Ninja Mansion 3

Our journal visiting the Ninjya temple in Kanazawa city.
The gist is as follows:
1. Why this temple is called the Ninja temple?
2. The inside of the Ninja temple
3. Is it true that this temple was a hideout of the Lord of Kanazawa Castle?



The entrance of Myoryu-ji

Myoryu-ji is a Ninja temple in Kanazawa city. Inside of this temple, there are very many staircases and also separated many small rooms. So this building is a suitable place at Ninja's hangout who lived in an underground world. Now it is one of the famous sightseeing spots in Kanazawa city. We recommend this temple for one of your visiting places.

You need to reserve before you visit this temple. And you have to abide by the special guide after entering it. You are recommended to follow the instruction and can't walk around freely. The reason is if you walk around freely, it's not big enough and you get confused inside it. Another reason is that you can't notice the small tamperings and miss them. It's a pity for you.



From Myoryu-ji's Post Card

When we visited it, we joined the group who started this exploration early time in the morning. In the group, almost 20 participants were there. At the beginning, we heard the historical introduction and we walked around inside this temple according to the guide almost 1 hour. We followed the guide and saw a pitfall trap, an escape hatch, several hideouts, a tampered staircase, a hidden door, a secret tunnel and more.


From Myoryu-ji's Paper / Explanation of Tricks

We were surprised at this explanation planning was a big hit. Because we saw double participants in the next party when we finished our tour and after that more people would visit here. The maximum of today's visitors would be a big number in spite of weekday opening. Many people would stroll about this relatively small temple today.

We remembered another ninja mansion, Kouga-ryu Ninjutsu-yasiki we had visited before. Basic tricks of this temple weren't so different from that. But there was a difference between this temple and another one. Its superior points are various devices, such as a main hall of the temple, a backside hallway behind a statue of Buddha, an underground hideout, many tricked staircases, small rooms full of cheap tricks and a largish room grandiosely titled. And it also has an advantage of various traveling places from the basement to the fourth floor compered with the residence with two stories. Places changed rapidly and dramatically, so we never ran out of our curiosity.

However, the explanation that this temple had been made for the secret base of the Maeda clan was stupid. They explained that Maeda clan had been a daimyo who had been outside of the Tokugawa shogunate, because they had been in danger to be destroyed by the power of the shogunate. And they had planned this temple as a secret base when the shogunate had come to fight them. We thought this story was an unlikely story.


We don't believe this, but also further investigation would be needed to decide true or fale. Then, let's continue this investigation.


Historical background

This temple was established by the third Lord of the Maeda clan around 1640, and held a prominent position among temples which were established by the Lords of this region. And also the Lord and his senior vassals attended the ceremony of it sometimes together with ordinary people. The reason why this temple was made was it was planned as an outside base. And this area was ranked as a south-west defense line or an alternative base when the castle was captured. So the inside of the temple was made strangely, for example many rooms and many staircases as devices. 

The Tokugawa shogunate hoped to destroy this clan because they had the power relatively stronger than the other Lord. And the story that this clan was worried too much about the shogunate's plot over many generations. So this clan had kept making an effort not to be destroyed by the shogunate,
However, the story they made a secret base and if it was true, the base would not be like this. Because this building had many weak point as for the military base.

From Myoryu-ji's Paper / One of inside room

Is that true this temple was the military base of the Lord in case of emergency? We don't think so, because, if this temple would be truely used as for it, this was needed to have more devices against the heavy attack. And if it would play an active part when the Kanazawa castle had been captured, there would be large-scale tricks comparable to the devices
of the castle against the estimated attack. However, pitfall traps, tempered small room and many staircases were not enough to repel such kind of the heavy attack.


From Myoryu-ji's Post Card

Furthermore, this temple had the width only tens of retainers were able to keep their master. When he stayed somewhere outside of his castle to fight against his enemy, more people were gathered to guard him. So it should have the width to accomodate a considerable number of the retainers. It's also our ground that it wasn't really selected as the base of the emergency time.

Surroundings of this temple are separated many sitings of small temples. And there are many alleys between this temple and others. From one alley, we can easely look up the Lord's room, so it was too dangerous for him if he stayed this temple actually. So we conclude it didn't be chosen actually.

Backyard of Myoryu-ji

We investigated other information what was this temple. And we found the description that it was used as for Toba or Japanese style casino. Moreover, in another description, it was not drawn on the map which was drawn in around 1680, 40 years after its foundation. Suming up all information, this story which describes it was the secret base of the Lord is a spectacular tall tale.

In spite of negative information, we enjoyed our tour of this temple very much. We think tour route using many staircases, which are total 29, made this tour-attraction fantastic.


Other articles address Ninja Mansion

Ninja mansion 1
The article is about the Kouga Ninja

Ninja mansion 2
The article is about the Iga Ninja