was a fictional ninja of the final phase of the Sengoku period of Japan. In the folklore he is one of the Sanada Ten Braves, and next to Sarutobi Sasuke, he is the most recognized of the Ten.
As in the case of Sasuke, Saizà  might be a fictional creation of the Meiji-period popular literature, possibly based on Kirigakure Shikaemon. His family name, meaning "Hide in the fog", is written with two kanji; kiri (é§) is the character for "fog", and gakure (é ) is the character for "hide".
According to the historian Stephen Turnbull and non-fiction writer Joel Levy, there is a historical record of a failed assassination attempt by a ninja called Kirigakure Saizà Â, sent by the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu to kill his rival Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Tokichiro Kinoshita). According to another version of this incident, presented by the martial artist and researcher Donn F. Draeger, the "careless ninja" Saizà  was captured while only spying on Hideyoshi, which actually saved the life of the warlord because he was about to be killed by a double agent, Yusuke Takiguchi; Saizà Â's life was then spared on the condition of declaring loyalty to the Toyotomi clan.
Saizà  is said to be a master of Iga ninjutsu. Sarutobi Sasuke, a Kà Âga ninja, is thus often portrayed as Saizà Â's arch-rival, and after they both converted to Sanada's cause, best friends and partners. The name Kirigakure literally means "Hidden Mist", as such Saizà  is often associated with fog and, by extension, illusion magic. In contrast to Sasuke, who is often rendered with an almost feral child appearance, Saizà  usually appears as a calm, elegant, mature, handsome and sometimes feminine young man. The martial artist and author Stephen K. Hayes compared the portrayal of Saizà  in the Japanese children books to this of another ninja "romantic figure" of the bandit hero Ishikawa Goemon.
After Sasuke, Saizà  is the only other one of the Ten who is relatively often recurring in the modern works of fiction. In the manga and anime series Samurai Deeper Kyo, Saizo is a fanatical yet humorous loyalist of Sanada Yukimura. In the film Goemon, Kirigakure Saizà  was portrayed by Takao Osawa (and Takeru Satoh in the role of young Saizà Â). He also appears in the film ' and the manga series BRAVE10, and is the subject of the fourth and the seventh films in the Shinobi no Mono series (Shinobi no Mono: Zoku Kirigakure Saizà  and Shinobi No Mono: Shin Kirigakure Saizà Â), as well as a player character in the video game Onimusha Tactics; in Shall We Date?: Ninja Love, he is either a romance option or the player character. He also makes an appearance as one of the antagonist in the manga and anime series Mushibugyo.
There are also several more or less indirect connections. In the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, one of the main characters, Saizou, played by Hiroshi Tsuchida, is a modern descendant of Saizà Â. In a highly unusual portrayal in the video game Kessen, Saizo is one of a trio of Yukimura's female ninja bodyguards. The modern ninja named Saizo are also player characters in the video game series Power Instinct (Saizo Hattori) and Breakers Revenge (Tobikageno Saizà Â), while the title character in the manga and anime series Igano Kabamaru was raised and trained by his grandfather Saizà  Igano. A village named Kirigakure ("Hidden in Mist") appears in the manga and anime series Naruto, with its first appearing mist character Momochi Zabuza using fog techniques befitting the lore.