Fūma Kotarō

Fūma Kotarō (風魔 小太郎) was the name adopted by the leader of the ninja Fūma clan (風魔一党, Fūma-ittō) during the Sengoku era of feudal Japan. According to some records, his name was originally Kazama (風間).

The Fūma clan and Fūma Kotarō

The clan was based in Kanagawa Prefecture, specializing in horseback guerrilla warfare and naval espionage. According to some sources, the family has roots in the 10th century when they served Taira no Masakado in his revolt against the Kyoto government. The use of the name started with the first leader (jonin) of the clan: originally surnamed "風間" (Fūma), with a different kanji, it was later changed to homophone 風魔. Each subsequent leader of the school adopted the same name as its founder, making it difficult to identify them individually. This school was in the service of the Hōjō clan of Odawara.

Fūma Kotarō was the fifth and the best known of the Fūma clan leaders. Born in Sagami Province (modern Kanagawa Prefecture) on an unknown date, he became notorious as the leader of a band of 200 Rappa "battle disrupters", divided into four groups: brigands, pirates, burglars and thieves. Kotarō served under Hōjō Ujimasa and Hōjō Ujinao. His biggest achievement came in 1580, when the Fūma ninja covertly infiltrated and attacked a camp of the Takeda clan forces under Takeda Katsuyori at night, succeeding in causing severe chaos in the camp, which resulted in mass fratricide among the disoriented enemies. In 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi laid siege to Odawara Castle, which eventually fell, and the Hōjō clan was forced to surrender.

Spanish language

Spanish (ⁱ/ˈspænɪʃ/, español), also called Castilian (ⁱ/kæˈstɪliən/,  castellano ), is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds of millions of native-speakers across the world.

Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of common Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. It was first documented in central-northern Iberia in the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania and the Philippines.

From its beginnings, Spanish vocabulary was influenced by its contact with Basque, as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages, and later it absorbed many Arabic words during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. It also adopted words from non-Iberian languages, particularly the Romance languages Occitan, French, Italian and Sardinian, as well as from Nahuatl and other Indigenous languages of the Americas.

Joaquín Martínez

Joaquin Martinez (November 5, 1930 – January 3, 2012) was a Mexican-born American film, theatre and television actor. Often appearing in Westerns, Martinez was perhaps best known for starring roles in the 1972 film, Jeremiah Johnson, in which he played a Crow chief, Paints His Shirt Red, and the 1972 film, Ulzana's Raid, which was directed by Robert Aldrich and starred Burt Lancaster. Martinez was often typecast in roles that stereotyped Latinos, Native Americans, and Mexicans, but he frequently changed and reworked his characters through his acting, sometimes causing tensions with a production's director.

Early life

Martinez was born on November 5, 1930, in Cozumel, Mexico. His interest in acting led him to study method acting under Seki Sano.

Career

His professional breakthrough came in the 1967 Mexican dramatic film, Pedro Páramo, which was directed by Carlos Velo and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. He moved to Los Angeles, California, shortly after making Pedro Páramo, where he worked as a professional film, television and stage actor for more than thirty years.