Changing of Oba-Sama's Clothes

Who — or What — Is Onbasama?

"Onbasama" is the affectionate local name for wooden statues of Uba-son, elder goddess figures enshrined at the foot of Mount Tateyama. The word "uba" literally means "old woman" or "grandmother," but in Tateyama belief the Uba-son is far more than an aged figure. She is worshipped simultaneously as three things: a mountain goddess who brings the blessings of grain, clothing, and food; a guardian deity of women; and the fearsome Datsueba who, according to Japanese Buddhist tradition, strips the clothes from the deceased on the banks of the Sanzu River (the river separating this world from the next) and weighs the garments to measure the weight of one's sins.

Historically, sixty-nine of these statues once lined a dedicated hall called the Uba-do, situated across the Ubadani River from the village. That river itself was imagined as the Sanzu — the symbolic boundary between the living and the dead. When the Meiji-era policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism swept through the area in the late 19th century, the Uba-do was destroyed and most of the statues were scattered across the country. The few that survived are now carefully kept in Ashikuraji's Enmado Hall, where this annual ceremony keeps their memory and meaning alive.

Why the Ceremony Matters: A National Cultural Designation

On March 21, 2024, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs added Onbasama no Omeshikae to the register of Intangible Folk Cultural Properties requiring documentary preservation measures. This designation is reserved for traditions judged to embody the foundational character of Japanese everyday culture in a particularly typical way.

Several qualities set this ceremony apart. First, it is rooted in the Tateyama faith, one of Japan's oldest mountain religions, which cast Mount Tateyama as a geography of heaven and hell: the summit was understood as the Pure Land, while the sulphurous valley below was seen as Buddhist hell. Second, until the Meiji era, women were strictly forbidden from climbing Mount Tateyama, so rituals of salvation specifically addressed to women grew up around the foothills — and this ceremony preserves that vanished religious world. Third, it is one of the few surviving traditions in Japan created, led, and carried out entirely by women of a local community, who inherited it from their mothers and grandmothers through an unbroken chain.

How the Ceremony Unfolds

The preparations begin four days before the main event. On March 9, members of the Ashikura Women's Association — the local women's group that protects the tradition — gather at the Enmado to cut lengths of pure white bleached cotton that will become the goddesses' new robes. In earlier centuries, the cloth was woven from hemp grown and spun right here in the village, a process once handled by women who had passed the age of sixty and observed ritual purification before touching the threads.

On the morning of March 13, the women gather again in the Enmado. They clean the hall, light candles, offer food at the altar, and then begin the stitching. Each Onbasama has slightly different dimensions, and each has its own paper pattern. The women sit in small groups, sorting out sleeves, collars, and body panels, pinning them carefully, and only then beginning to sew.

The sewing itself is unlike ordinary needlework. A single long thread is passed from woman to woman, each adding just one stitch in turn. There are no finishing knots, no backstitching, and the edges are left deliberately unhemmed. These are the hallmarks of a shinishōzoku — a garment of the dead, of the kind traditionally placed on a corpse before burial. A sash and a triangular forehead-cloth called a tenkan are made in the same manner.

When the garments are complete, the women form a procession led by a hand-held drum and walk the short distance to the Kaizando Hall, within the precincts of Oyama Shrine. There the robes are presented to Jikō Shōnin, the legendary founder of Tateyama's mountain religion. The women then return to the Enmado, gently remove the old garments from each statue, and redress the Onbasama in the new white robes — folded right-side under left, the way the dead are dressed in Japan. A sash is tied at the front, the tenkan placed on the head, a ring-shaped stole laid across the neck, and a bowl of freshly cooked rice offered. Only then is the day's work complete.

The Quiet Spiritual Meaning

Beneath the careful choreography lies a moving personal intention. By sewing the Onbasama's new white robes exactly as one would sew a garment for the dead, each woman is said to be entrusting a spare robe for her own future passage to the Onbasama in advance. In other words, the women prepare their own shinishōzoku ahead of time, leave them in the safekeeping of the goddesses, and pray for tranquility in the life to come. It is a ritual of both collective devotion and deeply personal preparation — a rare case in which sacred and mortal cloth are made as one.

The Highlights for Visitors

The ceremony itself is solemn and held in a modest wooden building. For respectful visitors, several features make a visit to Ashikuraji on or near March 13 especially rewarding.

The Enmado Hall is ordinarily closed to the public; it opens for viewing only during the first three days of the New Year and on March 13 itself, making this day one of the very few opportunities in the year to see the Onbasama and the thirty or more accompanying Buddhist statues inside. The hall stands on an ancient pilgrimage path called Meinen-zaka, lined with towering Tateyama cedars. A short walk away lies the Nunobashi, the "Cloth Bridge" once believed to span the boundary between this world and the next, and the stone foundation where the old Uba-do once stood. Taken together, this compact cluster of sites gives visitors a rare experience of the spatial grammar of Tateyama faith — the geography of souls made walkable in a single afternoon.

Around Ashikuraji: Extending Your Visit

Ashikuraji is far more than the setting for a single ritual. The surrounding village is effectively an open-air museum of mountain faith, curated by the Tateyama Museum of Toyama (Tatehaku), whose facilities are dispersed throughout the settlement.

The Tenjikan exhibition hall displays Tateyama mandalas, a 14th-century Uba-son statue, and important nationally designated cultural properties connected to the old Tateyama pilgrimage. The Yōbōkan screening hall, built on the very site of the vanished Uba-do, offers a large three-screen film immersion. Mandara Yūen recreates the symbolic journey from hell to paradise through light and sound installations across a landscaped outdoor trail. Next door, Oyama Shrine Ashikura Chūgū Kiganden is a serene complex framed by cedars thought to be five hundred years old; it is the only one of Tateyama's three great shrines open year-round to pilgrims. For those wanting to stay longer in the valley, the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — one of Japan's most celebrated mountain journeys — begins at Tateyama Station, about fifteen minutes further up the road.