In 2004, Ueno City and five surrounding towns and villages were merged into a new city called Iga City. Iga is the name of the former province, which covered part of today's Mie Prefecture. Ueno is commonly referred to as Iga Ueno in order to avoid confusion with an identically named city district in Tokyo.
Iga Ueno is most famous for ninja. The Iga school of ninjutsu (art of stealth), based in Ueno City, used to be one of Japan's two leading ninja schools during the feudal era (the Koga school in Shiga Prefecture was the other). Today, Iga Ueno attracts visitors with its excellent ninja museum.
Iga Ueno is also known as the birthplace of one of Japan's greatest poets, Basho Matsuo, who lived during the early Edo Period. A memorial museum, his birth home and a former hermitage are some of Ueno's Basho related attractions.
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