Nagoro 名頃 | |
|---|---|
  Nagoro Location in Japan | |
| Coordinates:33°51′23″N134°01′09″E / 33.85639°N 134.01917°E /33.85639; 134.01917 | |
| Country |  Japan |
| Prefecture | Tokushima |
| Population (2019)[1] | |
• Total | 27 |
| Time zone | UTC+9 (JST) |
Nagoro orNagoru, now known as Nagoro Doll Village (Japanese:名頃かかしの里), is avillage in theIya Valley on the island ofShikoku inTokushima Prefecture, Japan. It is known for the large number of realisticdolls positioned throughout the village, which have made it a tourist attraction.
The village is located on Route 439 in the Iya Valley,[2][3] a remote mountainous area. It formerly had about 300 inhabitants, but the decline in Japan's population has caused that to fall to 35 by January 2015,[4] 30 as of August 2016[update],[5] and 27 by September 2019.[6]
In the early 2000s, Tsukimi Ayano, whose family left the area when she was a child, moved back to Nagoro to look after her father, and made a doll in his likeness that she placed in a field. She has since made more than 400, including replacements, and about 350 are in the village.[5][7] Many are also likenesses of residents or former residents, while others are invented people.
Soon, others followed in Ayano's footsteps. The village school, which closed in 2012, includes a large number of dolls;[3][4][5][7][8][9] in one classroom, two children are self-portraits by the last two students to study there, who dressed them in their own clothes.[5] Other dolls include three men sitting at the base of atelephone pole on the outskirts of the village, a man fishing in the river, a group in abus shelter,[5] and utility workers performing roadwork.[7] The village has become a tourist attraction[3][10] and is now known as Nagoro Doll Village.[2][9]
The nearbyNagoro Dam was completed in 1961 and is used forhydropower generation.[11]
In 2020, the village was featured in the final episode ofJames May: Our Man in Japan, where a scarecrow based onJames' likeness was made for him.