Iga-ryu ("the Iga School") is a historical school of ninjutsu. It became one of the two most well-known ninja schools in Japan, along with the Koga-ryu. The Iga-ryu originated in the Iga Province in the area around the towns of Iga and Ueno (modern Iga City in Mie Prefecture). Iga-mono is a synonym for Iga ninja. History.

Since the Nara period, the Iga district had supplied lumber to jisha (??, temple-shrines). But in the Kamakura period, jisha declined in influence while shugo (governors) and jito (manor administrators) grew dominant. The power of these functionaries then waned in Iga while that of bushi (warriors) rose instead. Iga was divided into local jizamurai regions locked in guerrilla war for which Iga warriors developed specialized skills and tactics. The Koga-ryu school began in a similar way.

During the early Muromachi period, the people of Iga became independent of their feudal overlords and established a kind of republic--Iga Sokoku Ikki (??????) in Japanese. Iga-mono ??? (Iga men) first appear in historical records in 1487 when the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshihisa attacked Rokkaku Takayori, the daimyo of southern Omi Province from the Rokkaku clan. Both Iga and Koga ninja fought on the side of Rokkaku, helping to successfully repel the shogun's attack. In 1579, warlord Oda Nobunaga's son Oda Nobukatsu launched an unsuccessful attack against the Iga Republic. In 1581, Oda Nobunaga himself attacked Iga from six directions with a force of 40 to 60 thousand men, about a ten to one advantage, and slaughtered many Iga ninja and their families. The Iga held only two castles when Nobunaga declared a ceasefire and allowed some of the ninja to escape.

In 1582, during the turmoil following Oda Nobunaga's death, Hattori Hanzo advised Tokugawa Ieyasu to escape to Mikawa through the Koga and Iga regions. Ieyasu, when he became the shogun, employed ninja to guard Edo Castle—the headquarters of the Tokugawa shogunate—and to supply intelligence. He settled 200 men from the Iga-ryu in the Yotsuya neighbourhood of Edo (Tokyo). Hanzo's Gate in Edo Castle took its name from the nearby residence of the Hattori clan.


Iga ninja were trained in disguise, escape, concealment, explosives, medicines, poisons, unarmed combat, and a multitude of weaponry. They used scaling hooks for climbing and supposedly employed special water-walking shoes called Mizugumo (displayed at the Iga-ryu Ninja Museum).

The ninja of the Iga-ryu were divided into three classes: high ninja (jonin), middle ninja (chunin) and low ninja (genin).
