Initial screening at K’s Cinema in Shinjuku, Tokyo has ended on March 27, 2026.
After eight years in the making, an indie film titled “Nagahama” (長浜) filmed entirely in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, Japan has hit the silver screen for the first time in March 2026 starting in Tokyo.
The movie’s underlying theme is the Nagahama Hikiyama Matsuri float festival (長浜曳山祭) with two teenage characters preparing to perform in the festival. A teenage boy (age 11) named Ibuki practices to become a child kabuki actor, while a teenage girl named Hana strives to play the flute for the festival. The festival is held annually in mid-April.
Ibuki (伊吹), obviously named after the nearby mountain, is played by Shoji Ako (荘司 亜虎). He has a deceased Japanese father from Nagahama and a Taiwanese mother now in Nagahama. His father was once a child kabuki actor in Nagahama, but died a year before. Ibuki and his mother came to Nagahama to bring his father’s ashes.
Ibuki takes the opportunity of the visit to become a child kabuki actor for the upcoming Hikiyama Matsuri on the Ho-o-zan float (鳳凰山) in a kabuki play called Heike Nyogo no Shima – Shunkan (平家女護島 俊寛 鬼界ヶ島の場).
As an onnagata, he plays the female kabuki character Chidori. (This play will also be staged in this year’s festival by the Banzai-ro float. See my synopsis below.)
A real kabuki instructor, Iwai Komurasaki (岩井 小柴), who has been coaching child kabuki actors most every year at the festival, also appears in the film training Ibuki and other boys for the play. The kabuki practice scenes were good, but too brief.
Ibuki is accompanied by his romantic interest Hana (花), a low-teen girl practicing the flute for shagiri festival music. Played by co-star Kato Anri (加藤 あんり), Hana actually wants to be one of the kabuki actors on the float, but girls are prohibited from the kabuki stage. Only boys can be a kabuki actor, in accordance with festival tradition.
Not only that, she later reveals that she’s actually a boy born in a girl’s body even though she and Ibuki develop romantic feelings for each other.
Then there’s Ibuki and his Taiwanese mother (played by Eren, 瑛蓮) sometimes speaking Chinese. So there’s a Taiwan connection too. Not sure how it fits into the overall story though.
The film includes a few scenes of the Hikiyama Matsuri, especially the Ho-o-zan float doing the Hadaka Mairi in the evening, the morning Sword Procession, child kabuki performance on the main festival day, and the floats gathering at the Otabisho on the evening of main day.
The film doesn’t caption the festival scenes, so it’s not a festival documentary. But Nagahama people familiar with the festival will immediately recognize each festival scene.
The festival footage was mostly filmed during the 2022 festival when the Ho-o-zan float appeared. (Festival floats usually appear only once every three years to stage child kabuki.)
With so many story arcs, I thought the film’s story was spread too thin and not developed as well as they should be. I would’ve loved to see a more thorough depiction of the typical struggles of the child kabuki actors. Memorizing the lines, going to practice, crying during practice, and the parents making sure their son doesn’t get sick. The parents play a major role in the child kabuki performances and festival.
Seeing Hana practicing the flute was nice, but the film hardly shows her struggles of playing the flute and mastering it. There’s no flute teacher in the film. She only plays it well in the end when she kicked off the festival with her flute.
The fact that girls are not allowed on the kabuki stage was also not really addressed. There’s no explanation of why girls are not allowed on stage.
I am all for allowing girls to be kabuki actors in the festival. In this day and age, it’s something that needs to be seriously considered. Due to the declining population, the festival is already struggling to find boys to be kabuki actors, so having girls would be a viable solution. I’m sure it would attract more people to the festival too. Female/women kabuki actors is not unheard of in Japan. There are acting troupes allowing it.
Remember that Mt. Fuji originally banned women from climbing it. Imagine if that rule were still in place.
I’m glad the movie at least mentioned it. Something to think about since it really is unfair to girls. They can act and do anything just as good or better than boys. We even see many women dressed up as samurai at festivals. So I know that they are willing and able.
The director and screenwriter, Taniguchi Mio (谷口未央), was born in Kyoto, but lived much of her childhood in Nagahama in the 1980s. She still has a strong attachment to Nagahama and always wanted to make a film about Nagahama’s festival. It was a string of struggles for her to produce this film which took eight years. We certainly have to congratulate her for her perseverance and strong determination. The production involved many people and local businesses in Nagahama.
Since it’s so rare to see a film entirely filmed in Shiga, the film has been welcomed by everyone in Nagahama, especially by those involved in the Hikiyama Matsuri, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as one of the 33 “Yama, Hoko, and Yatai float festivals in Japan.”
The film is currently screening once a day at 10:00 am in Shinjuku, Tokyo at an indie film theater named K’s Cinema from March 14 to March 27, 2026. This is the film’s first public screening where I saw it as well.
In case you’re in Tokyo now, K’s Cinema is near the East Exit of JR Shinjuku Station and Exit E9 of Shinjuku Sanchome Station.
Google Map here.
Advance tickets with reserved seating can be purchased online here: https://www.ks-cinema.com/movie/nagahama/
The theater is in a building housing other businesses. Go up to the 3rd floor.
There’s also English subtitles, but you need to install and use a smartphone app called UDCast. You need to wear smart glasses to see the English subtitles. I haven’t used it, so I don’t know how it works exactly.
Although there was a private screening in February 2026 at the Nagahama Hikiyama Museum, Shiga doesn’t have any small theaters geared for indie films, so there are currently no plans to screen the film in Shiga.
Although no dates have been announced yet, I believe screenings will be held in other major cities. Nagoya and Kyoto will be the closest to Shiga.
Official website: https://nagahama.brighthorse-film.com
Heike Nyogo no Shima – Shunkan (平家女護島 俊寛 鬼界ヶ島の場) Synopsis by Philbert Ono.
Priest Shunkan is living a miserable life of exile on Kikai Island together with Naritsune and Yasuyori, the fellow plotters of their failed revolt against Japanese ruler Taira no Kiyomori. It’s a far cry from their former lives of luxury.
Meanwhile, Naritsune has fallen in love with Chidori, a woman shellfish diver on the island. Priest Shunkan conducts a simple wedding ceremony for them with a traditional toast using mountain water instead of sake.
Then they see a ship bringing an Imperial messenger named Senoo Taro Kaneyasu who announces an Imperial order pardoning both Naritsune and Yasuyori, but not Shunkan who is shocked.
A second messenger Tanzaemon Motoyasu reveals that since Shunkan was the leader of the plot to overthrow Kiyomori, Shunkan is given a lesser pardon of being allowed to only return to his hometown of Bizen.
Shunkan is overjoyed at the good news and the three men and Chidori go to the boat to leave the island. However, Kaneyasu says that he has orders to take only three persons and refuses to take Chidori.
Naritsune says he would rather remain with his wife Chidori on the island in poverty than return to the capital without her. But he is forced to board, leaving Chidori behind. Shunkan begs Kaneyasu for leniency, but Kaneyasu refuses.
Then Kaneyasu adds to Shunkan’s grief by telling him that his wife Azumaya killed herself rather than becoming Kiyomori’s concubine. Enraged, Shunkan snatches Kaneyasu’s sword and kills him.
He then urges Chidori to board to join Naritsune, telling Tanzaemon that, by killing Kaneyasu, his pardon must now be considered null and that he must remain in exile. However, since the government order is to take back three persons, Chidori must go in his place.
The young couple and Yasuyori bid him farewell. As the ship sails away, Shunkan is left with the mooring rope slipping through his hands. From the top of a rock, Shunkan waves desperately to the ship which vanishes over the horizon.
