The zakos in Tenchu series are primarily kunoichi (female ninja) employed as a part of the main antagonist's army. There are cases of non-kunoichi zakos, which will be shown below.
Kunoichi in Tenchu often wears short miniskirt-like kimono dress, long protective stockings, and are often seen dual-wielding their weapons. They are often than not carbon copies of Ayame, one of the protagonists, but with lesser skill and attack power.
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins[]
These are kunoichi either hired by Gohda's enemies or a part of Mei-Oh's army. Unlike the subsequent games, these kunoichi shows more skin and are more risque than their future counterparts.
Kunoichi (Stealth Assassins)
Kunoichi[]
Kunoichi with short hair, wearing an extremely short dress that barely covers their underwear (as shown in the artworks) with a cleavage that halfway exposes their chest, and tattered stockings. They wield a pair of jyute, and fight similar to Ayame but with less skills and shorter combo. They will sometimes try to use a spinning slash that will leave themselves open to attack, and a double aerial slash that deals a good amount of damage to the player. They will often times try to flank the player, and if they are grouped together, they can barrage the player with relentless assault. They will also sometimes taunt the players, shouting "Weak" while flaunting their jyute and goading the players. This is usually done when they are in a group, and the long animation leaves them open to easy attacks.
Demon Kunoichi
Demon Kunoichi[]
Masked kunoichi with ponytail, wearing similarly short dress but with net mesh covering their midsection and thighs. Wields dual handblades and is basically has the same moveset as their weaker counterpart but with higher health and attack power. Most likely they are Mei-Oh and Onikage's personal unit, being that their outfit and Onikage's is thematically similar.
Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins[]
A part of the Burning Dawn ninja army, they share Lady Kagami's vision of creating a world ruled by ninjas. They wield both dual tantos and dual claws, and generally are much smarter than their older counterpart.
Hannya Kunoichi
Hannya Kunoichi[]
Wears a hannya mask, blue corset-like short dress that cover their chest cleavages halfway, and long black stockings with white cloth wrappings. As mentioned, they are much smarter than their older counterpart, due to their ability to pick up and use items in combat, throwing shuriken or poison dart at suspicious sounds, and dodge items thrown at them. They are also agile, capable of doing flips and quick-steps to outmaneuver and confuse the player.
Snake Kunoichi
Snake Kunoichi[]
Wears green ninja suit and snake mask. Only found near the shores or body of water in some levels, these kunoichi are no different than the Hannya Kunoichi.
Crow Kunoichi
Crow Kunoichi[]
Wears a crow hood that covers their face, short black kimono dress, and bandage-like wrappings on their legs and arms. These kunoichi has a higher health and attack power than the Hannya Kunoichi, and also have a longer line of sight. Other than that, their moveset are the same as the other types of kunoichi.
Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven/Return from Darkness[]
A part of Tenrai's army, these kunoichi are much more agile than the previous games, due to the change in game engine. They have longer line of sight, are slightly faster than Rikimaru and Tesshu, and run at the same speed as Ayame. Not to mention their acrobatic skills make them very agile, thus they are really hard to shake off and they can even cut the player off their escape route in a chase.
Red Kunoichi[]
Short-haired kunoichi with snow-white skin and red eyes, wearing a short miniskirt-like red kimono with cleavage on their right thigh that exposes a rose tattoo (which may be a mark of their unit), black protective stockings with chain-like textures, and a pink kimono sash with flower patterns which hides their two tantos.
Their moveset is similar to Ayame, but they can only do a 3-hit combo, They will often try to flank the player if they're not being focused in a group fight, and they can grapple and knee the player in the stomach if the player is constantly guarding or walked too close to them.
Black Kunoichi (Jokunoichi)[]
White-haired kunoichi with slightly tan skin and red eyes, wearing a short miniskirt-like black kimono with exposed midriff that is closed off with a net mesh, a cleavage on the right thigh of the skirt that shows their tattoo, black protective stockings with leather-like texture, and a purple kimono sash that hides their dual tanto. In Return to Darkness, their hair is slightly longer, they wore a demon mask, and their tattoo is a moth instead of a rose.
