🏮 Nishimonai Bon Odori

西馬音内盆踊り

Ugo, Akita (Honcho Street) · Every year on 16 August

Bon odori

336 days to go
Rooms around Ugo, Akita fill up while the festival is on.

The Nishimonai Bon Odori is held every year from August 16 to 18 in Nishimonai, Ugo, Akita Prefecture. It is counted among Japan's three great bon odori (Bon dance festivals) and was designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1981. At dusk on the Bon holiday, when the spirits of the dead are seen off, and as the sun sets behind the Dewa mountains, bonfires are lit along Honmachi-dori and the sound of the yose-daiko drum and hayashi music fills the air. The dance is said to have begun around 700 years ago, and its artistic quality was raised after a first performance in Tokyo in 1935. The haiku poet Kawabata Hekigoto, who visited the area in 1907, wrote that he had seen a bon odori that was picture-worthy for the first time, and the tradition, long polished, is still carried on today. To the bold hayashi music from the tower and the rustic singing, the dancing begins with costumed children performing the ondo dance, then dancers hiding their faces with woven hats or Hikozu hoods, dressed in sashiko-stitched or indigo-dyed garments, spread out in a circle. Every year 100,000 spectators watch the beauty of the curves created by the supple hand movements and footwork.

Getting there

About 30 minutes by car from Yuzawa IC on the Akita Expressway. About 30 minutes by Ugo town bus (bound for Nishimonai) from Yuzawa Station on the JR Ou Main Line; get off at the last stop and walk a short distance.