Sanzoku Ippa
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The Sanzoku Ippa (山賊一派, lit. "bandit group") was the exonym given to a short-lived Japanese brigand collective[1] led by the Japanese Templar Kimura Yukari[2] that regularly harassed and extorted civilians on Awaji.[1]
History[edit | edit source]
The Sanzoku Ippa as a concept began in 1582, when the Japanese Templar Kimura Kei entrusted his surviving daughter Yukari with training the Saisesha, a group of loyal rōnin which he intended to use as a personal army in a coup against the Portuguese Templars Nuno Caro and Duarte de Melo, his Templar benefactors. Kei disagreed with Caro and de Melo's plans to influence Japanese politics as a means of controlling the masses, and felt that the Templars' cause would be better carried out by himself. While Yukari showed prowess and ambition in training the regiment, one of Kei's subordinates tasked with covertly observing her warned him that she may have had other plans with the Saisesha beneath her veneer of familial loyalty.[3]
After Oda Nobunaga's retainer Yasuke slew Kei[3] for his affiliation with de Melo,[4] Yukari fled to Awaji,[2] where she courted its governing daimyō before usurping control when he was called away.[5] Thereafter, she began assembling her group to exploit the island's residents for her own ends,[2] using her experience in training Kei's army to ensure a strict chain of command was followed. Positioning herself at the group's head, she commanded the bandits through a taishō (大将, lit. "general") triumvirate comprised of her aggrieved bodyguard Imagawa Tomeji as her enforcer,[6] the disguise adept Yasuhira as her spymaster,[7] and Nowaki, an orphan she raised to be a fanatically-loyal ambusher.[8]
When she heard rumors that a stranger had visited the island to find and hide the Imperial Regalia's legendary sword Kusanagi no Tsurugi, Yukari captured the interloper and learned her quarry was the Kakushiba ikki member Fujibayashi Tsuyu. Believing that recovering the sword would help her climb higher in the Templar ranks, Yukari kept Tsuyu imprisoned for years, repeatedly interrogating[2] and torturing her for the sword's location.[9]
In 1585, the Assassin Hattori Hanzō found a lead on Tsuyu's possible location through a puppet play that was touring Izumi Settsu, and had his contact Konatsu forward the information to Tsuyu's daughter Naoe,[10] fulfilling an earlier promise he had made to her.[11] Naoe promptly sailed to Awaji and learned that the Sanzoku Ippa were keeping Tsuyu locked up in Sumoto Castle.[12] However, in her eagerness to find her mother, she failed to consider that Yukari had intentionally "leaked" the information to bait her in a trap, hoping to blackmail Tsuyu into revealing the sword's hiding place by threatening her daughter's life.[5]
When Naoe did not return, Konatsu contacted Yasuke, who likewise sailed over[13] and proved instrumental in freeing the Fujibayashi women from captivity.[14] With more help from Hanzō and Konatsu, and supplemented by Tsuyu's knowledge of the island and its people, Naoe and Yasuke worked together to kill Yukari's taishō,[15][16][17] eliminate the bandits' assorted captains,[18] incapacitate the majority of her forces with a strong sedative,[1] and sabotage the weapons stocks of those left unaffected,[19] before confronting and killing Yukari herself.[20] Despite the group's leadership being eliminated, it did not sway the remaining pockets of members, who wandered the land and persisted in threatening the locals until Naoe and Yasuke tracked them down and killed them, finally eradicating the group.[21]
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
The Sanzoku Ippa is the name of the main enemy faction featured in Claws of Awaji, the downloadable expansion for the 2025 video game Assassin's Creed: Shadows, though its members never refer to themselves as such either through in-universe notes or in conversation with each other. The group's name is derived from the word 山賊 (sanzoku, "bandit") and the compound word 一派 (–ippa),[22] which is comprised of the mora 一 (hi, "one"), with its kun'yomi [citation needed] reading denoting it as a singular entity rather than in the plural tense, and 派 (–ha, "group, school of thought").
Members[edit | edit source]
- Kimura Yukari
- Nowaki
- Ando Masamune
- Chiba Hachibei
- Goto Ginpachi
- Inoue Yonekichi
- Ishida Shota
- Nitta Koheiji
- Suganuma Tenma
- Yasuhira
- Kobayakawa Heitaro
- Ryuzoji Den
- So Sachihiko
- Yamane Ichi
- Yamanouchi Tobei
- Imagawa Tomeji
- Suma
- Nowaki
Gallery[edit | edit source]
-
Two Sanzoku Ippa members watching Naoe
Appearances[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – The Bad Sleep Well
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Database: Kimura Yukari
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Fighting for the Cause
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – The Path He Walks
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – The Reunion
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Database: Imagawa Tomeji
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Database: Yasuhira
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Database: Nowaki
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Database: Fujibayashi Tsuyu
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – The Puppet Show
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – The Meaning of the Blade
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – A Shinobi on Awaji
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Not Alone in this World
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Prison Break
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – A Garrison to Dismantle
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – A Snake in the Shrine
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Turning the Tables
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Dismantling One by One
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – Silencing the Teppo
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – The Final Assault
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Shadows – Claws of Awaji – All That We Leave Behind
- ↑ Ahlström et al. (2009). Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary. Jisho. Retrieved on 16 December 2025.
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