rise after the death of Oda Nobunaga.

The believed story of how Hanzo became first in service of Tokugawa was that at the age of 16 Hanzo rescued Tokugawa's daughter from Kaminogo Castle in a nighttime attack, here is where the first glimpse of the ninja life comes to play, by using guerilla warfare by sneaking up on enemies, surprising them with attacks from above and infiltrating with the guards for information. After this rescue by Hanzo, it's believed Tokugawa began to hire more ninjas into his service, due to him considering this an impressive feat and made Hanzo their leader.



During the Tenshō Iga War, Hattori planned a brilliant defense of the ninja homeland in Iga province in 1579 against Oda Nobukatsu the second son of Oda Nobunaga and fought a valiant but ultimately hopeless effort to prevent the Iga province from being eliminated by forces under the personal command of Nobunaga himself in 1581

His most valuable contribution came in 1582 following Oda Nobunaga's death, when he led the future shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu to safety in Mikawa Province across Iga territory with the help of remnants of the local Iga ninja clans as well as their one-time rivals in Koga. According to some sources, Hanzō also helped in rescuing the captured family of Ieyasu



Many tales of his exploits attribute him to having supernatural powers, such as psychokineses, teleportation and precognintion, and these attributions are largely contributed towards his prominent presence in pop culture

In video games such as Samurai Showdown, Overwatch, King of Fighters, Pokémon Conquest, Sengoku Basara, and Samurai Warriors. In anime, manga, tv shows and light novels such as Hattori Hanzo: Kage no Gundan, Path of the Assassin, the Kouga Ninja scrolls, basilisk



However these supernatural abilities are more likely skills honed with the secrets arts of ninjutsu a martial art that encompasses stealth, sabotage, camouflage and deception. And due to being a ninja, the main thing was to stay out of the spotlight, so the full extent of his abilities are shrouded in shadows and secrecy.



Historical sources say he lived the last several years of his life as a monk under the name "Sainen" and built the temple Sainenji, which was named after him