Tokushima

Shikoku, Japan · City

Tokushima is indigo: the Hachisuka clan built its fortune on awa-ai, and in the 19th century the prefecture produced almost all of the country's dye; family workshops in the city centre still let you dye your own cloth. It is also the home of Awa Odori, Japan's largest dance festival, which in August anyone can join without a costume or a signup, and which is danced year-round at its museum.

The essentials

Getting there

Train + bus — Direct bus from Osaka; train within Shikoku

Frequently asked questions about Tokushima

What to do in Tokushima: 27 activities

• Awa Odori Festival 3 h must-see only 11-15 Aug

  Five days, 11 to 15 August, and the city states it as a fixed rule. The 11th is different: the dancing is indoors, at Asty Tokushima. From the 12th to the 15th the whole city becomes a stage, and that is when to be there. It works like this: there are three paid street stages - Aibahama, Minamiuchimachi and Konyamachi - each with two sessions a night, one around six and one around half past eight, and around them are free stages and squares where people dance with no ticket and no timetable. The groups are called ren; the forty-odd best are the yumeiren, the famous ones, but most are neighbourhood groups of a few dozen people. The music, the narimono, is shamisen, flute, large and small drums, and a gong that sets the beat for everyone. The city speaks of more than a million visitors, though a mobile-data analysis has cast serious doubt on that figure. It is credited with some four hundred years of history, but it is worth knowing there are three competing theories about its origin and none is documented: the castle of Tokushima, the Obon dance, and the furyu odori. Two practical warnings. First: there is no published criterion for calling it off, and in 2023 one night went ahead in the rain with no refunds and the next was cancelled outright. Second: there is a niwaka-ren, the group anyone may join, but we could not confirm where or when it gathers.

• Indigo dyeing in a family workshop downtown 1 h must-see booking

  Tokushima is Japanese indigo: the Hachisuka clan built its wealth on awa-ai and in the nineteenth century the province produced almost all the country's dye. Working family workshops survive in the town centre where you can dye your own scarf or towel.

• Awa Odori Festival Museum and Performance 1.5 h must-see

  Shikoku's most famous dance festival, with performances held year-round.

• Castle museum and Omote-Goten garden 1.5 h

  The Hachisuka clan collection and a restored model of the palace. The best part is the adjoining Omote-Goten garden, designated a National Scenic Site: it is the original garden of the daimyo's palace, not a reconstruction. Closed on Mondays.

• Dancing the Awa Odori with a niwaka-ren 2 h only 12-15 Aug

  In the free zones of the festival the niwaka-ren form, improvised groups any visitor can join with no registration, no costume and no fee: all it takes is following the rhythm. It is the best way to live it from inside instead of watching it from a stand.

• Hyotanjima cruise on the Shinmachi river 0.5 h

  A small boat circles the 'gourd island' that forms the city centre in half an hour, passing under some 20 bridges. The night run, with Bizan lit up, is one of the best things in Tokushima and almost nobody knows about it.

• Machi Asobi 8 h only May and October (dates vary)

  Anime festival that occupies the entire city instead of a single venue: stages on Mount Bizan, the Awa Odori Kaikan, the station and the arcades. It grew out of the ufotable studio, which is based here. Attendance is free; there are two editions a year, in May and October, though dates change and there have been cancellations.

• Naruto Whirlpools 2 h

  One of the largest tidal whirlpools in the world, visible from a boat or an observation walkway. It lies in the municipality of Naruto, about fifteen kilometres away. The whirlpools depend on each day's tide table and are at their largest on the spring tides of spring and autumn: you need to check it before going.

• Ōtsuka Museum of Art 5 h

  In Naruto, about 20 kilometres away. It is the largest museum in Japan by floor area: 1,000 Western masterpieces reproduced at full size on ceramic panels, including the entire Sistine Chapel. It sounds like kitsch and works surprisingly well, but it needs half a day set aside.

• Temples 13 to 17 within the city 5 h

  Five temples of the circuit in a convenient urban stretch: Joraku-ji with its wave-shaped rock garden, Kokubun-ji on a Tenpyo-period site, Kannon-ji — the temple on the circuit with the most miracle legends — and Ido-ji, with an eleven-faced Kannon designated an Important Cultural Property.

