AKA
Ninja 4
Shinobi no Mono 4
Kirigakure Saizo

Summary
Since the victory at Sekigahara gave him rule over all of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu has vigilantly sought to crush the Toyotomi clan. He finally declares war against the Toyotomi 15 years later in order to claim the bell of Hokoji temple in Kyoto. Hideyoshi`s widow, the lady Yodo and their son Hideyori prepare to defend against a siege at the `impregnable` Osaka castle. The winter campaign of Osaka began in November 1614.Hideyori asked several daimyo who had been loyal to Hideyoshi if they would help support his army. However, since Hideyori is clearly losing, only a few come to his aid. Sanada Yukimura, who hates Ieyasu, and Goto Mototsuga are among them so that Hideyori`s army only has 70 - 80,000 men - mostly poor ronin. In contrast, Ieyasu has gathered 200,000 troops in his army as they cross the Chausu mountains in order to surround Hideyori.

As Ieyasu plans to lay siege to the castle and the troops inside, he orders Yotoji (his ninja commander) to send 3 additional ninja to join the other 3 who have already infiltrated the enemy`s ranks.Inside the castle, Lady Yodo calls Ieyasu a demon for trying to kill them by bobarding the wing of the castle where she is staying. As the bombardment continues, Kirigakure Saizou swings into the courtyard and orders Lord Yukimura and his men to escape while he takes care of the enemy.

Saizou stops the enemy from killing the women who are hiding in one of the storehouses.A year later, Osaka is relatively peaceful. While in Kishu, at Mount Takano Saizou speaks with Lord Yukimura and his son Daisuke about the future of the Toyotomi clan. Yukimura sends Saizou off to watch Ieyasu`s actions.

There are several scenes in which Yotoji tries to find out more information about Kirigakure or kill him and Yukimura Daisuke. In one of these, Saizou is followed in the town of Sunpu. Saizou manages to hide by ducking into a brothel. One of the women recognizes him? she is Akane who he saved from the storehouse in Osaka castle a year earlier. Yotoji storms into the room looking for Kirigakure so Akane pretends that Saizou is one of her customers, hiding his face from the other ninja.When the Ieyasu ninja reports back to his master, he says that he still knows nothing about Kirigakure. Ieyasu then orders Gunda - his trusted advisor - to watch Yukimura Sanada because he is more dangerous than the Toyotomi clan alone......

Cast
Raizô Ichikawa - Saizo Kirigakure
Saburo Date
Midori Isomura - Akane
Ganjiro Nakamura - Ieyasu Tokugawa
Katsuhiko Kobayashi
Junichiro Narita
Tomisaburo Wakayama - Sanada Yukimura (as Joh Kenzaburo)