Ogano Town

No station, but Mount Ryōkami towers.

Photo by Ken thra at Japanese Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Kabuki

Actors and stagehands:all of them townspeople.

小鹿野の春祭り.jpg — Photo by Lovetodai (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Ogano Kabuki (小鹿野歌舞伎) began about 220 years ago, when Bandō Hikogorō I, who had trained in Edo, came home and taught kabuki to the young people of his neighbourhood. Actors, gidayū chanters and backstage crew are all local. Five permanent stages survive in town, and on the eve of the spring festival a projecting stage is built onto two festival floats for yatai kabuki (屋台歌舞伎, "float kabuki").

Began about 220 years ago
5 permanent stages
Float kabuki on 2 floats

02 ／ Strata

Mud from when Chichibu was a seabecame a 100-metre cliff.

Yōbake (ようばけ), baring its white rock face on the right bank of the Akabira River, is a cliff about 100 m high and 400 m wide. Its layers are mud that settled on the floor of a shallow sea some 15 million years ago, and its name comes from a hake (cliff) that catches the sun (yō). In 2016 the strata and fossil beds of the Chichibu Basin, Yōbake among them, were designated a Natural Monument of Japan.

About 100 m high, 400 m wide
Sea sediments from 15 million years ago
Natural Monument, 2016

03 ／ Waterfall

Water from Mount Ryōkamifalls 76 metres in three steps.

On a tributary of the Komori River, which rises on Mount Ryōkami (1,723 m), one of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains, a waterfall drops about 76 m in three steps. This is Marugami Falls (丸神の滝), the only waterfall in Saitama chosen as one of Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls. It is about a 20-minute walk along a trail from the bus stop, and it changes with the seasons: fresh green in spring, autumn colours, and frozen in winter.

About 76 m, three steps
Saitama's only Top 100 Waterfall
Mount Ryōkami, 1,723 m

Living here

35 minutes by bus from Seibu-Chichibu Station.

about 10,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in town. The town says it takes about 80 minutes from Ikebukuro to Seibu-Chichibu Station by Seibu limited express, then about 35 minutes on the Seibu Kankō bus. The town bus also links Seibu-Chichibu Station with the town office and the Yakushi no Yu (薬師の湯) roadside station in Ryōkami. The town merged with the village of Ryōkami in 2005.

People living here: 10,928people
Area: 171.26km²
Households: 4,170households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 1 hospital ／ 10 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-10-01 に新設合併（両神村）。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。

Children waiting for childcare: —3 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Ogano Town in Japan36.017°N 139.009°E

to Seibu-ChichibuLocal bus35min

Travel times follow 町公式「小鹿野町へのアクセス」の「西武秩父駅から西武観光バスに乗り継いでおよそ35分」（小鹿野の市街地を想定した時間）。西武観光バスの G 小鹿野線の時刻表（2026-04-01 作成の PDF）で、西武秩父駅→小鹿野役場が平日 6:25→6:58・7:25→8:02・8:40→9:17 など33〜37分で、いまも運行していることを確かめた (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 2 municipalities across 1 prefectures.

Territory of Ogano Town

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

14.1km

Saitama Prefecture: 秩父市
Gunma Prefecture: 神流町

Ogano Town isthis kind of town.

01Water from Mount Ryōkami, the town's symbol, becomes Marugami Falls, Saitama's only entry among Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls
02Ogano Kabuki, with townspeople as actors, chanters and stagehands, has carried on for about 220 years and is even performed on festival floats
03Yōbake, mud laid down in a shallow sea some 15 million years ago, stands as a cliff about 100 m high

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Ogano Town official site ↗Wikipedia ↗