Hattori Masanari

Who was Hattori Masanari?

Hattori Masanari was a retainer under the Tokugawa clan during the late Sengoku period of Japanese history. He was the eldest son of Hattori Hanzō.

The eldest son of Hattori Hanzō, Masanari began to fight alongside his father by the mid 1590s, and succeeded him in 1596, when he was 31 years old. Following the Battle of Sekigahara of 1600, Masanari was enlisted by Tokugawa Ieyasu as captain of the Edo Castle guards, but ended up suffering from a scandal while in the process, more than likely justified by his harsh treatment to the band of Iga beneath his jurisdiction, it may also be because he wasn't a shinobi like his father causing him to be utterly humiliated in the face of the Tokugawa and relatively stripped from his initial position as captain. In order to repair the Hattori name and his reputation, Masanari valiantly fought during the Siege of Osaka in 1614-1615 as head of 60 Iga ninja. He was cut down in the process of the second siege of Osaka, and was succeeded by his brother Hattori Masashige.