Hinoemata Kabuki

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

Investigado y escrito por Hinato

Hinoemata Kabukivillage kabukifolk cultural propertyOzeMinamiaizu

Photo: KQuhen / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · original

Hinoemata is a village of a few hundred people in the mountains at the far south-west corner of Fukushima, on the approach to the Oze wetlands, and it has performed kabuki for around two hundred and seventy years. The story is that villagers on a pilgrimage saw kabuki in Edo, memorised what they could and brought it home. Every role, every instrument and every piece of stage work is done by residents, under the troupe name Chiba-no-ya Hanakomaza.

The stage stands in the grounds of a shrine, with the audience seated on stone terraces cut into the hillside facing it, and it is a nationally designated Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property. There are three performances a year: 12 May for the Atago Shrine festival, 18 August for the Chinju Shrine festival, and an evening performance in September. They are offerings to the gods before they are entertainment.

Información esencial

Horario

Three performances a year | Interpretive hall keeps its own hours

Cerrado: No performances outside 12 May, 18 August and one evening in September

Entrada

Free to watch | Interpretive hall charged separately

Mejor temporada

12 May | 18 August | September evening performance

Duración de la visita

2–3 hours for a performance

Cómo llegar

Información de acceso

Idaira, Hinoemata, Minamiaizu District, at the shrine stage in the village. Car recommended; the village is deep in the mountains on the approach to Oze. Performances are held three times a year — 12 May for the Atago Shrine festival, 18 August for the Chinju Shrine festival, and an evening performance in September. Audiences sit on stone terraces on the hillside facing the stage. The Kabuki Densho-kan Chiba-no-ya interpretive hall in the village displays costumes, scripts and stage materials and keeps its own hours.

Guía privilegiada

**Three dates a year and nothing else.** 12 May, 18 August and one evening in September. Turning up on any other day means the interpretive hall and an empty stage. **Bring something to sit on.** The audience area is stone terracing on a hillside. Cushions are the difference between two hours of theatre and two hours of endurance. **The evening performance is the atmospheric one.** Lit stage, dark forest, mountain air. It is also the coldest — September nights at this altitude are genuinely cold. **It is a religious offering.** The performances are dedicated to the shrine deities. Photography rules and conduct follow from that; watch what residents do. **Combine with Oze.** Hinoemata is one of the main gateways to the Oze wetlands, and the village is a long way from anywhere else, so a stay here is close to compulsory.

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