Dive into the Ninja World at Ninja Kingdom Ise!

Written by Pete Leong

Ninja Kingdom Ise is a place where you can live out your childhood ninja fantasies, learn about the history of the ninja and have a whole lot of fun while doing so. Located in east-central Mie Prefecture not too far from Ise Jingu is a large theme park/old-style Japanese village known as Ninja Kingdom Ise.

I had driven past the area several times and was intrigued by a Japanese castle located on a hilltop visible from the nearby main highway. At last, upon closer inspection, I found that it was in fact part of the Ninja Kingdom. I was excited to visit this theme park as I grew up fascinated with ninjas and trained in ninjutsu (“ninja arts”) for several years.

Stepping through the massive gates, I felt like I had stepped out of a time machine and back into history and old-time Japan, specifically the Azuchi-Momoyama era (or “the age of provincial wars” in the 16th century). I was greeted by some friendly ninja staff that happily welcomed me into the park and gave me some recommendations for things to see and a route around the area.

I quickly realized that this park was big. Much bigger in fact than some other Ninja Villages I had visited in the past. There were shows and demonstrations, museums and fun activities for children, even hot spring baths, restaurants, and shopping.

The shopping area is large and home to many souvenir shops related to ninja.

One of the first stops for many visitors is the costume studio. Here visitors can choose one from Azuchi-Momoyama era costumes to take photos in and, if they like, to wear around the park for that extra immersive experience.

However, we had limited time and wanted to try our hand at some weapon activities. Namely throwing ninja shuriken stars, darts, and archery. They were all a lot of fun and very challenging.

It seems I need a lot more practice as my partner was beating me at all of them.

Next, we moved on to an area that was marked by a sign that caught our eye, "Real-life RPG" (role-playing game). Being a fan of video games, I was instantly intrigued. The friendly staff explained that this is a course of challenges and a large maze where you try not to be caught by other ninja. If you are caught, you have to go back to the start and try all over again. The trick is to use your senses of listening, sight, balance, and touch to work your way through the maze with its hidden doors and obstacles without being caught. If you can do this then you can go onto the next stage which is apparently even harder. For the few lucky ones that can make it all the way through to the end, there may be something good for them as a prize.

Beyond the Real-Life RPG building, we made our way up a long escalator and came to an area where visitors can experience riding horses. I would have loved to have a go but unfortunately, the weather was a little too wet and so the horses were given the day off.

Instead, we headed into another building that was a katana (sword) museum. Now I felt like a kid in a candy store, as pretty much all of the blades on display were real katana swords but they were also for sale.

There are many stunning works of art on display, some even forged here at the Ninja Kingdom. Although I was told by my partner that I couldn't purchase a sword, I did manage to come away with a nice quality kitchen knife, so I was happy. I could have looked around the Katana Museum all day but there was still a lot left to see.

We made our way to another museum. This one, Ninja Museum, was dedicated to the history of the ninja. There were lots of old traditional tools and weapons on display and even full-size replicas of traditional rooms that the ninja would live in.