Okinawa Obon Eisa Michi-uchi (Village Street Eisa)
Youth seinenkai groups carry odaiko and paranku drums through the streets of Yomitan village on all three Obon nights, performing ancestral eisa in the living community tradition rather than on a stage.
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"On the tiny island of Tsuken-jima off the Okinawa coast, men perform a rare circle dance of Chinese origin in traditional summer dress to hand-held drums, a centuries-old communal rite confined almost entirely to this one small island community."
Too Udui Dance
"One of Okinawa's three great tug-of-war festivals, with 450 years of history, pitting East and West teams of around a thousand residents against each other on a five-tonne rope in this small coastal town."
Yonabaru Dai Tsunahiki Matsuri (Yonabaru Great Tug-of-War Festival)
"Three men caked head-to-toe in sacred mud from an ancient well become the Paantu spirits, a UNESCO-recognised ritual, chasing residents through the Shimajiri lanes of Miyako-jima to smear exorcistic mud on children, cars and newly built homes."
Paantu Punaha (Shimajiri district)
"The Nobaru district's own Paantu ritual, a separate and distinct iteration of the mud-deity exorcism held in the rural Ueno village of Miyako-jima, is a living Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property performed in a small farming community."
Paantu (Nobaru district, Ueno Village)
"Itoman's sacred hare, believed to descend from the Ryukyu Kingdom era, features the dramatic kunnukase capsize race in which crews must flip their sabani boat, bail it out, and race to the finish in this ancient fishing port."
Itoman Haree (糸満ハーレー)
"On tiny Ojima Island linked to the Okinawa mainland by a single bridge, the nagarebune race sees competitors leap from the bridge into the sea before scrambling into their sabani boats and rowing to the finish."
Ojima Hari (Nanjo Dragon Boat Race)
"At the foot of Mount Sanbe, the Tane Kagura Transmission Hall keeps alive an Iwami Kagura tradition embedded in the Japan Heritage site of Sabimeyama Shrine."
Tane Kagura Denshokan Teiki Kouen (多根神楽伝承館 定期公演)
"On a remote island of 1,600 people, over 60 distinct dances performed across seven hamlet stages during Obon include the beloved Kitsune Fox Dance, where children in white fox makeup charm crowds that triple the island's population."
Himeshima Bon Odori
"Praying for the five-grain harvest and plentiful fishing from Lake Ogawara, neighbourhood teams in Tohoku-machi's Kamikita district parade hand-made dashi floats to the cry of 'Yare, Yare' along a one-kilometre course in one of Aomori's most community-rooted autumn customs."
Tohoku-machi Aki Matsuri Kamikita (東北町秋まつり上北地区)
"Elegantly costumed dancers in deep sedge hats drift silently through lantern-lit cobblestone streets to mournful kokyu strings in one of Japan's most atmospheric rural autumn customs."
Owara Kaze no Bon (おわら風の盆)
"In this remarkably preserved samurai village, eighteen hikiyama kabuki floats weighing several tonnes are hauled through cherry-lined streets and deliberately rammed into one another at crossroads in the centuries-old buttsuke collision ritual."
Kakunodate no Matsuri (角館祭り)
"A three-night parade of elaborately costumed dashi floats, mikoshi portable shrines and the haunting shika-odori deer dance winds through the streets of this Kenji Miyazawa hometown, celebrating the rice harvest under lantern light."
Hanamaki Matsuri (花巻まつり)