Mochizuki Chiyome

Fictional accounts presented her as creating a group of kunoichi in service of the Takeda clan. Her existence has been questioned by modern historians.

Historicity

It has been alleged that Mochizuki's name first appeared in the 1971 book Investigation of Japanese History (考証日本史) by non-academic Shisei Inagaki (稲垣史生). Inagaki:

1. Describes the details of the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima.
2. Claims that Moritoki Mochizuki was a husband of Chiyome and that he died at this battle.
3. Presents a historical written permission to Chiyome issued by Shingen and claims that, due to this permission, the "miko village" emerged.
4. Claims that the miko of the village became spies.
5. Claims that Chiyome then became a ninja.

However, Katsuya Yoshimaru (吉丸雄哉), an associate professor of Mie University who studies Japanese Edo period literature and the ninja, claims that Chiyome did not actually exist and lists the allegedly erroneous points of Inagaki's book:

1. There is no historical document describing the details of this battle.
2. Moritoki did not die in this battle. (that is, there is no mention of a Mochizuki Moritoki anywhere, let alone among the slain at that battle)
3. This written permission is not extant. Generally speaking, most of such kind of written permissions are forged ones.
4. The claim of spy activities of the miko is groundless; it is based only on guess of Inagaki. (note, such a claim is believable, if impossible to prove, as travelling miko would indeed have made splendid informants)
5. This is groundless as well. Although Inagaki refers History of Japanese Miko (日本巫女史), 1930, written by Taro Nakayama (中山太郎), this book says nothing about ninja and all mentions first appear in Inagaki's book.

Mochizuki's name became popular after a two-page article about her was published in a 1991 special issue of the magazine History Reader (歴史読本) titled Extraordinary Special Issue: All the Definitive Types of Ninja (臨時増刊号『決定版「忍者」の全て』). This article said that she was an upper ninja (上忍); according to Yoshimaru, historically there was no such rank in a ninja hierarchy.