murmurNishimonai Bon Odori
Ugo Town · Hon-cho Street, Nishimonai
Dates and details can change. Always check the official website before you go.
Ugo Town · Last checked: Oct 10, 2026
Dates
Dates confirmed with official sources
- 2026
- Aug 16–18, 2026 （Ended） 19:30–22:30 (until 23:00 on August 18)
- 2027
- Dates have not been announced yet. Please check the official website.
- Usual timing
- Usually mid August
- How the date is set
- Every year, August 16 – August 18 In rain, moved to the Ugo Town Gymnasium (paid seating only)
- Venue
- Hon-cho Street, Nishimonai
- City
- Ugo Town, Akita
About
On Nishimonai's main street in Ugo, dancers perform this bon dance late into the night. Tradition says it blends a harvest dance from the Kamakura period with a dance for the dead honoring the fallen Onodera lords of Nishimonai Castle. In 1981 it became the first bon dance in Japan designated a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. There are two dances: the graceful ondo and the quicker ganke. Dancers wear hanui robes pieced together from several kinds of silk, or indigo-dyed yukata, faces hidden under deep straw hats or hikosa hoods with only eye holes, giving the night an otherworldly air. Children dance in the early evening; the adult dancers fill the street after 9 p.m.
Sources
- OfficialUgo Town www.town.ugo.lg.jp
- OfficialUgo Town Tourism and Products Association ugokanko.com
- Reference西馬音内盆踊りの文化・歴史 | 羽後町 www.town.ugo.lg.jp
Last checked: Oct 10, 2026. Event information is based on official announcements, but changes may not always be reflected here. Please check each official website for accurate details.
Other events this month
On the day, see what locals are murmuring on the murmur map
murmur is an app that shows short, anonymous posts on a map, right where they were written. On festival day, open the map around the venue and see what people nearby are saying.