Ninja Experience at Odawara Castle: Become a Fuma Ninja and Master 8 Skills at the NINJA Museum

A Mysterious Ninja Clan Lost to History: Become a Fuma Ninja and Defend Odawara Castle at the NINJA Museum

During Japan’s Sengoku period, a shadowy ninja clan known as Fuma is said to have secretly served the Odawara Hojo clan.

An immersive experience facility themed around the Fuma ninja stands within Odawara Castle Park. Learn the basics of ninja lore, receive your mission, master 8 ninjutsu skills, and finally face off against enemy ninja. The museum is designed as a single continuous story that visitors experience with their whole body.

In this article, we introduce the highlights and how to enjoy Odawara Castle NINJA Museum.

Odawara Castle NINJA Museum

Odawara Castle NINJA Museum is a hands-on ninja experience facility located within Odawara Castle Park in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Themed around the Fuma ninja clan that served the Later Hojo clan, it has become a popular spot where visitors can fully immerse themselves in the world of the ninja.

Basic Information

The building was originally an old elementary school auditorium built in 1929, fully renovated and reopened as the NINJA Museum in 2019. Within Odawara Castle Park there are three paid facilities: the castle tower, the Tokiwagi Gate SAMURAI Museum, and the NINJA Museum. The NINJA Museum requires its own separate admission ticket.

Fuma: The Mysterious Ninja Clan That Served the Hojo for Five Generations

To understand what makes the NINJA Museum so fascinating, you first need to know about the Fuma — the ninja clan at the heart of it all.

The Fuma ninja clan served the Later Hojo clan (also known as the Odawara Hojo, distinct from the Kamakura-era Hojo regents), who ruled the Kanto region from their base in Odawara, for about 100 years and across five generations. Their most distinctive feature was cavalry-based tactics, riding horses with remarkable skill. Known by the alias rappa (raiders), they were renowned for leaping into enemy camps, mounting night raids, and sowing chaos on the battlefield. At the Night Battle of Kawagoe in 1546 — one of Japan’s three greatest surprise attacks in military history, in which Hojo Ujiyasu’s small force crushed a much larger army — the Fuma are said to have worked behind the scenes.

The Legendary Chief Fuma Kotaro

The name Fuma Kotaro was passed down through the generations as a hereditary title. The most famous of them all was the fifth-generation Kotaro. Legend describes him with four protruding fangs bared when his mouth opened wide, a wild black beard standing on end, a towering body over 2 meters (about 6’7”) tall, piercing eyes, and an unusually high nose — a figure of otherworldly appearance far removed from ordinary men.

Yet almost no primary historical documents about the Fuma ninja survive. They are a rare ninja clan that left a powerful name in history while their true form remains largely shrouded in mystery.

The Name “Fuma” Lives On in the Manga NARUTO

The Fuma name lives on in modern subculture as well. The world-famous manga NARUTO features a Fuma clan and a large, four-bladed weapon called the Fuma Shuriken — both named after this very real ninja clan. Though the Fuma never stood in the spotlight of history like the Iga or Koga, their name is now widely known among ninja fans in Japan and abroad thanks to manga and anime.

For fans who first encountered the Fuma name through NARUTO and other media, Odawara Castle NINJA Museum is a place to step closer to the real story behind the legend.

Prologue: The “Ninja ABCs” Wall Display That Teaches the Basics

To manage crowds inside, the NINJA Museum admits visitors in groups of about ten. After entering, the first area you pass through is the Prologue zone, a waiting space designed to teach you the basics of ninja lore while you wait for your turn.

The walls are densely packed with foundational ninja information. Who were the ninja? What role did they play during the Sengoku period? A map of Japan explains the various ninja clans from across the country, including the Iga, the Koga, and the Fuma of Odawara.

You’ll also find detailed diagrams naming every part of a ninja’s outfit (hood, jacket, sash, hand guards, hakama trousers, leg wraps, tabi socks, straw sandals), real examples of the shinobi rokugu (six essential ninja tools, such as a portable ink set and signaling bamboo tubes), and actual weapons like flat shuriken, stick-shaped shuriken, and chain sickles (kusarigama). It’s a dense, rewarding mini-exhibit packed into what could otherwise be dead waiting time.

The museum’s exhibits are built on the research of Fujita Seiko (1899–1966), known as “the last ninja” and famed as a researcher of Koga-ryu ninjutsu. After his death, his collection was donated to the city of Odawara, and 3,268 items are still preserved today at the Odawara City Central Library.

Sengoku Theater: Receive Your Ninja Mission as a Member of the Fuma

Once you’ve absorbed the basics during the wait, it’s time for the Sengoku Theater. In this dim, small theater, a short film of a few minutes plays.

