Hometown Stories

The "Matsuage" fire festival in Kyoto was admired by essayist Masako Shirasu. In her travelogue titled "Kakure-zato", she described it as "the most touching festival scene that I've ever observed". In this program, actress Mayu Tsuruta vis…

This program describes a simple, rustic event called "The Mountain God Piggyback" that has been handed down since time immemorial in a snowy mountain village in Yamagata Prefecture. Carrying the local shrine's object of worship on their sh…

This program shows how ancient religious practices survive on the Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita Prefecture, regarded as the home of the Buddha, and long known as a site for ascetic mountain training. Last year, during a "Mineiri" religious au…

In ancient times, "kagura" was a form of dance dedicated to the gods. But in modern times, as its original meaning weakened and it took on the color of a local performing art, young people found it rustic and lost interest in it. Today, ho…

The aim of the 'eco-paddy fields' project is to grow rice without using agrochemicals and chemical fertilizers in rice fields full of wildlife created by cutting open uncultivated cedar forests and restoring terraced paddy fields. 30 paren…

77-year-old volunteer probation officer Chikako Nakamoto was affectionately known as 'The little old lady of Motomachi' by the juvenile delinquents she took care of for 30 years in the Motomachi district of Hiroshima. She opened up her hom…

Yoronjima in Kagoshima Prefecture is a southern island with a population of 5,600 surrounded by beautiful coral reef and white sand beaches. In the island's unusual ritual called 'Senkotsu', the skeletal remains of family members are dug u…

This drama set in a remote elementary school centers around the efforts made by a young female teacher called Hikari to help Aya, an uncommunicative exchange student who has problems with her mother.