Ninja Museum of Igaryu, Military museum at Iga Ueno Castle, Japan
The Ninja Museum of Igaryu is a military museum in the city of Iga, Mie Prefecture, dedicated to the legacy of the Iga ninja. It occupies several buildings, including a reconstructed ninja house, an exhibition hall displaying original weapons and tools, and an outdoor area used for demonstrations.
The museum was founded in 1964 by Heishichiro Okuse, a researcher who spent his life documenting ninja traditions from the Sengoku period, a time of constant civil war in Japan. Iga was one of the two main centers of ninja training at the time, the other being Koka.
Guides in traditional dress lead visitors through a reconstructed ninja house with hidden rooms, trapdoors, and rotating walls that show how these spaces were built to confuse intruders. After the tour, visitors can watch a live demonstration of ninja techniques in an outdoor area.
The museum is located in central Iga, close to Iga-Ueno Castle, making it easy to combine both in a single visit. Plan for enough time to see the exhibition hall and the ninja house, as each section works at its own pace.
The museum holds a collection of handwritten ninjutsu manuscripts that are among the few surviving written sources on the subject. These texts show that ninja training covered not just physical skills but also subjects like tactics, medicine, and reading weather conditions.
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