The screen opens with the line: “In the Sengoku era, ninja stood in the shadows, supporting the Odawara Hojo clan.” The setting is the year 1590, as Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s army bears down on Odawara Castle — the greatest crisis the Odawara Hojo had ever faced.

Fuma Kotaro appears on screen and hands down your mission: “Defend Odawara Castle from the forces of Toyotomi.” From this moment on, you are no longer just a spectator — you move through the museum as a member of the Fuma ninja clan.

Up to this theater, you proceed as part of your entry group. Beyond this point, you’re free to explore at your own pace.

Ninjutsu Training Zone: Master 8 Fuma Skills With Your Whole Body

After receiving your mission in the Sengoku Theater, you head into the Ninjutsu Training Zone to learn the skills of the Fuma. Eight forms of training await: disguise, infiltration, water-crossing, silent walking, the trick house, memorization, concealment, and enemy-identification.

Slipping Into Enemy Territory: Disguise and Infiltration

The first training is the disguise technique (hensojutsu). Here you learn how ninja disguised themselves as merchants, monks, or farmers to infiltrate enemy territory.

Next comes the infiltration technique (shinnyujutsu) — a genuinely physical experience. A wooden-walled climbing structure, dangling ropes, and window-frame crawl-throughs let you move through the kind of obstacles a ninja would use to sneak into a mansion. Kids, of course, go wild for it — but adults will find themselves breaking a real sweat too.

Ninja Body Techniques: Water-Crossing and Silent Walking

Water-crossing (suijutsu) and silent walking (hoho) let you try your hand at a ninja’s signature movement skills.

For water-crossing, you step across floating lotus-leaf-shaped footholds on a floor made to look like water.

With silent walking, you learn how ninja used their bodies to move without making a sound.

If you don’t walk quietly enough, the enemy will detect you — that’s the twist. It’s surprisingly hard. Give it a try.

The “Trick House” Full of Secret Mechanisms

This area lets you experience the hidden mechanisms built into ninja homes and hideouts: a karakuri yashiki (trick house).

A traditional-style tatami room with wooden floors, hanging scrolls, and paper sliding doors — at first glance, it looks like an ordinary Japanese parlor, yet hidden passages and movable walls are cleverly built in. A full-scale set lets you experience firsthand how a Sengoku-era ninja house was really constructed.

Stealth and Intelligence: Memorization, Concealment, and Enemy-Identification

The second half of the training centers on presence and information.

Concealment technique (ongyojutsu) is a corner where you practice blending into the background using a camouflage cloak (kakuremino). When you hold up a sheet of cloth painted with a pattern matching the background and stand in the shadow of a gravestone, your body’s outline melts into the scenery. You get to experience firsthand the kind of disguise ninja used to erase their presence.

The memorization technique (kiokujutsu) is training to memorize the information a ninja needed to carry back. Even long texts become easier to remember when you link them to familiar objects — that’s the method taught here.

The enemy-identification technique (kenetsujutsu), known as tachisuguri isuguri, used codewords as signals: everyone would stand up or sit down together to tell friend from foe. Hidden somewhere in the museum is the rule for which codeword means stand and which means sit — find it first, and you’ll be able to clear the challenge.

Find the Ninja Hiding in the Zone

Scattered throughout the Ninjutsu Training Zone are playful touches: spots where shuriken and kunai are stuck in the walls and ninja hiding in the scenery. They’re harder to spot than you’d think unless you look carefully. See how many you can find.

Combat Zone: The Final Showdown With Enemy Ninja

At the end of your training awaits the climax of the NINJA Museum: the Combat Zone.

On the screen, wave after wave of enemy ninja attacks — and behind them, the final boss. Standing in front of the screen, you throw shuriken by swinging your arm downward, taking them down one after another in this interactive attraction.

Defeating enemy ninja earns you points and chips away at the boss’s health bar. The enemies multiply through doppelganger techniques and pour out from bamboo groves — and the action keeps escalating.

When the time runs out or the boss goes down, your final score and ranking are displayed — mission complete. It’s the NINJA Museum’s single most popular attraction, drawing in kids and adults alike.

Relive the Shadow of a Ninja Lost to History — With Your Whole Body

Receive your mission, train in ninjutsu, and battle enemy ninja. Odawara Castle NINJA Museum is a ninja experience facility designed as a single continuous story from entrance to exit.

Climb walls, cross water, and throw shuriken. You experience the world of ninja with your body in motion — a place where kids and adults alike can have fun.

It’s just a 10-minute walk from Odawara Station, on the same grounds as the Odawara Castle Tower and the SAMURAI Museum.

Come step into the world of ninja. Odawara Castle NINJA Museum is well worth the visit.

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