• Tokushima ramen 0.75 h

  Dark brown tonkotsu-shoyu broth, sweet-salty pork belly instead of chashu and, the house signature, a raw egg cracked into the bowl. It is ordered with a separate bowl of white rice, not with more noodles; there are three schools depending on the colour of the broth.

• Aizome studios with open workshops 1.5 h booking

  Several workshops in the city — some of them real textile manufacturers, not schools for tourists — take visitors by appointment to dye a scarf or a shirt; the hours are factory hours, with weekend closures in some cases.

• Aizumi Indigo Museum 1.75 h

  About 10 kilometres to the northwest, the former house and warehouse of an indigo merchant family, with full-size models of the sukumo fermentation process. This is the place to understand indigo as a historic industry, beyond dyeing a handkerchief.

• Akitamachi bar district 3.5 h

  The densest bar district in Shikoku, south of the Shinmachi river: izakaya, wooden counters and places more than 40 years old. The classics take the customer who arrives alone in their stride, which is unusual in Japan.

• Awa Ningyo Joruri Puppet Theater 1 h booking

  A traditional puppet theatre unique to Tokushima with more than 300 years of history, performed at the Awa Jurobe Yashiki.

• Awa washi at the Yoshinogawa paper mill 2 h booking

  About 30 kilometres to the west. Awa washi goes back more than 1,300 years and they still make paper here for museum conservation worldwide; there is a workshop to make a sheet of your own.

• Mount Bizan ropeway 1 h

  It leaves from the fifth floor of the Awa Odori Kaikan. Key detail for planning: from April to October it runs up until nine at night, but from November to March it closes at half past five, so in winter there is no night view by ropeway.

• Ryozen-ji, the First Temple of the Pilgrimage 1 h

  The traditional starting point of the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage route. Geographical precision: it is not in the city of Tokushima but in Naruto, about fifteen kilometres away — train as far as Bando and then ten minutes on foot.

• Sudachi, awa-odori-dori and sobagome zosui 1.25 h

  Sudachi, the prefecture's emblematic citrus, accounts for 98% of Japanese production and is squeezed over fish, noodles and even beer. Awa-odori-dori is the local chicken breed, and sobagome zosui a thick soup of whole buckwheat grains that legend attributes to Heike refugees.

• Tokushima Museum of Modern Art 1.75 h

  In Bunka no Mori park, eighteen minutes by bus: Western and Japanese painting, sculpture, photography and contemporary work for 200 yen, one of the cheapest admissions in Japan for a prefectural museum. The prefectural museum and the literature museum are in the same park.

• ufotable CINEMA 2.5 h booking

  In the downtown arcade, a cinema owned by the studio behind Demon Slayer and Fate, with themed screenings, exhibitions of production material and a café. It is probably the only cinema in the world run by an anime studio.

• Mount Bizan by Night 1 h

  A cable car ride up to a lookout point with night views over the city and the bay.

• Mouth of the Yoshino river 1.5 h

  The Yoshino, which they call the Saburo of Shikoku, reaches the sea in the north of the city; there are riverside walks and a cycle path along the levees. The rafting is in the Oboke gorge, two hours away by road.

• Otani-yaki Pottery Village 1.5 h

  A pottery village known for its large ceramic pieces, traditionally used to store local vinegar and sake. Geographical precision: the kilns open to visitors are in Naruto, not in the city of Tokushima itself.

• The downtown arcades and the gap left by Sogo 1.5 h

  Tokushima is one of the few prefectures in Japan without a single department store since Sogo closed in 2020. What remains are the Higashi-Shinmachi arcades, with a fair number of empty units, and Poppo-machi next to the station: an honest portrait of provincial Japan, more interesting as an anthropological walk than as a shopping destination.

• Tokushima Castle Ruins Park 1 h

  A park containing the ruins of Tokushima Castle, a history museum, and the Japanese garden Senshukaku.

• Tokushima marathon 5 h booking

  Course along the Yoshino river in late March, with a shorter alternative race; registration has to be done months in advance.

What only happens on specific dates

• Machi Asobi May and October (dates vary)
• Awa Odori Festival 11-15 Aug
• Dancing the Awa Odori with a niwaka-ren 12-15 Aug

Chains well with

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