Maniac(geek) place Koka
Koka Ninja House(residence) (Koka-ryu ninjutsu yashiki)
Koka Ninja House is an extant and real ninja residence. This precious house owned to Mochizuki family who was the ninja leader representing Koka 53 families. In this family,Koka Saburo who Mochizuki Izumo-no-kami(chief of Izumo-no-kuni),made Koka ninja famous through the Siege of Magari. His name spread across nationwide.
This house was once surrounded by a magnificent forest that blocked the view of approaching enemies. As a result, it functioned as a kind of fortress that could not be attacked by large forces all at once. Inside the Koka Ninja House, various hidden mechanisms were built to protect the ninja living there.
If a ninja needed to escape into the attic, the enemy would follow by coming up to the second floor. However, the ceiling on the second floor was built so low that intruders had to crawl on their stomachs. By that time, the ninja would already have reached the third-floor attic. The pursuing enemy could be trapped by pulling the ladder away or raising it from both ends. Behind one of the doors was a hidden pitfall—if the ninja was being chased, the pursuer might fall into it and land on a floor of sharpened bamboo spears. Additionally, an underground passage runs from this house to an escape point located 200 meters away.
In addition, each room was equipped with a hidden sword box and trick windows designed for escape. Yu-pon recommends checking the small gap of the sliding doors to see just how narrow they are, and examining the step located above the edge of the pitfall trap. Yu-pon once tried to slip through the narrow space between sliding doors, but it was simply too tight to get through.
Yu-pon realized that ninja might have had the ability to dislocate their joints. That’s why they could slip through any narrow space—as long as they could get their head through first.
You can get a sense of how rigorously ninja trained and pushed themselves to the limit just by looking at the structure of the building. It’s also fun to check out the old documents and ninja tools on display.
| Name; | Koka Ninja House 甲賀忍者屋敷 |
| Place; | 2331, Konancho Ryuboshi, Koka-shi, Shiga Prefecture |
| Acsess; | JR kusatsu-station → kusatsu-line →kounan-station →2km(walk or taxi) |
| By car; | From Shin-Meishin Expressway [Konan I.C.]- 3 minutes From Meishin Expressway [Ryuou I.C.] -35 minutes From Meihan Expressway [Kamitsuge I.C.] -20 minutes |
Koka village, ninja art village;
Ninja Village is located to the east of the Kōga-ryū Ninjutsu Yashiki, just across from JR Terashō Station.
