This article is based on a visit made on Sunday, 13 May 2018.
Edit 10 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.
Previously on Sekai Ichi, I introduced
Iga City, and on day 5 of my voyage, I took my grandmother and myself there. The journey was complicated; as described in that last article, getting there from Kyoto required multiple train transfers. But I stuck it out in order to reach my destination, because Iga is one of the best places to learn the true story behind one of the most famous things ever associated with Japan -- the ninja.
But it was worth it to catch the special "ninja train" on the last leg, the Iga Railway. They have three of these trains making multiple trips each day, in liveries of blue, pink, or (shown above) green. The interiors of these ninja trains have retro, faux-wooden decor, wood-carving decorations above the doors, and a couple of ninja mannequins perched on the storage shelves.
So, what were the ninja, really? Ninjas were spies employed on a mercenary basis by shogun lords and their rivals, primarily during the feudal era, for missions involving infiltration, gathering information, sabotage, and assassination. Their collected knowledge of stealth, survival, and combat techniques is known today as
ninjutsu (忍術, lit. 'secret arts'). During their prime in the Warring States period (15th-16th centuries AD), the two biggest schools of ninjutsu were based in Iga, where we are now, and in Koka, not that far away in modern-day Shiga Prefecture. Today, there are ninja-related museums in both Iga and Koka where their knowledge is preserved and shared.
The Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum is located in the back of Ueno Park in Iga City (not to be confused with the Ueno Park in Tokyo). Due to the rain, I managed to get a taxi from Ueno-shi Station, but it only went as far as the entrance to the park, leaving my grandmother and me to walk the rest of the way, only about five minutes. There were several of these signs with this pink ninja girl, or
Kunoichi (くノ一). They had instructions in Japanese, English, French, German, and Italian, all languages of the G7 member nations.
Their summit in 2016 was held 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, in Ise-Shima.
The museum visit starts with a guided tour around a ninja's house. The guide narrates in Japanese, but he also rolls down English descriptions for the rest of us to follow along with. Besides, most of his demonstrations, like using a drop-down ladder in a hall alcove to reach a hidden compartment above, speak for themselves.
Other secret compartments were designed for holding smaller objects like weapons or scrolls. The boards covering them were designed in a way that they could not even be removed until the door alongside them was slid back far enough.
If worst cane to worst, the ninja would have to escape the house without detection. To that end, another hidden door led outside, and could only be opened by slipping something thin underneath its latches. Something like... a pair of leaves, for instance. But you wouldn't have figured that out on your own, right?
After the tour, which lasts maybe ten minutes, you get to explore the rest of the museum at your own pace. It goes into detail about the equipment and techniques employed by ninja, with equal descriptions in Japanese and English.
What is your mental image of a ninja? Do you imagine them wearing black clothes, to blend into the shadows of the night? In reality, the
shinobi shozoku (忍び装束, lit. 'ninja dress') was a dark blue or grey. In the ages before light pollution was a thing, the night sky had a lot more colour to it, so pure black would have contrasted more so than other lighter, neutral shades. The idea of black ninja clothes may have been spread from kabuki-theatre stage hands, who wore black and worked in front of solid-black backgrounds to stay hidden from the audience. That, or simplicity just catches on.
In daytime, a ninja was more likely to hide in plain sight, collecting information while posing as someone unimportant. The seven disguises employed by ninjas include commoners, merchants, street performers, and Buddhist priests.
It was not often in a ninja's best interest to fight, but when they had to, they had many ways to stun, surprise, and otherwise misdirect opponents. One of the most famous ninja weapons is the throwing star, or
shuriken (手裏剣, lit. 'hidden hand blade'). As seen above, shuriken come in many shapes, and there are seven ways to throw them. On their own, shuriken are not all that lethal, but their edges could be coated in poison for extra damage. Another famous, and famously-misunderstood ninja tool is the
kunai. Although commonly depicted as a throwing knife, this flat blade (seen a few pictures up) was more often used as a handhold for climbing walls, poking holes into other walls to create a listening spot, or simply for digging into the ground to collect rainwater. Once you learn how many uses a kunai has, the translation of its name (苦無) as "no worry" makes sense.
Ninjas also employed the use of explosives and firearms, having been made available in Japan after introduction by Portuguese and Chinese merchants. Weapons like firecrackers and smoke bombs were great tools for disorienting opponents. Perhaps its is these unconventional weapons and tactics, and the mystery building from centuries of ninjas no longer being an active thing, which gave ninjas and ninjutsu such a magical reputation. After all, as
Clarke's Third Law goes, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
Ninjas had many more skills and techniques not related to combat. For example, they learned how to tell the time of day by looking at the dilated pupils of a cat's eyes. They developed a secret system of communication called
goshikimai (五色米, lit. 'five-coloured rice'), where they used combinations of multi-coloured grains of dried rice to spell out messages in the Japanese syllable-alphabet.
For my sign-off selfie, here I am trying out a pair of
mizugumo (水蜘蛛, lit. 'water spider'). This buoyant pair of footwear could allegedly be used to walk on water. Although that particular function may not be true --
it was busted on MythBusters, no less -- they would be more effective for skating across something a bit denser, like mud.
To be honest, I knew quite a lot about ninjas going in. To that, I would like to thank
Gaijin Goomba, a YouTuber who does videos analysing the hidden culture behind today's video games and anime. He's done so many videos relating to ninjas and ninjutsu in particular, that he has a separate series, "Which Ninja", dedicated to breaking down various ninja characters and how their abilities reflect real ninja techniques... or not. It helps that the guy behind it actually spent a couple of years teaching English in Japan, and in Mie Prefecture no less, so he was able to come to this very museum and get primary-source knowledge for himself. I very much recommend going over to check out his channel.
If you find yourself in the real Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum, don't forget to watch the Ninja Show, a demonstration of ninja weaponry and fighting techniques held every one to two hours. It costs an extra ¥500 to get in, and photography is forbidden, but it's a brilliant extension of what you can learn at this museum. Or, for a separate fee, you could try your hand at throwing shuriken at the museum's own target range. While you're here, you may also wish to explore other historic attractions around the park, like the Ueno Castle. I did just that, in fact, so find out more next time on Sekai Ichi!
Hours: Open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time. Closed from 29 December to 1 January.
Costs: ¥800. The ninja show costs an extra ¥500, and the shuriken-throwing experience costs ¥300 for five throws.
Address: 117 Ueno Marunouchi, Iga-shi, Mie-ken 〒518-0873
Access: Iga-Ryu Ninja Museum is ten minutes on foot from Ueno-shi Station.
Directions: From the exit of Ueno-shi Station, head across the parking lot, turn left, and cross the tracks. Turn left at the second traffic light, then the next right, and you will be at the entrance of Ueno Park. In the park, head straight uphill for 250m / 800 ft., until you reach the museum's ticket office on your left.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
