Mie: Tourists Can Experience Training As Ninja in Japan's City Said to Be Ninja Hometown

Yomiuri Shimbun

2 days ago

The Yomiuri Shimbun
The writer tries his hand at throwing shuriken at Ninja Museum of Igaryu in Iga, Mie Prefecture.
IGA, Mie — The word ninja conjures up images of people clad all in black, operating in secret. Many have envisioned them playing a significant part behind the scenes in Japanese history, but their actual activities and lives remain cloaked in mystery.
Anime and movies show ninja dramatically vanquishing their enemies with shuriken ninja stars, but how did they really fight?
Seeking answers to these questions, I experienced the real ninja world at Ninja Museum of Igaryu in Iga, Mie Prefecture. The Iga region is believed to be one of the birthplaces of ninja.
I thought it would be better to get into the mood before entering the ninja world, so I changed into a rental costume at a kimono shop in the city. Walking along the street in my black clothes, foreign tourists shouted 'Ninja!' at me.
When they turned their cameras to me, I felt a little shy but was excited.
At the museum, I tried my hand at throwing shuriken stars. Curator Chiharu Koda taught me the basics. You may have seen a ninja holding a bunch of shuriken in the palm of one hand, bringing the other palm together horizontally and rubbing them quickly to perform successive shoots. She said that it is only in anime and manga.
'Actually, you have to throw them like you're flinging them down vertically,' Koda said.
According to her explanation, real ninja would hold a shuriken star with the thumb and forefinger at a vertical angle, put a foot forward on the opposite side of the dominant hand, and then throw it fully snapping the wrist, like a baseball pitcher throwing a ball.
From stones to shuriken
Shuriken made of stainless steel are used for the museum's demonstrations. They're the same model used in shuriken throwing contests, Koda said. They were lighter and smaller than I had expected, and a lot of physical power seemed necessary to throw them a long distance.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Shuriken knives stick into a wooden target.
I made my first throw toward a wooden plate about five meters away. The shuriken hit the target, but didn't stick into the plate, bouncing back instead.
'The knack is not to rely just on power when throwing, but to minimize the rotation and throw straight,' Koda said.
I kept trying and finally made the shuriken stick into the plate. When I could hit near the center of the target, I felt like I had become a real ninja. After more practice, I became able to skillfully use my wrist and stick the shuriken into the plate more often.
Once I was finished, I asked Koda about the history of shuriken. Many people likely visualize shuriken as cross-shaped, but Koda said they were not that way in the beginning.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The writer passes through a dondengaeshi hidden door.
Ninja originally used stones or pieces of kawara rooftiles lying on the ground as impromptu weapons during the Sengoku period, late 15th century to 16th century, she said. From the early Edo period in the 17th century, shuriken became more sophisticated in tandem with the development of martial arts, ultimately resulting in cross-shaped shuriken.
'This resulted from martial arts performers pursuing beauty and functionality in peaceful times,' Koda said.
Hidden door
Next, I visited the Ninja House, a re-creation of the type of house ninja are believed to have lived in.
Inside, subtle tricks are installed everywhere to hide ninja's secret skills, such as methods to mix gunpowder and medicines. Kunoichi Suzu, a guide for the house, showed me around. Kunoichi means 'female ninja.'
There's a sword hidden in a part of the floor. A wooden plate pops up when you stomp hard on the side of the threshold and a hidden sword appears. Suzu performed the trick, needing only one second to finish drawing the sword.
'Amazing!' I shouted.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Kunoichi Suzu draws a sword which was hidden under the floor.
Visitors can also experience such tricks as a dondengaeshi hidden door where part of a wall turns to reveal a secret door. I felt like I had wandered into the world of samurai dramas.
'Ninja tend to be depicted as loving battle in anime and movies, but their real duties were collecting information,' Koda said.
Actual ninja are believed to have undertaken tasks of secretly collect information on enemies — castle structures, the storage of war supplies and current movements — to minimize the harm to soldiers on their side.
Real images to foreigners
Last fiscal year, about 115,000 people visited the ninja museum. Inbound foreign tourists numbered about 26,800, or more than 20% of the total.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The writer poses riding on mizugumo, believed to have been a ninja tool used to walk on water.
Many were from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States. Overseas broadcasts of such anime series as 'Nintama Rantaro' and 'Ninja Hattori-kun' have boosted popularity, according to the museum.
'While respecting the images that visitors have in their minds of ninja, I want to present what ninja actually were,' said Koda.
I have heard that an old book on ninja skills states that ninja emphasized human relationships and psychology, saying: 'Always smile. Information will come in naturally if you do.'
That seems like timeless advice, good for a news reporter too.