Tohoku, Japan · Countryside / satoyama
The birthplace of Japanese folklore (yokai, rural legends), with a traditional farming landscape that sees almost no foreign tourism.
Car — Train to Tono Station, but a car is recommended to get around the area
Yokai legends and traditional rural life in the Tono region.
L-shaped farmhouses where people and horses once lived together, preserved at Denshoen.
A stream associated with legends of the kappa, the mythical creature of Tono folklore.
A peaceful ride through rice paddies, with almost no foreign tourists.
A Buddhist temple with a five-story pagoda and Japan's tallest wooden statue of Kannon, carved from a single cypress trunk.
The oldest shrine in Tono, built in 1612, home of the Hayachine kagura dances inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.
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.
An annual festival in mid-September featuring taiko drum parades, floats, and mounted archery displays through the streets of Tono.
A reconstructed village of thatched-roof houses where local folk tales are performed.
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.
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.
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.
Held from late autumn to March at Tono Furusato Village: unrefined dobekko sake, duck stews and oden, kagura music and talks with the folk character 'Kappa Ojisan'.
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.
The other two of Tono's 'three sacred mountains' alongside Hayachine, with shorter, more accessible routes, well signposted and with moderate elevation gain.
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.
Speciality of lamb and vegetables grilled on a distinctive domed hotplate, very popular in Tono.
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.
Small village of traditional houses around a pond, with fishing and access to hot spring water, quieter than the other folk villages of Tono.
A historic Shinto shrine in the city, traditionally linked to the practice of mounted archery (yabusame).
Hand weaving of rice straw sandals and boots (waraji/fuyugutsu), the traditional footwear of the cold rural areas of northern Japan.
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.
A large wooden waterwheel beside a rice paddy, a symbol of Tono's traditional farming landscape.
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