If you’re interested in ninja, you should visit one of Japan’s oldest ninja villages in Iga Ueno.

But the ninja village is not the only thing you can find there. There’s also Iga Ueno Castle – which was the main reason for me to visit as the castle hunter I am.

Visited: May 14th 2010
Iga Ueno Castle is located in Mie Prefecture (map) which makes it a nice day trip from either Kyoto or Osaka.

Like mentioned before, Iga Ueno has more to offer than just the castle, so it’s well worth a visit – and you can easily do all of them in one day.
You can find the castle within Ueno Park (*not the famous one in Tokyo) which is just a short walk (5-10 mins) from Iga-Ueno Station.

Iga Ueno Castle (?????) is also known as Hakuho Castle (???, White Phoenix Castle).
It received that name because of its floor plans and beautiful structure.

While the construction of the castle began in 1585 supervised by Takigawa Katsutoshi, the honmaru wasn’t finished until his successor, Tsutsui Sadatsugu, took care of it.

Later, daimyo T?d? Takatora, an expert on castle building, rennovated the honmaru so that it had 30 m high walls.

These walls were the highest of any castle in Japan – and it still holds that record as of today.

The castle was in use from 1585-1871.

The 5-tiered tenshu of the castle was actually destroyed in 1612 by strong winds. As Iga Ueno Castle was not considered a strategically important castle, it was never rebuilt. Finally...