Hattori Hanzo (1542-1596), Head of the Iga suppa

One of the most famous so called "Ninja", we should say "Shinobi", Hanzo can be found in movies, comic books and video games all over.

I thought it interesting to try to get away from these extravagant gothic designs with a version closer to Goseki Kojima's in "The Path of the Assassin" (a must read by the duo who created Lone Wolf and Cub, rendering the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu as a teenager helped by his faithful retainer, Hanzo the best of Iga).
However, the manga stops as Ieyasu attains a position of major warlord ready for the next political struggle, so that Hanzo is rather young looking the whole story.

He supposedly died in blaze of fire as his boats were lured in against Fuma Kotaro's and trapped in the middle of the river where they had been fighting.

Although, there has been at least 3 more Hanzos in the Hattori Clan that wore that name, we are here talking about the most famous one of them all. At his death, his men became officially some kind of pretorian elite guard  for the Japanese governement and the shogun whose family thereafter ruled for 300 years.

I shall join others sketches and pieces that I did on him as well, such as his 14 feet spear (yari) which he used in battle or his final stand against Fuma.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattori_Hanzo