Iga-Ueno is the birthplace of Iga-ryu Ninja. The Ninja House looks like a typical old-fashioned farmhouse, however, it has various clever tricks such as revolving walls, secret passage, reversing doors, hidden stairs and hidden guard chambers. You can try them out. Next to the Ninja House there are the two museums exhibiting many varieties of Ninja weapons and explaining the history of Ninja and their daily lives. 

Ashura (Ninja show)　external links

A thrilling show of Ninja fighting, performed with real weapons, is also held. 

「阿修羅」による、本物の武器を使用するスリリングなショーは必見です。伊賀忍者特殊軍団　阿修羅　外部リンク

Ninja Show Calendar

ショーのスケジュール

This is the biggest castle in Mie. It has 30-meter high stone walls for the inner moat which are the highest ever built in Japan. In the 16th century Tsutsui Sadatsugu, the first lord of the region, built this castle. Later in the early 17th century Todo Takatora, a well-known fortifier, succeeded him and began on the large-scale expansion project which resulted in the castle's present form. The white graceful exteriorof the castle inspired us to call it "White Phoenix Castle" after the imaginary sacred white bird.

Buke-yashiki were the residences of samurai warriors. In the Edo period (1603-1867) buke-yashiki were mostly owned by the local government of the time, which was called han. Just like houses for present civil servants, each samurai warrior was allowed to use one as a temporary residence while they were in the job, according to their jobs or salaries. The outer front wall of the buke-yashiki pictured above consists of 2 buildings linked by a gate. Buke-yashiki with this style of outer walls served as residences only for samurai of a certain salary bracket. This building was built in around the end of the 18th century and the Irimajiri family had lived in this residence for about 200 years until about ten years ago. Then the building was restored to the original state a few years ago to open for public viewing. By visiting this buke-yashiki, you can learn what the residences of samurai warriors and the lifestyle of samurai families in the Edo period were like.