Kōga-ryū
Encyclopedia : K : KG : KGA : Kōga-ryū
Kōga-ryū (甲賀流, literally “the Kōka School” and originally pronounced Kōka-ryū) is a school of ninjutsu. It is one of the most well-known schools of ninjutsu, along with Iga-ryū. It originated from the town of Kōka, modern Kōka City in Shiga Prefecture. This school of ninjutsu specializes in the use of chemicals, a vestige of which can be seen in the many pharmaceutical companies in modern Kōka City.
While the town of Kōka was under the jurisdiction of the Rokkaku (lit. hexagon) clan, it was a kind of autonomous municipality comprised of peasant unions, then called Sō (惣). All important decisions in the municipality were made by a majority vote from the union representatives. This kind of system was very uncommon for the period in question.
History
Near the end of the Muromachi period, Sasaki Rokkaku of Omi Province, using the castle of Kannonji as a base, started to steadily build up military might. He made light of commands from the Ashikaga shogunate, and eventually began to ignore the shogunate altogether. In 1487, General Ashikaga Yoshihisa brought with him an army to stamp out this rebellion, and a battle between Ashikaga and Rokkaku’s camps ensued.
Ashikaga mobilized daimyo from several provinces in the castle of Kannonji, the headquarters of the Rokkaku; as a result, Rokkaku Masayori and Rokkaku Takayori (Masayori's son) were forced to flee to the castle of Kōka. The factual accuracy of their escape is debated and it is likely that they gave up the town to avoid a direct confrontation instead. Ashikaga then moved his base to Anshiyoji of Kurita District and attacked the castle of Kōka. Kōka fell, but the Rokkaku duo escaped and ordered the Kōka warriors who followed them to mount a heavy resistance against Ashikaga using guerrilla warfare. Exploiting their geographical advantage in the mountains, the Kōka warriors launched a wide range of surprise attacks against Ashikaga’s forces, and tormented them by using fire and smoke on Ashikaga’s camp during the night.
The guerilla warfare prevented a final showdown, until Ashikaga died in battle in 1489, ending the three-year conflict and sparing the lives of the Rokkaku duo. The elusive and effective guerilla warfare used by the Kōka warriors became well-known throughout the whole country.
As a result of this victory, the local samurai in the 53 families who participated in this battle were called "the 53 families of Kōka".
This also marked the first time that the ninja of Kōka were drafted as a regular army by their lord. Previously, they were only mercenaries and it was not uncommon to have warriors from Kōka on both sides of a battle.
Current status
Any actual direct lineage of the Kōga-ryū ended with the death of Fujita Seiko on January 14, 1966. In an interview given to the 1963 edition of Bugei Ryuha Daijiten, a record of legitimate martial art schools, Seiko indicated that 'nobody knows this ryu today.' Only two remaining schools still instruct today Sato Ryu & Sanada Ryu. For more information see external links.
See also
External links
- [Toushinkai NinJutsu] (“Toushinkai, a Kōga-ryu ninja school”)
- [Koka-ryu Ninjagundan TAKIGUMI] (“Taki-gumi, a Kōga-ryu ninja corps”) (in Japanese)
- [The “Ninja Village” in Kōka]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.