Iga-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 89,000 (88,766 in 2020). What I want to note first here is that this city’s population statistics begin from 2005. Iga City is a city born in 2004 from the merger of Ueno City and five towns and villages, and it is not continuous with the single municipalities before that. Seen after the merger, from 100,623 in 2005, to 97,207 in 2010, 90,581 in 2015 and 88,766 in 2020, it has fallen by about twelve thousand in fifteen years.

Looking inside, the decline of children is fast. Those under 15 fell by about three thousand six hundred — nearly three-tenths — in fifteen years, from 13,200 in 2005 to 9,603 in 2020. The aging rate rose from 25.1% in 2005 to 32.6% in 2020, passing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 18.4%, the Childcare Waitlist is two in the latest figure, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.60 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a basin castle town ringed by mountains, shrinking and aging within a city area widened by the merger, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the ninja’s home and the castle town.

Iga’s skeleton is decided by the castle set at the center of a basin ringed by mountains. In 1585 (Tensho 13), by the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tsutsui Sadatsugu built the castle that became the prototype of the present Iga-Ueno Castle. What greatly changed its character was Todo Takatora, who entered this land in 1608 (Keicho 13). Takatora, a master of castle-building trusted deeply by Tokugawa Ieyasu, greatly rebuilt the castle, and at this time the castle town was laid out as the prototype of present-day Ueno. The castle set at the center of the basin and its town — this is the town’s foundation.

Among the figures this castle town gave rise to is the haiku poet Matsuo Basho. Basho was born in this land in 1644 (Kan’ei 21), later walked the way of haikai in Kyoto, went out to Edo, and left numerous verses in the course of his travels. The basin castle town is also the home of a poet-sage whose name is carved into the literary history of Japan.

And another face of this land is the home of ninja arts. The Iga school of ninja arts is said to have its origin in the Kamakura era, and, with the back of a terrain ringed by mountains, it has handed down peculiar techniques. This history, known as "the ninja’s home," is still the core of tourism. The present city was born in 2004 (Heisei 16), when Ueno City merged with three towns and two villages of Ayama and Naga Districts. Beginning with the castle town Todo Takatora greatly rebuilt, giving rise to Matsuo Basho, known as the ninja’s home, and widened by the merger — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the castle town and the ninja’s home.

What characterizes Iga is that, within a city area widened by the merger, children decline faster than the total population. Against a total population that fell by a little over one-tenth in the fifteen post-merger years, those under 15 fell by nearly three-tenths. The terrain of a basin ringed by mountains requires crossing the mountains to come and go with the neighboring urban spheres, and the outflow of the young generation and the thinning of births thin the layer of children first.

The numbers of living infrastructure mirror this shrinking, too. The primary schools numbered twenty-six in the post-merger 2005, and after long holding that number, consolidation advanced in step with the decline of children, to eighteen by 2023. The school network dispersed across the broad city area has been gently folded in step with the number of children. The Childcare Waitlist, at two even in the latest figure, slightly remains, suggesting that even amid declining children there is a bias in supply and demand by area. The town that opened as Todo Takatora’s castle town, gave rise to Matsuo Basho, and was known as the ninja’s home is now in a contraction in which, within the basin city area, it thins from the layer of children first. Children decline faster than the total population falls, and by that much the aging passes three in ten — that the shrinking proceeds from the bottom of the generations appears in this lineup.

Iga holds several functions of its own. One is its history as the castle town that the master of castle-building Todo Takatora greatly rebuilt, where the early-modern castle town set at the center of the basin carries on the skeleton of the present urban district of Ueno. Another is the literary lineage of being the home of the haiku poet Matsuo Basho. And it holds together the peculiar cultural face of "the ninja’s home" of the Iga school of ninja arts, said to have its origin in the Kamakura era.

Iga is a basin town holding a castle, a poet-sage and ninja. From Todo Takatora’s castle town, to the home of Matsuo Basho, to the ninja’s home, and to a basin city widened by the merger — the history "a castle was set at the center of a basin ringed by mountains, and that land nurtured a peculiar culture" called the castle town and the ninja’s home and set the town’s skeleton. A castle was set at the center of a basin ringed by mountains, and that closed land nurtured a peculiar culture that gave rise to the ninja’s home and a poet-sage. The castle, the poet-sage, and the ninja — three histories of differing character fold over one another within the same basin.