Who is The Oniwabanshuu?

The Oniwabanshuu was formed by three individuals who had nothing to do with life, and had a strong bond between them, this bond with time has grown stronger and stronger, the 3 original founders of this group remain together to this very day and still attract new members to become part of this organization. It all started on 1997 when Evolution, Matador and Link were playing UO actively on the late NOS Sphere server. It has been a long way.

The story behind the name

The word "Oniwabanshuu" was adopted by Evolution and Link as the name for our UO guild since we were and still are huge Rurouni Kenshin fans... we decided upon that name mostly because of fate "Oniwabanshuu" became one of the most feared words known to UO players and individuals on the internet, we couldnt have choosen a better and more representative name for our beliefs than ONW. Up to now, not one of us knows the true meaning of that word, though we do have different interpretations of the word. So that's the true story behind "Oniwabanshuu" and definitely, we are not Beshimi, Shikijo, Hyotoko, and Hanya look-alikes. As a matter of fact, we are very bishonen...

The Oniwabanshuu as an Organization

The Oniwabanshuu is the materialization of the bond that had been tried for better and for worse, through trials and success. It is a concept that is difficult to comprehend, but very easy to understand .

Unlike other organizations, the Oniwabanshuu has no Hierarchy aka "chain of command". Each member operates by itself and is not governed by anyone else. Although there may be some situations where a "leader" may be needed due to the expertise of that particular member on the situation, more often every member are equals. No competition, no conflict.

The Oniwabanshuu operates mainly as a brotherhood. Because our bond has been forged for quite a long period of time, we now strive to support each other's goals, and help each other the best way we can. We have been doing these for years and we hope that we can still do so for the rest of our lives.

"Oniwabanshuu"

I found this info at Japan-Guide, some guy was wondering the very same thing you are wondeirng right now: what is the true meaning of the word "Oniwabanshuu". Luckily, we got four replies. Here they are:

(oh and all the typos are from the original text)

Oniwabanshuu
Guards of the inner garden or something like that (an inner garden of a castle or something maybe).
by Rurouni 2003/7/12

According to my Kojien JJ dictionary
(o) honorific suffix
(niwa) garden
(ban) person to watch over someone/something
(shuu) people/team
The Oniwabanshuu were people who were in charge of guarding the backyard of (the honorable) Edo Castle, but were actually spies for the Shogun. The Hanya masks they wore had nothing to do with the word itself.
by Uco 2003/7/12

Oniwabanshuu
'Oniwabanshuu' indeed means something like 'Garden Guard' because they were ninjas that protected the gardens of Edo castle. I saw it in the extras of a 'Rurouni Kenshin' DVD once (I love that series!Aoshi's my favorite) Also, I do ninja (ninjutsu) as 'sport' (I live in the Netherlands; so you can see ninjutsu spread around the world!)
by Kunoichi85 2003/7/14

Ninja
Although the word "Ninja" alone is well known in Wwetern countries intelligence activities in 16th- 19th Century Japan are rather conducted by high class officers. These people were called Jonin (High class Ninjyas) while others were called Chunin (Middle class NInjyas) and Genin (Low class Ninjyas.) The last category has created the totally wrong images of Ninjyas. A couple of examples of Jonin are Ankokuji Ekei, Mouri family's messeanger to Toyotomi family, Niiro Tadamoto, Shimazu family's diplomat, and Matsuo Basho, one of the most famous essay writer in wholetime Japan. Ankokuji Ekei was a Buddist Monk. He was born into Prestigeous Takeda Family in Aki (current Hiroshima Prefecture.) After Takeda Family was perished by Mouri Family he was sent to a Buddist temple. Later he became an independent feudalistic land lord but his basic role was to collect information for Mouri Family. Niiro Tadamoto, Satsuma clan diplomat, prevented Tokugawa family to invade Satsuma/Osumi region. He spent most of his life time travelling from countries to countries, which was quite unusual behaviors at that time. But his biggest achivement was to set up Go-Chu-Kyoiku. This was a quite effective military education and Satsuma clan was formed into one of the most storng state. Matsuo Basho is known as the author of "Oku-no-Hosomichi" (Narrow path to Tohoku region.) But his real mission was not to write up this long essay but to gather information about Tohoku landlords, such as Date clan, Mogami clan and Satake clan.
by rising sun 2003/7/16

More Info...

The Oniwabanshuu was an elite of ninja who were at guard of the Edo Castle during the Togukawa Era.

For hundreds of years the IGA (Togakure) group of ninja were the major force in Ninjitsu, however smaller groups existed in other parts of Japan. Within these groups of spies, saboteurs, and killers, another family incread its power, namely the deadly KOGA of Shiga prefecture.

Interestingly, Shiga is next to the Mie prefecture in southern Japan. So, the KOGA and IGA inhabited the same mountain range, in two valleys divided by a mountain.

During the centuries, several leaders such as Takeda Shingen, Oda Nobunga, and perhaps the greatest general in Japanese History, Tokugawa Ieyasu all employed the Ninja to help control the country through a complex spy network.

With the close of the Sengoku era in 1600, three hundred years of peace and prosperity followed, known as the Tokugawa era. Up until this time the capital of Japan had been in Kyoto, but Tokugawa moved the capital to Edo (Tokyo today). He took with him three hundred Ninja from the KOGA and IGA groups as personal bodyguards. So the 'Oniwabanshuu' group of ninja set, not as an espionage unit, but as an internal security unit. Later these Ninja guarded the castle in Tokyo.

And More Info...

The Oniwabanshuu were a group of ninjas/onmitsus established by the 8th Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751), who is considered to be one of Japan's greatest rulers. His far-reaching reforms totally reshaped the central administration structure and temporarily halted the decline of the shogunate. He was originally the head of Kii, one of the three hereditary Japanese feudal fiefs ruled by descendants of the original Tokugawa ruler not in the main line of succession to the Shogunate. (The other two fiefs/hans were Owari and Mito - together, the 3 hans were known as the 3 Houses, or Sanke.) A lack of sons in the main branch of the family, though, resulted in Yoshimune's succession to the position of Shogun in 1716.

Yoshimune established the Oniwabanshuu for security, information gathering and spying activities. Originally, members of the Oniwabanshuu were chosen from the Kii clan, and was passed down in the families - in other words, the posts of the Oniwabanshuu were hereditary. They acted as security guards in the Edo castle, besides spying on other clans of their policies and actions. It was also believed that in Bakumatsu times, Oniwabanshuu members were placed among the missions sent to America.

Also check:

Oniwabanshuu @ UrbanDictionary.com

Last Updated: 03:45 p.m. 27/03/2004 by Link.