Tahara no Ota

Festival highlights

The highlight is a sequence of 15 scenes depicting the full cycle of rice cultivation, including preparing the seeds, making a seedbed, sowing, buying an ox, plowing the paddy, planting rice, and harvesting.

The dialogue between Sakutaro and Sakujiro includes many improvised exchanges, weaving in topical references from that year through scenes such as a rampaging ox and price negotiations.

For the rice planting, irises represent seedlings; girls playing the role of saotome (young rice planters) act out the planting motions while singers perform rice-planting songs.

Source: 田原の御田 | 全国観光資源台帳(公財)日本交通公社

A traditional performing art from Tahara that reenacts a year of rice farming and prays for a good harvest

What to expect

The performance begins with a scene in which an auspicious day is chosen for the farm work, then moves on to sorting rice seeds, draining a pond, soaking seeds, making a seedbed, sowing, and chasing birds away.

The performance then moves through buying an ox, plowing the paddy, gathering seedlings, planting rice, inspecting the fields, harvesting, and finishing the harvest, all linked by the 2 adults’ dialogue and mimicry.

The rice-planting scene includes a midday break; to the singers’ songs, saotome act out planting irises as seedlings.

Source: 国指定文化財等データベース

Location and access

Venue and address

Held at Taji Shrine (Tahara, Hiyoshi-cho, Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture).

Train and bus

Take the Nantan City bus from Hiyoshi Station on the JR San-in Main Line, get off at Tahara, and walk for 5 minutes.

Address Tahara, Hiyoshi-cho, Nantan City, Kyoto Prefecture

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Dates and season

It is held annually on May 3. The Ota is now performed in the morning in the haiden in front of Taji Shrine’s honden.

The rice-planting scenes are divided into work before noon and work after the lunch break, with singers performing a different rice-planting song for each.

Accommodation and hotels PR

Origins and History of Tahara no Ota

According to records preserved at Taji Shrine, a miyaza—a community group centered on the shrine—was organized in the Tahara district around the 14th century. The Tahara no Ota was performed as one of its events.

The hoe used in the Ota has the year 1691 inscribed on it, and the spade bears the year 1739. A record from 1843 shows that the Ota was performed much as it is today.

Its structure, combining archaic rice-planting songs with scenes of rice-farming tasks, offers a glimpse into how the performing art has evolved.

Official information

The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Database of Nationally Designated Cultural Properties lists the Tahara no Ota as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

The preservation group is the Taji Shrine Folk Performing Arts Preservation Society.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs’ description provides information on when it is held, the structure of the program, its participants, and its origins.

Tahara no Ota at a Glance

The Tahara no Ota is an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property performed on the grounds of Taji Shrine. It reenacts a year’s worth of rice-farming work and is held to pray for a good harvest.

Through improvised dialogue between 2 adults, children acting as saotome and oxen, and rice-planting songs, farming tasks and performing arts come together on a single stage.

It is held annually on May 3, and can be reached from Hiyoshi Station by Nantan City bus.