Intangible Folk Cultural Properties Requiring Documentation of Japan

Designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1977, Niino's Snow Festival at Izu Shrine in Nagano fills a January night with fourteen masked dances.

Misasa no Jinsho is a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property held each May in Misasa Town, Tottori Prefecture. Two massive ropes — each about 80 meters long and 2 tons in weight, braided entirely from wisteria vines harvested on sacred Mount Mitoku — are pulled by the east and west halves of the hot-spring town in a thunderous Boys' Day ritual. Discover its history, highlights, and visitor information, together with Japan's first Japan Heritage site.

Sharabune is a traditional Obon spirit-sending ceremony passed down in Nishinoshima Town on the Oki Islands, Shimane Prefecture. Nine communities in the Mita and Urago districts build large straw boats to carry the spirits of ancestors out to sea, with children riding alongside offerings. The sight of boats over 10 meters long, adorned with colorful spirit banners, being towed across Mita Bay is an iconic summer tradition with over a century of history.

On Dogo off Shimane, dancers perform Oki Kokubunji Renge-e-mai each 21 April. Listed in 1977, this bugaku-rooted folk art outlived a 2007 fire that burned the props.

Sada Shin Noh is a sacred ritual performing art held annually in September at Sada Shrine in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. As the only shrine dance in Japan that incorporates classical Noh theater conventions, this UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property is regarded as the fountainhead of Izumo-style kagura.

Held on the volcanic island of Miyakejima some 180 kilometers south of Tokyo, Miyakejima no Shinji is a pair of sacred rituals designated as Tokyo Metropolitan Intangible Folk Cultural Properties in 1957. Performed at Oshaku Shrine and Gosai Shrine, the dances and chants preserve echoes of Heian-period court culture, carried on for a thousand years by the Mibu priestly family. Suspended by the 2000 volcanic evacuation, they are steadily being revived.

On Jan 14 at Kisshōsōji in Gose, Nara — birthplace of Shugendō's founder En no Gyōja — two six-meter morning-glory torches blaze in Nara's largest tondo rite.

Totsukawa no Ō-odori is a medieval Bon dance tradition preserved in three districts of Totsukawa Village, Nara Prefecture. Designated as a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1989 and inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022, this furyu-odori features colorful tasseled drumsticks, taiko drums, fans, and kiriko lanterns during its annual August performances.

On August 15 in Kashihara, Nara, men of six districts carry blazing 500-kg bamboo torches around two shrines—a Bon fire rite paired with January's sagicho, designated a national selected intangible folk cultural property in 2020.

Held on the first Friday and Saturday evenings of August at Suwa Shrine in Uozu City, Toyama Prefecture, the Uozu-ura no Tatemon Festival features seven towering sailing-ship-shaped floats, each rising roughly 16 meters and weighing nearly five tons, illuminated by dozens of paper lanterns. A three-century tradition of the local fishing community, it was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1997 and inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.

Held every March 13 at the Enmado Hall in Ashikuraji, Toyama, the Onbasama no Omeshikae is a ceremony in which local women sew new white burial-style robes for the wooden Uba-son goddess statues affectionately called Onbasama. Recognized as a nationally significant Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2024, this rare women-led ritual preserves the vanished world of Tateyama mountain faith. The day is also one of the few when the Enmado opens to the public.

A folk Buddhist dance in Wakasa, Fukui. At Obon, drum and gong players visit each home, where two adults and four children dance in a ring before the family altar.

In Fukui's Wakasa region, children carry carved wooden wands house to house each mid-January, beating doorways and chanting for harvest and protection from harm.

In Ashiya, Fukuoka, families mark a child's first hassaku each September: straw horses topped with paper warriors for boys, colored rice-dumpling dolls for girls.

Kasuga no Mukooshi is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property held only once a year at Kasuga Shrine in Fukuoka. On the night before Coming-of-Age Day, men in white loincloths plunge into a freezing pond to battle for a sacred barrel and celebrate the previous year's grooms under a towering sacred fire. Discover this rare centuries-old ritual: its origins, highlights, and how to visit.

Held every May 3rd and 4th in Fukuoka City's Hakata Ward, Hakata Matsubayashi is a nationally designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property that has preserved medieval Japanese celebratory performing arts for over six centuries. Discover the Three Lucky Gods procession and children's ritual dances that bring Hakata's streets alive with living tradition.

Held every spring equinox at Bandai Shrine in Fukushima's Bandai Town, the Boat-Pulling Festival is a 300-year-old harvest oracle inherited from Enichiji, the medieval temple that was the cradle of Aizu Buddhist culture. Parishioners divide into eastern and western teams to pull a wooden boat laden with three rice bales, and the outcome foretells the year's rice harvest and grain prices. A priest wearing an elder mask embodies Bandai Myojin, the mountain deity, delivering judgment in person—an ethnographically rare moment of a god appearing directly before worshippers, recognized as a nationally selected Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Every August 16th, the remote mountain village of Osugi in Yabu City, Hyogo Prefecture echoes with the rhythmic drumming of Zanzako Odori. Said to have been brought back from Nara's Kasuga Taisha in 1649 to ward off an epidemic, this 370-year-old drum dance is performed at Ninomiya Shrine by dancers hidden behind shocks of crimson hair—earning it the local nickname Oni Odori, the "Demon Dance," and national recognition as an intangible folk cultural property in 1973.

The traditional architectural techniques of the Ainu, indigenous people of Hokkaido, and the sacred rituals woven into building their homes — known as chise. Selected in 1960 as the very first Intangible Folk-Cultural Property requiring documentation, this living tradition reveals a profound dialogue between humans and nature. From dwellings raised entirely from forest materials without a single nail, to ceremonies honoring the kamui deities, discover an architectural philosophy where every post and every fire holds spiritual meaning. Includes a guide to where you can experience chise today, from Upopoy to Nibutani Kotan and Lake Akan.

The Yukar are heroic epic poems transmitted orally among the Ainu people of Hokkaido. Without a writing system, these myths and hero tales have been passed down for generations through distinctive sung recitation. Designated as a Nationally Selected Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1956, this living oral tradition can be experienced today at Upopoy and the Chiri Yukie Memorial Museum.

The complete kokuhō catalogue — browse by prefecture, period, and category.

Nationwide jūyō bunkazai — architecture, sculpture, painting, crafts, and documents.

UNESCO-inscribed cultural and natural sites across the archipelago.