Totsukawa no Odori at Obara

On 13 August Obara dances as it did in the seventeenth century: UNESCO heritage since 2022.

A Bon dance handed down in Totsukawa for over 300 years: it was once danced inside the hall of Senzō-in temple (‘the dance hall’), and today in the elementary school playground, around a tower of green bamboo hung with lanterns (八方). It is part of the ‘Furyū-odori’, the 41 Japanese dances inscribed together on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage on 30 November 2022, with a national designation (Important Intangible Cultural Property) since 1989. Three hamlets of the village dance on three different evenings: Obara on 13 August, Musashi on the 14th, Nishikawa on the 15th. The people who come back for Bon from the places they have moved to are the stated reason the dance carries on.

Totsukawa is the largest municipality in Japan by area but among the least populated, in the far south of Nara Prefecture. The village is crossed by Japan's longest local bus route with no motorway sections, which links Yamato-Yagi Station to Shingū (Wakayama Prefecture) in about 6 hours.

ℹ️ On 13 August, in the evening, in the playground of Obara elementary school (十津川第一小学校). ⚠️ No official times are published for the outside public: it is a community event, not a show staged for tourists. Access by Nara Kotsu bus (十津川小原 bus stop) on the Yamato-Yagi–Shingū line, or by car along Route 168; from Nara city it is hours of travel, not a short day trip.

🚉 Totsukawa Ohara · 9 min walk

Sources: vill.totsukawa.lg.jp

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