Database: Fujibayashi Yasutoyo

Fujibayashi Yasutoyo, or Nagato-no-kami, lived in the 16th century. He is known as a warrior and ninja leader who held his fief in the domain of Yufune, at the northern end of the province of Iga. There still exists a series of stone stupas said to be the tombs of his family near the site of his residence. However, his existence cannot be confirmed in historical documents of the time. His name appears for the first time in the Bansenshūkai, a compilation of ninja knowledge completed in 1676 by his descendant Fujibayashi Yasutake, and it is very possible that Yasutoyo was an imaginary ancestor created by Yasutake.

Moreover, it is said that Yasutoyo left Yufune to go to Suruga where he taught the art of war to Yamamoto Kansuke. The latter was then in the service of Imagawa Yoshimoto, feudal lord of this province, before serving Takeda Shingen. This episode, which echoes his link with a man who became famous as a military strategist in the Edo period, is another element that casts doubt on his existence. On the other hand, the fact that he intervened in a conflict in the Kōga district, province of Ōmi, just north of Yufune, reflects historical facts concerning the geographical and political links between Iga and Kōga, the latter being led like Iga by a group of small lords who are at the origin for the creation of the ninja.