Tabayama Village

Three lions dance around the village.

Sasara-jishi, Gion Festival

Photo by Tomomori (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Omatsu-biki

A shura sled piled with New Year pinesis hauled to the village-boundary dosojin.

Pine decorations that each home put up for the New Year are gathered, piled on a forked wooden sled called shura and hauled to the dosojin site, to send off the toshigami, the deity welcomed for the year. The village says Tabayama is the only place in Japan where shura is still used as a living tool. On 28 March 2025 the custom was selected as a national Intangible Folk Cultural Property for which Measures such as Making Records should be Taken.

National selection, 28 March 2025
Forked wooden sled, shura
Hauled to the dosojin site

02 ／ Honose hamlet

Houses and fields on valley land;the Yakushi hall opens only at the May festival.

Honose is a hamlet where houses were built and fields made on the land of a valley, and the village describes it as a settlement that opened steeply, like a fortress. Its Yakushi hall enshrines a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, said to be the oldest historic relic still standing in the village (estimated to date from the Kamakura period). The hall is opened only at the festival in May.

Statue estimated to be Kamakura period
Yakushi hall opens at the May festival

03 ／ Takao Narihata site

At Takao Narihata, with Jomon dwellings,quartz from the Daibosatsu range has been found.

The village writes that Jomon pottery and dwelling remains were excavated in the Takao Narihata area, suggesting that people settled here long ago. In 2019 the Yamanashi Prefecture Buried Cultural Properties Center explained that the site includes a hand-mirror-shaped stone-paved dwelling and that quartz from the Daibosatsu range has been found there.

Hand-mirror-shaped stone-paved dwelling
Jomon pottery and dwelling remains
Quartz from the Daibosatsu range

Living here

No station in the village; 54 minutes by bus from Okutama Station.

about 1,000 people
Rural district town

There is no railway station in the village. A Nishi Tokyo Bus route bus from Okutama Station in Tokyo reaches Tabayama Village Office in 54 minutes. There is no taxi company in the village, but it has a village taxi. The village covers 101.30 km², and 97 percent of it is forest.

People living here: 530people
Area: 101.3km²
Households: 283households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 2 clinics

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

Children waiting for childcare: —0 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.

Tabayama Village in Japan35.790°N 138.922°E

to OkutamaLocal bus54min

Travel times follow 西東京バス公式の『ハイキング時刻表（奥多摩・御岳山エリア）2026年4月1日改正』（奥多摩駅発の系統図に「丹波山村役場 54分 1,040円」）と、丹波山村公式『西東京バス時刻表』（令和6年10月1日改正）の奥多摩駅〜丹波山村役場の便 (checked 2026-10-08). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 4 municipalities across 2 prefectures.

Territory of Tabayama Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)Lakes: National Land Numerical Information (Lake Data), MLIT. Processed by Machigatari. Prepared with the approval of the Director-General of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, using its Digital Map 25000 (Spatial Data Framework) and Digital Map 25000 (Place Names and Public Facilities). (承認番号平27情使、第585号)

North to south

13.1km

Yamanashi Prefecture: 甲州市, 小菅村
Tokyo: 奥多摩町
Saitama Prefecture: 秩父市

Tabayama Village isthis kind of town.

01Every mid-July at the Gion Festival, the Tabayama Sasara-jishi, an Intangible Folk Cultural Property designated by Yamanashi Prefecture in which three lions, Tayu, Ko-tayu and the female lion, dance, is offered
02The Omatsu-biki, in which a shura sled loaded with New Year pines is hauled to the dosojin site, was selected in 2025 as a national Intangible Folk Cultural Property for which Measures such as Making Records should be Taken
0397 percent of the village is forest, about 70 percent of it protected as a water-source forest of Tokyo, and in its valleys lie Honose hamlet and the Jomon Takao Narihata site

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Tabayama Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