3. The Last Ninjas Became Japan’s Original Secret Service
After the fall of the ninjas at Iga, many of them escaped and continued in the craft that had helped preserve their mountainous abode for centuries. However, the end of feudal warfare of the Warring States Period meant that their services were, for the most part, no longer needed. Like a super spy who for a criminal warlord suddenly finds that his employer no longer needs him, they had to get new jobs that required the use of their ninja skills. Many of them relocated from Iga and Koga and went on to work for the shogun as Japan’s first secret service.
They continued to work as spies, but as circumstances changed, they had to hone their fighting style so that they could effectively engage in open combat. They were called upon to quell a peasant uprising known as the Shimbarara Rebellion, which brought in a period of peace known as the Edo Period. Following the rebellion, their services were no longer necessary, so they were given jobs at Edo Castle, in what is now Tokyo. Many of them worked as the shogun’s personal police force until a later shogun, Tokugawa VIII, decided to source his police from the province of Kii.