They are more aggressive and have higher health than the Red Kunoichi, and they also have a backflip slash move similar to Ayame, but cannot follow up to a forward lunge like she does.
Tenchu: Fatal Shadows/Time of the Assassins[]
These kunoichi are a part of Jyuzou's Kuroya ninja. They are basically reskins of Tenchu 3's kunoichi, but with the faster gameplay pace and additional movesets, these kunoichi are more dangerous than the previous game. They also gain the ability to use items and dodge incoming projectiles from the player. In addition, as with most assassin/ninja enemies in the game, they can perform stealth kill at the player in Hard Mode if they happen to catch the player's back at point blank while their Ki is not in alert mode yet.
Kuroya Kunoichi[]
Reskin of the Red Kunoichi from Tenchu 3. The only change is their kimono's color which has been changed from red to blue. As mentioned above, with the faster gameplay speed, these kunoichi are much more agile and aggressive compared to their old counterpart. They will constantly try to flank and outmaneuver the player, using a combination of quicksteps and flips to confuse the player, and will sometimes use items if they managed to get some off the ground.
In this game, their third attack in their combo came out much slower, allowing the player to guard the last hit.
Kuroya Jokunoichi[]
Reskin of the Black Kunoichi from Tenchu 3 (specifically the Wrath of Heaven version). They have brown hair, tanner skin, darker color for their stockings, and a brown kimono with patterns that resembles snakeskin. They have higher health, attack power, and are much more aggressive than Kuroya Kunoichi. Their backflip slash into forward lunge combo is the same speed as Ayame, and their running speed is also faster than Rin, allowing them to catch up to her easily. They will sometimes call for backup if another enemy is near.
When the Jokunoichi's health reaches 40 points or lower, they will throw a drilling top at the player (which can be parried or dodged). If the top hits the player, it will spin on the player's head and then extends its tip, drilling the player's skull, piercing their brain, and killing them. The player can remove the top from their head by quickly rotating the left analog stick and mashing the Square (Circle in TOTA) button before the animation finishes. The Jokunoichi can only do this 3 times.
Assassin Woman (Shimatsuya Onna)[]
Female assassins disguised as geisha, wearing long purple kimono with flower patterns and cleavage on the leg that exposes their inner thighs, black arm and leg guards, white tabi socks with straw sandals, and a red shamisen which hides their tanto. As they only wield a single blade, they deal less damage than the kunoichi, but have a 4-hit combo like Ayame to make up for it. They generally have similar moveset and stats like the Kuroya Kunoichi, but with altered animations to accomodate the single blade (their animations and voicelines are also much more seductive than the typical kunoichi). Their grapple attack is also different, as while the kunoichi will knee the player's midsection, the female assassins will grab the player's chin and slit their throat. First-time players might mistake them for civilians. One minor detail to note is that unlike the kunoichi, the assassins' footstep while walking is not silent.
This is the first zako in the series to not be an actual ninja.
Tenchu Z[]
They are a part of Ogawara's army, serving him in the campaign against Gohda.
Ogawara Kunoichi[]
Bun-haired kunoichi dressed in plain black short kimono and black protective stockings. They also have tiger tattoo on both their thighs. Unlike the previous games' kunoichi, they only wield one tanto. They don't have much of a moveset unlike in previous games, but their attacks are strong enough to knock the player down. They also have a lunge attack that can break the player's defense, and can even parry the player's attack.
Ogawara Jokunoichi[]
Short-haired kunoichi dressed in similar manner to their weaker counterpart, but also wears a long cloth on top of it in addition to wearing a demon mask. They have higher health, attack power, and attack speed than the Ogawara Kunoichi, but otherwise retains the same moveset as them.
Onna Bugeisha[]
Female warriors who served as guards for Ogawara's VIPs (usually if the targets are female). They wear purple kimono, white headbands, and white socks. They uses naginata to fight the player at long range. They can sometimes be spooked if the player killed several of their allies or have been damaged enough, and will attempt to run from the player to find backup.
Unused Character[]
There's an artwork of an unknown female warrior/ninja in Tenchu: Stealth Assassins artbook. Whether it's a scrapped character, enemy, or a prototype version of Tazu, one of the game's sub-bosses is still a mystery.