A.D.
Name: PRINCE SHOTOKU
聖徳太子
Birth/Death: 574-622
Occupation: Regent
Duration of Reign: 593-622
Cause of Death: Unknown
A.K.A.: Shotoku Taishi
Prince Umayato
Umayato-no-oh
Umayato-no-mikoto
Toyoto-mimi
Toyoto-mimi-no-nori-no-ohokimi
Uetsumiya-no-umayato-no-oyotomimi-no-mikoto
Known Associates: Otomo-no-sabito (see below)
Hobbies: Multi-tasking
Preferred Weapon: Shinobi
Existence: Confirmed
The Man
Prince Shotoku was a precocious young politician with a literal gift of gab, said to be capable of holding discreet conversations* with ten people simultaneously (quite a trick, close to a millenium and a half before the Internet chat room was invented). Never actually taking the throne, the prince served as the regent to Empress Suiko, his aunt. In title, he was a humble advisor. It is believed, however, that he ruled the entire country in her name.
Having lived so long ago, he occupies the crossroads between Japanese history and mythology, and over the centuries all sorts of incredible achievements have been ascribed to him. Some are down-to-earth (establishing the nation’s first constitution and promoting the spread of Buddhism), while others are obvious flights of fancy (inventing sushi and giving Japan its now-official name of “Nihon”).
Insightful and talented though he may have been, the path to the empress’ side was anything but smooth for the prince. Perhaps this is why he was among the first proponents of Sun Tzu’s Art of War in Japan. Its teachings—particularly good old chapter 13, “The Use of Spies”—played a key role in his rise to power at the age of eighteen, particularly in his befriending of a brilliant tactician named (perhaps a little too fittingly) Otomo-no-saibito, or “Otomo the Clandestine.” Like the prince, Otomo posessed a few special comunication skills. In the Nihon Shoki, Japan’s oldest historical text (written in 720 AD), Otomo’s family line was said to be able to communicate in words only intelligible to other clan members and allies—or to put it more precisely, secret code.
The two men’s relationship changed the course of Japanese history in more ways than one. For Otomo is now known as the very first ninja—or more precisely, shinobi, as the young prince dubbed both him and his operatives. The word has remained a synonym for ninja ever since.
Until the mid-1980s, Prince Shotoku appeared on several Japanese bank notes.
The Moment of Glory
The 587 death of Emperor Yomei, Prince Shotoku’s father, touched off a bloody power struggle between his clan and that of the rival Moriya. Being just thirteen, the young prince knew he needed expert advice if he was to triumph in the confrontation—after all, his troops were hugely outnumbered by the enemy. (By some accounts, he led just two hundred men against some thirty thousand Moriya soldiers.)
The enemy onslaught had already forced the prince into retreat three times; now there would be no avoiding a decisive battle. It should have been a clear rout. But as dawn broke, something strange happened. The Moriya men began panicking, loosing arrows wildly, swinging swords blindly, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Legend ascribes the once-mighty army’s subsequent defeat at the prince’s hands to divine intervention. But reading between the lines, it is highly likely that the prince’s clandestine friend Otomo played a role in the affair, for throwing terror into the hearts of a superior-sized force is one of the founding principles of ninjutsu. And in an era before ninja were widely known or employed, his feat could well have looked like the hand of god intervening to smite the enemy troops.
It isn’t known exactly how he pulled this off, but history offers a tantalizing clue: in the fourteenth century, a warrior named Kusunoki Masashige pulled off a similar trick by preparing dozens of extra battle-pennants and hiring hundreds of civilians to pose as warriors, fooling his overconfident enemy into thinking that they had sorely underestimated the size of the forces they were facing.
The End
The victory sealed Prince Shotoku’s clan’s claim to the throne, and one of his first official acts was recognizing Japan’s clandestine operatives with the title of “Shinobi.” A millenium later in the sixteenth century, the Ninjutsu-Ogiden, annals of the Koga ninja, would explicitly describe Otomo-no-sabito as an honored ancestor—of themselves, and of all ninja.
Somewhat strangely for someone otherwise quite well documented, there is absolutely no record of what caused Prince Shotoku’s death at the age of 48, some three decades after he assumed power. Given the lack of any reports to the contrary, not to mention the limited medical technology available at the time, it is entirely likely that natural causes were to blame.
Trivia
THE FIRST NINJA
The prince used the characters 志能便 to write Shinobi—“will,” “ability,” and “usefulness.” Today it is written with the homonym 忍び, “clandestine.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
There is some controversy over Prince Shotoku’s name. During his lifetime, he was known as Prince Umayato (stable door), for he happened to have been born outside of a horse stable. In recent years, the political baggage of the posthumous title Shotoku, which means “imperial virtue,” has led Japanese scholars (and textbooks) to prefer the use of “Umayato” instead. The change remains politically charged in some quarters.
_____________________
* This is undoubtedly a metaphor for just how well informed he was kept by his spies.
EN NO OZUNU
NINJA MAGIC
701 A.D.
Name: EN NO OZUNU
役小角
Birth–Death: 634?-701?
Literal Translation: “En of the Horn”
Occupation: Shaman/Mystic
Cause of Death: Unknown
A.K.A.: En no Gyoja (En the Pilgrim) Kamo-no-e-no-kimi (Birth name) Ubasoku (The Unordained Devout) Jinben
