Tono
Tohoku, Japan · Countryside / satoyama
The folklorist Kunio Yanagita collected here, in the early 20th century, the tales that founded the Japanese yokai genre, and they are still performed aloud in dialect inside a former sake brewery. The landscape is the one those stories describe: rice paddies you ride through by bicycle, L-shaped magariya farmhouses where people and horses lived under the same roof, and a pool where you fish for kappa with a cucumber.
The essentials
Getting there
Car — Train to Tono Station, but a car is recommended to get around the area
Frequently asked questions about Tono
How many days do you need in Tono?
1 day minimum for it to be worth it. There are 23 documented activities in Tono, so it keeps giving with more time.
How do you get to Tono?
Car: Train to Tono Station, but a car is recommended to get around the area.
Can you visit Tono in a day?
Not advisable. Tono needs at least 1 night: what makes it good is spread out, and one day only scratches the surface.
What must you see in Tono?
What is marked as a must-see: Tono Folk Museum; Traditional magariya farmhouses.
Is Tono expensive?
Spend level low by Japanese standards. Factor in the per-night tourist tax as well, which varies from city to city.
What to do in Tono: 23 activities
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Tono Folk Museum 1.5 h must-see
Yokai legends and traditional rural life in the Tono region.
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Traditional magariya farmhouses 1.5 h must-see
L-shaped farmhouses where people and horses once lived together, preserved at Denshoen.
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Kappa Pool (Kappa Fuchi) 1 h
A stream associated with legends of the kappa, the mythical creature of Tono folklore.
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Cycling route through the farming landscape 2 h
A peaceful ride through rice paddies, with almost no foreign tourists.
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Fukusenji Temple 1 h
A Buddhist temple with a five-story pagoda and Japan's tallest wooden statue of Kannon, carved from a single cypress trunk.
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Hayachine Shrine 1 h
The oldest shrine in Tono, built in 1612, home of the Hayachine kagura dances inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.
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Shishi Odori Lion Dance 1 h
Folk lion dance with drums specific to Tono, performed at local festivals such as the one at Sugawara Shrine; there is even a version reinterpreted with electronic music at Rokko-shi Shrine.
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Tono Festival (Nihon no Furusato Tono Matsuri) 3 h only mid-September
An annual festival in mid-September featuring taiko drum parades, floats, and mounted archery displays through the streets of Tono.
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Tono Furusato Village 1.5 h
A reconstructed village of thatched-roof houses where local folk tales are performed.
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Tono Tales House (Tono Monogatari-kan) 1.5 h
Former sake brewery converted into a hall devoted to Kunio Yanagita, the folklorist who in 1910 compiled the Tono tales that founded the Japanese yokai genre; live storytelling in the local dialect and an audiovisual archive.
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Bathing at Odoroka Onsen Amanoyu 1.5 h
Small hot spring bathhouse 10 minutes from the centre, with day bathing open to visitors; far plainer and more local than the tourist onsen elsewhere in Tohoku.
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Climbing the Sacred Mount Hayachine 6 h
A 1,917 m peak with alpine flora unique in Japan growing on serpentine soil; the night climb to the summit shrine, tied to the shugendo tradition, is experienced as a genuine mountain pilgrimage, with a ritual opening day in June.
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Dobekko Festival 2 h only Saturdays from late November to February
Held from late autumn to February at Tono Furusato Village: unrefined dobekko sake, duck stews and oden, kagura music and talks with the folk character 'Kappa Ojisan'.
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Gohyaku Rakan (500 Disciples of the Buddha) 1 h
500 small Buddhist carvings on natural rocks on a mountainside, commissioned in 1765 by the monk Gizan to honour the victims of the great famines of the period; heavily covered in moss, and hard to find them all.
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Hiking Rokkoushi-san and Ishigami-yama 4 h
The other two of Tono's 'three sacred mountains' alongside Hayachine, with shorter, more accessible routes, well signposted and with moderate elevation gain.
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Horse Pulling Championship (Bariki Taikai) 2 h
Annual heavy draught horse pulling competition (last Sunday in June), heir to Tono's forestry and farming tradition, with around 30 horses and thousands of spectators.
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Jingisukan (Grilled Lamb) 1 h
Speciality of lamb and vegetables grilled on a distinctive domed hotplate, very popular in Tono.
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Kappa Fishing and Meeting the Horses 1.5 h
A 'fishing' permit with cucumber bait at the kappa pool (a local tradition turned into a game), combined with a visit to pet or ride horses at Tono Uma no Sato, tied to the area's historic horse culture.
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Takamuro Suikoen Park 1 h
Small village of traditional houses around a pond, with fishing and access to hot spring water, quieter than the other folk villages of Tono.
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Tonogo Hachimangu Shrine 0.75 h
A historic Shinto shrine in the city, traditionally linked to the practice of mounted archery (yabusame).
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Waraji Straw Sandal Workshop 1.5 h booking
Hand weaving of rice straw sandals and boots (waraji/fuyugutsu), the traditional footwear of the cold rural areas of northern Japan.
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Wood-Fired Sauna in the Open Country 3 h booking
Private single-group experience: harvesting vegetables, a barbecue by the fire and an outdoor tent sauna, with no phone signal and no noise, following the Japanese 'totonou' trend.
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Yamaguchi Waterwheel (Yamaguchi no Suisha) 0.5 h
A large wooden waterwheel beside a rice paddy, a symbol of Tono's traditional farming landscape.
What only happens on specific dates
- Dobekko Festival Saturdays from late November to February
- Tono Festival (Nihon no Furusato Tono Matsuri) mid-September
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