🏮 Hinoemata Kabuki

檜枝岐歌舞伎

Hinoemata, Fukushima (Hinoemata Stage) · Every year on 12 May

Traditional performing arts

240 days to go
Rooms around Hinoemata, Fukushima fill up while the festival is on.

Hinoemata Kabuki, passed down in Hinoemata Village, Fukushima Prefecture, is a traditional performing art that has continued since the late Edo period and was designated a prefectural Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1999. The Hinoemata Stage, where the performances take place, was built in front of the village shrine's hall and also serves as its worship hall; it was designated a national Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property in 1976. The tradition began in the late Edo period, when villagers who made pilgrimages to Ise brought back kabuki they had seen and heard in the Kamigata and Edo regions and adopted it as village entertainment. Since then, it has entertained villagers as dedicated kabuki at festivals in May and August. Today it is performed three times a year on the Hinoemata Stage. Free dedicated kabuki is presented at the Atago Shrine festival on May 12 and the village shrine festival on August 18, and an evening kabuki event is held on the first Saturday of September. All performances start at 19:00.

Getting there

Car: about 120 minutes by car from Nishinasuno-Shiobara IC on the Tohoku Expressway. Public transport: about 90 minutes by bus from Aizu-Kogen-Ozeguchi Station on the Yagan Railway.