Autonomy And War Summary

“Autonomy and War in the Sixteenth-Century Iga Region and the Birth of the Ninja Phenomenon” by Pierre Souyri, was an interesting chapter the delved into the conditions within Iga during the Sengoku period, that bred the need for ninja and began the ninja mythos. Souyri begins by talking about the Onin War saw the older estate system and Shuyo weakened. From here power was seized various vassals of the prior Shuyo, including local warriors, the jizamurai (warrior of the land).Soon after with the combination of threats from upheavals, rampant highwaymen thieves, and the threat of warring Daimyou the jizamuri formed alliances with farmers and peasants from their local region to form the Iga-ikki. Because of the mutual agreements the people of this region, and partially because of the isolating and harsh landscape of the region, the Iga had independence from the outside daimyo rule for nearly a century.

Unfortunatley, 1581 the Iga were attacked by Oda Nobunaga and their independence destroyed. Here, Souryi claims that the ninja, and ninja warfare were a direct result of this crushing defeat. Because the jizamurai were not fully accepted and integrated into the new vassal system (in part because they were not co-operative), and they had a resurgence against this new order in secrecy. He then goes on to describe how this ninja tradition was carried on into the Tokugawa period. As people from Iga were hired as castle gaurds and spies for the shogunate. Beyond this history, this paper describes that decendents of Jizamuri passed storied though oral traditions of ninja powers and mysticism, inventing the mythical ninja tradition known to the region of the Iga and