Intangible Folk Cultural Properties Requiring Documentation of Hiroshima

Ato Kagura is a sacred torimono dance tradition passed down at Ato Myōjin Shrine in Hiroshima City. Belonging to the Yakami branch of Iwami Kagura within the Izumo school lineage, it preserves twelve ritual pieces. The final piece, Shōgun, features a rare surviving oracle-trance tradition. It was selected as a nationally recognized folk cultural property requiring documentation in 1980.

Witness the Otō at Kui Inari Shrine in Mihara, Hiroshima — a 1,000-year-old autumn rite preserving Japan's medieval miyaza tradition almost unchanged from a 1598 manuscript, with sacred bream and new-rice sweet sake.

Shinjo no Hayashida in Kitahiroshima Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, is a spectacular traditional rice planting ceremony featuring decorated oxen, colorfully dressed planting maidens, and centuries-old folk songs accompanied by drums and bells. Designated as a National Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1997, this living tradition preserves the same communal planting rituals depicted in medieval Japanese scroll paintings. Held every second Sunday of May, the event is free and open to all visitors.

In Shiohara, Hiroshima, a rice planting held every four years honors working oxen and horses. Decorated oxen pass a ritual gateway where a priest and monk pray.

Hayashida is a traditional sacred rice planting ritual passed down in Akitakata City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Accompanied by taiko drums, flutes, and gongs, costumed saotome maidens plant seedlings while singing centuries-old planting songs to honor Sanbai, the deity of the rice fields. Designated as a Hiroshima Prefecture Intangible Folk Cultural Property, this living heritage event features decorated cattle plowing the paddies, colorful processions, and Shinto ceremonies — offering visitors an authentic glimpse into Japan's ancient agricultural traditions every May and June.

Hiba Kojin Kagura is a sacred torimono kagura performed in the Tojo and Saijo areas of Shobara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 1979. Rooted in medieval communal land-based worship of the ancestral deity Motoyama Sanpo Kojin, this extraordinary ritual preserves the rare practice of takusen (divine oracles through spirit possession) and distinctive ceremonial elements such as hai-kagura (ash kagura), making it invaluable to Japanese performing arts history.

Discover Honji no Hanagasa Odori, a spectacular folk dance preserved in Kitahiroshima Town, Hiroshima Prefecture, where male performers wearing towering 1.5-meter flower hats and women's clothing perform an elegant drum dance rooted in a Sengoku-era military legend. Learn about this nationally selected intangible folk cultural property and its twenty-four-piece repertoire.

On Hassaku night, Miyajima families set handmade lantern-lit boats adrift from Itsukushima Shrine toward the mainland farms of Ōno — a folk rite selected by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs for documentation in 2009.

Hiroshima’s registered properties across designations, with featured heritage and travel notes.

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

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