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NINJA MAGIC

1550 A.D.

Name: KATOH DANZO

加藤段蔵

Birth–Death: 1503?-1557

Occupation: Ninja and Illusionist

Cause of Death: Killed in action

Gender: Male

A.K.A.: Tobi Katoh (“Flying Katoh”)

Tobi Katoh (“Raptor Katoh”)

Preferred Technique: Cow-Swallowing

Clan Affiliation: Unknown

Existence: Confirmed

The Man

A master of illusion who took the concept of “hiding in plain sight” to a literal extreme, Katoh Danzo didn’t practice his art in the shadows but right out in the open as part of a one-man travelling show. A born entertainer, this lone wolf spent his days wowing crowds with magic tricks and his nights putting the same skills of deception and misdirection to work as a ninja for hire.

The sixteenth-century equivalent of a street illusionist like David Blaine, Katoh gained great renown for a performance in which he swallowed an entire cow whole. Described by contemporary sources as employing mass hypnosis rather than misdirection, the origin of the trick appears to be a far older Chinese one involving the illusion (one would hope) of crawling through a horse’s anus and out of its mouth.

During one of these performances, a heckler sitting in a nearby tree shouted to the mesmerized crowd that Katoh hadn’t swallowed anything. From his vantage point, it was obvious that Katoh was in fact sitting atop the cow. Infuriated at having his performance disrupted, Katoh redirected the crowd’s attention to a bottle gourd seedling near the stage. Within seconds the plant began growing faster and faster, instantly attaining a height of one meter. Producing a tanto dagger, Katoh sliced off a gourd with a lightning-fast flourish. As the fruit toppled to earth, so too did the head of the heckler, having been cleanly separated from his neck despite being many meters removed from the plant and the stage. Katoh used the ensuing commotion to beat a hasty retreat.

A bottle gourd of the type Katoh Danzo used when assassinating a heckler.

The Moment of Glory