This is the third post in my Kanazawa Series. The most before this was about the Kaikaro Teahouse; click here to read it!
This may be the most interesting temple I’ve ever visited; it’s definitely a highlight of my trip to Kanazawa! While the actual name of this temple is 妙立寺 (Myōryū Temple), it is more commonly known as 忍者寺, the Ninja Temple.
First, some historical background…
The Warring States Period (1467-1600) was a time in Japanese history which featured constant fighting between feudal lords. After this period, the Tokugawa Shogunate restored order and ruled in relative peace. The leader of the Tokugawa Shogunate was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He enacted many laws that were meant to strip power from the feudal lords and transfer that power to him instead, both to cement his power and to keep people too weak to fight. However, just because Tokugawa had restored order didn’t mean that lords were suddenly compliant and complacent.
In 1643, fearing an attack from the Tokugawa Shogunate, the lord of Kanazawa Castle ordered that a small temple on the castle grounds be moved a ways south and modified. These modifications turned the temple into a secret military outpost which could warn the castle of any attacks. It allso turned the the temple into a mess of secrets and traps that would confuse any intruders.
Secrets and traps? Like what?
For example, one of the rules that Tokugawa imposed on the lords was that buildings couldn’t have more than three stories. Myōryū-ji, while seeming to have two stories from the outside, actually had four. This meant that anyone who wasn’t familiar with the temple’s structure would get hopelessly turned around inside.
The temple also has a few pitfalls. One was the offering box! Where most temples have a very obvious offering box, with wooden slats over the top to let coins in and keep thieving hands out, at Myōryū-ji, it is flush with the floor. If someone made the mistake of stepping onto it, they would plummet 9 feet to a room with a low ceiling where samurai would be waiting to finish them off.
Perhaps my favorite part was a kind of trick door on the ground floor. From the outside, you can only see one door. From the inside, there were actually two doors. The one on the left went outside. The right one hid a secret staircase and could be locked from the inside. So, if someone was being chased, they could run inside the temple through the one door, then disappear into the other door and lock it, wait for their attacker to enter, and surprise them from behind! So cool!
御朱印
Once we left, I got a temple stamp (goshuin) and a small collection of postcards (￥500). The postcards showed some of the cool things in the temple and included a booklet with more information on each area — perfect since we couldn’t take pictures!
More Information
About Tours
- Going on a tour is the only way to see the inner-workings of the Ninja Temple. Tours are in Japanese and cost ￥1000 for adults and ￥750 for children. It is recommended that you make a reservation before you go (by phone only), but my friends and I made one in person when we arrived and it was fine.
- If you’re hesitant to book a tour because you won’t understand what’s being said, don’t worry! The tour guides will give you a binder with the information on the tour in English. They’ll also direct your attention to which page you should be looking at.
- Please note that there are rules you have to follow when on the tour, the big ones being no photography and no translating for other group members (the reason given being that it distracts other people on the tour).
- Here’s a link to their English website!
Hours
- The Ninja Temple is open on weekdays from 9-4, with tours running every hour. On weekends and holidays, they are open from 9-4:30, with tours every 30 minutes.
- They are closed on the 1st of January and when they are conducting Buddhist memorial services.
