Fūma Kōtarō

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Fūma Kotarō (風魔小太郎) was the name adopted by the leader of the Fūma school of ninja during the Sengoku era of Japan.

The usage of the name started with the first leader of the clan. Originally surnamed "風間" (Fūma), with a different kanji, it was later changed to homophone 風魔. Each subsequent leader of the school adopted the same name as its founder, making it difficult to identify them individually. The best known of these, Fūma Kotarō, is the fifth. He served under Hōjō Ujimasa and Hōjō Ujinao.

This school was in the service of the Hōjō clan of Odawara. They were famed for their cavalry strategy, leading to speculations that they were descendents of nomadic tribes.

One of his most famous battles was in 1581 when the Takeda had set camp across the Osegawa river from the Hōjō in Ukishimagahara. The Fūma ninja had crossed the river and attacked the Takeda camp several times and had succeeded in causing mass chaos in the camp.^{[citation needed]}

Legend has it that in 1596, Kotarō was tracked down by Hattori Hanzō, a samurai (see Hanzo's related page for explanations on why he is not labeled as a ninja) in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is believed that he was responsible for Hanzō's death by luring Hanzō into a small channel, where he trapped his ships with the tide. His troops then set fire to the channel with oil while Kotarō's ship was at a safe distance. When the Tokugawa shogunate came to power the Fūma-ryū was reduced to a band of pirates who attacked a series of Tokugawa installations.

With the fall of the Hōjō clan, the now masterless Fūma school and Kotarō became a band of thieves. They were finally caught and punished in 1603 by the Tokugawa authority.

[edit] In fiction

As probably the ninja, at least in name, Fūma Kotarō is often depicted as the arch-rival of Hattori Hanzō (who is depicted as a ninja in the Samurai Warriors games). As the name Fūma means literally "wind demon", depiction of Fūma Kotarō is frequently more flamboyant, fantastical, and sometimes demonic, in contrast to Hanzō who is usually rendered with a relatively subdued appearance.

• Kotarō has been featured in the Capcom video game Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny, and has made an appearance as a non-playable character in Sengoku Basara 2. In the latter, he is literally portrayed as a silent assassin.

• He also appears in Koei's Samurai Warriors 2 (Sengoku Musou 2) as Hanzō's foe, who, despite serving the Hōjō, prefers chaos, and continually makes trouble for many of the factions (mainly in the form of ambushes). He wields gauntlets that bestow him the ablility to elongate his arms at will. (Oddly enough it seems that he may be clairvoyant, as he predicts Nobunaga's death in fire at Honnouji before it happens, as well as spreading the news abnormally quickly.)

• He also makes an appearance in Samurai Deeper Kyo as Sasuke's childhood friend and rival.

• Kotarō also appears as a minor character in Nobunaga's Ambition II, as well as in Taikou Risshiden V. (While only daimyo can unify Japan, he is one of the ninja leaders who can be unlocked as a playable character, with his weapon-of-choice being the kunai.)

• He also is portrayed as the principal villain, in the popular Japanese TV series of the nineteen sixties called, the Samurai, which became a cult hit in Australia.

• He is also a main character in the short-lived World Heroes fighting game series.

• He can be summoned as a persona of the rare "FOOL Class" in the video game Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

• "Fuma" means "permanence" or "immortality" in Japanese.