Photo/Illutration Manga artist Sobe Amako talks about her collection of “shuriken” throwing stars, a matchlock gun and other ninja artifacts that she entrusted to the Kudoyama town office in Wakayama Prefecture for safekeeping. (Junya Fukuda)

KUDOYAMA, Wakayama Prefecture--Sobe Amako, a manga artist known for “Rakudai Ninja Rantaro” and its TV anime adaptation “Nintama Rantaro,” handed over her collection of hundreds of authentic ninja artifacts into the care of the town office here.

The municipality intends to put the collection comprising 551 ninja items of 206 kinds on display at the Kudoyama Sanada Museum, which is dedicated to feudal warlords Sanada Masayuki and his son Nobushige (Yukimura), who were exiled to Kudoyama after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.

The Sanada clan employed ninja because they excelled in intelligence-gathering activities, among other things.

Amako visited the town office July 28 with Hiroshi Kitagawa, 61, honorary director of the museum, to show off part of her collection to Mayor Akira Okamoto.

They include cross- and swastika-shaped “shuriken” throwing stars, caltrops, “kunai” trowel-like tools and other weapons, as well as a matchlock gun and a sword.

The artist said she took possession of some of the artifacts from historical authenticity expert Yumio Nawa some 30 years ago, adding that she also bought others for use as reference materials.

“I’m so happy I could hand over the collection to a good place associated with ninja,” Amako said.

Okamoto said the collection is bound “to live up to the expectations of fans of ninja and Sanada.”

Amako originally entrusted the collection to the city government of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, where she was born and still lives.

But after the municipality encountered difficulties preserving the items, the artist approached the Kudoyama town office through Kitagawa, her acquaintance of 30 years, with an offer to hand them over for posterity.

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