was the name adopted by the leader of the ninja during the Sengoku era of feudal Japan. He was a retainer of the Later Hà Âjà  clan. According to some records, his name was originally Kazama Kotarà  (風é å°Â太éÂÂ).
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éÂÂ" (Fà «ma), with a different kanji, it was later changed to homophone 風éÂÂ. 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 Hà Âjà  clan of Odawara.
Fà «ma Kotarà  was the fifth and the best known of the Fà «ma 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. Kotarà  served under Hà Âjà  Ujimasa and Hà Âjà  Ujinao. His biggest achievement came in 1580 at Battle of Omosu, when the Fà «ma 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 massive casualties among the disoriented enemies as they attacked each other. Later in 1590, at Siege of Odawara, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi laid siege to Odawara Castle, which eventually fell, the Hà Âjà  clan was forced to surrender.
When the Tokugawa shogunate came to power, the remnants of Fà «ma-ryà « were reduced to a band of brigands operating in and around Edo. A popular but fictional story says that in 1596, Kotarà  was responsible for the death of Hattori Hanzà Â, a famous ninja in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had tracked him down in the Inland Sea, but Kotarà  has succeeded in luring him into a small channel, where a tide trapped the Tokugawa gunboats and his men then set fire to the channel with oil.
Kotarà  was eventually caught by the Tokugawa shogunate's special law-enforcement force, guided by his rival and a former Takeda ninja Kà Âsaka Jinnai (é«ÂÃ¥ÂÂçÂÂå ), and executed through beheading by an order of Ieyasu in 1603.
In a folk legend, he is often an inhuman figure: a supposedly part-oni monstrous giant (over 2 meters tall) with inverted eyes. In fiction portrayals, Fà «ma Kotarà  is often depicted as Hattori Hanzà Â's arch-rival. As the name Fà «ma literally means "wind demon", Fà «ma Kotarà Â's depiction is frequently more flamboyant, fantastical, and sometimes even demonic. In contrast, Hanzà  is usually rendered with a relatively subdued appearance.
Kotarà  is a player character in the video game '.
His 18th-century descendant Fà «ma Kotarà  Kaneyoshi is the hero's nemesis through most of the TV series The Samurai.
A fictional weapon called the Fà «ma shuriken is a large collapsible shuriken with four blades.