Ninja museum of Iga style
In Iga you’ll find Ninja Museum of Iga style in Ueno Castle in ten minutes strolling from JR’s Iga-Ueno station taking a path right in front of the station. This museum was planned as a nonprofit sector to introduce Iga Area’s history and for the promotion of Iga sightseeing.
The contents are as follows.
Iga Ninja’s housestand(yashiki)
Iga Ninja’s housestead in Takayama was relocated to here. Momochi Sandayu(Tanba), known as Jonin ninja had a multiple of estates similar to this and when they stayed at one of the housesteads they made themselves in the disguise of appearances in different ages and had given orders to Chunin and Genin.
So their cautious lifestyle such as nobody knows their real faces and that mentality is well reflected in design of their facilities such as hidden door turn around wall, secret underground passage all of which are very impressive.
Virtual experience of ninja art(忍術) (tips by video display)
This was not available when I visited the Museum last time.
A video showing techniques and tools,they used to break into castle the primary job of *Innin(陰忍) and which was regarded as their responsibility.
*Innin: one of the ninja’s working style, one is Innin and the other is Yonin(陽忍)
Ninja tradition museum (Ninja archive)
Amazing to see a lot of exhibits available in well-designed programs as follows: Explanation on development of Iga Ninjutsu and display of their unique weapon tools which served for dual purposes, farming and attacking and unique dried foods ninja carried. It is amazing to see a lot of improvement being made to these tools.
Ninja Show
Ashura Group who play Iga ninja show having live performances, 5 times a day from Saturday to Monday and 3 times on weekends. You get to see performances of ninja actors using actual tools demonstrating them in show up style how they were used. The performers utilize throwing knives, fighting blades, sickle and chain which are the specialties of ninja’s. It is truly an astonishing performance. However question arises if this performance on the stage would be the revivals of real battle at that time?
Yu-pon think the performance is way far from the beauty of ninja’s skill which is a matter of ‘to live or to die’ according to the ninja described in the short essay written by Ryotaro Shiba.
The show itself is just a mere show good for your eyes to look at and athletic motion on stage would show the limit of performer who is not trained as real ninja back in ninja time.
Access
| Name; | Ueno castle |
| Place; | 106, Ueno Marunochi, Iga-shi, Mie Prefecture |
| By train; | From JR Iga-ueno station → 7 minutes → Iga railway Uenoshi station →8 minutes walk → Iga Ueno castle |
| By car; | From Nagoya → Meihan highway Nakase IC 10 minutes → Iga Ueno castle |
| By bus; | ・From Nagoya (meitestu bus center) about 90 minutes, ・From Osaka(shin-osaka station north entrance) about 120 minutes, ・From Kyoto(Kyoto station Hachijo Exit) about 90 minutes |
Matsuo Basho Memorial Hall and library and his parent’s home
Matsuo Basho was a typical haiku poet in Japan. It is said that Haiku book of traveling “Oku-no-hosomichi” written by Basho might possibly be the work of Yonin’s whose real job was Ninja Spy for Edo Government. In fact the distance divided by days it took for the travel calculates 50km per day. Normally a person 50’s years or over might not as feasible to walk that far. It is a good guess but Ninja with hard training only could have possibly walked 50Km per day. That is why Matsuo Basho was certainly a ninja.
In addition to this story he had a family name though he came from the farmer. Farmers of that time did not have family name. Jonin and Chunin only were permitted to have family names. Additional evidence shows that the journey in Edo Age was too costly for an individual spending. For ordinary people journey permission by Edo Government was hard to get. Memorial Hall was built as an annex in the Ueno Castle. His parent‘s home is in 5 min walking from Ninja museum of Iga style. It is a little joy to imagine Matsuo Basho’s traveling book fragmented with Haiku(俳句) poet was actually the byproduct of performance of his duty being as a ninja.
| Name; | Matsuo Basho home |
| Place; | Ueno Akasakacho, Iga-shi, Mie Prefecture |
| Acsess; | From Ueno castle park waik 12 minutes |
Iga Ninja training village Akame(赤目) 48 Waterfalls, Ninja’s forest
This village used to be a training place for Jonin Momochi family and for shugendo also. This facility is limited to the use of children however children shall have an access to ninja training using Shinobi equipment, technique of hiding oneself, wall scaling, jumping skill, way of walking , way of disguising, Mizukumo (water spider) walking and marking skills.
Going Akame’s 48 waterfalls around will take 2 to 3hours however you will surely enjoy its scenic beauty. And above visiting spots are all in Nabari City area and good hot springs are also available in the city. Staying overnight in the city will provide you a base for sightseeing to whole Iga and Koka.
| Name; | ninja village akame 48 watarfaills |
| Place; | Akamecho Nagasaka, Nabari-shi, Mie Prefecture |
| By car; | ・From Kyoto →route24 45 min → KIZU → route163 45 minutes → Iga-shi → route368 40 min. ・From Nagoya(Nagoya-nishi IC)→ Higashi Meihan Expressway 35 min → KameyamaIC →Meihan Road 30 min → UenoIC → route368 40 min. |
| By train; | ・ From Kyoto(kintetsu-limited express train) → Yamato Yagi -station →akame-guchi station ….1h29min ・ From Nagoya(kintetsu-limited express train) →nabari-station →akame-guchi station ….54min |
