The Kouga Ninja Scrolls
1958–1958 historical fantasy novel by Futaro Yamada
The Kouga Ninja Scrolls (Japanese: 甲賀忍法帖, Hepburn: Kōga Ninpōchō) is a historical fantasy novel about ninja written in 1958–1959 by the Japanese author Futaro Yamada. It is the first installment in Yamada's Ninja Scrolls series, which he wrote until his death in 2001. The book was translated into English by Geoff Sant, and published by Del Rey in December 2006.
Plot
Beginning in April 1614 Japan, the story centers around the Kouga and the Iga, two rival ninja clans who have been enemies for 400 years. Their no-hostilities treaty is lifted by retired shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to settle a succession dispute within the government concerning which of Ieyasu's grandsons will become the third Tokugawa Shogun, Takechiyo or Kunichiyo. Danjou and Ogen, leader of the Kouga and Iga respectively, are summoned to Sunpu Castle and each select nine other members of their clan to participate in a battle to the death. Each clan is given a scroll with all 20 combatants' names written on it. Any survivors are to return to the castle on the last day of May with the scroll, and the side with the most survivors will win. Following a random toss of the scrolls by Ieyasu, Kunichiyo is represented by the Kouga, while Takechiyo is represented by the Iga.
Due to years of incestuous selective breeding, the members of the Kouga and Iga have all developed inhuman abilities at the cost of several of them being born physically disfigured or otherwise abnormally mutated.
“The Kouga Ninja Scrolls” enters the record as 1958–1958 historical fantasy novel by Futaro Yamada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kouga, Ninja and Scrolls can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16954708. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1959, 2001 and 2006.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Kouga Ninja Scrolls” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.