Denderano

Ubasute is an infamous motif in Japanese folklore, which can be roughly translated to "elderly dumping." Though no historical records back up the claim, the custom of senicide—leaving old people in the mountains to die so that there would be less mouths to feed in the village—is a well-established concept in Japanese legends.

A major example of a purported site of ubasute tradition can be found in the village of Yamaguchi-Tsuchibuchi in Tōno, Iwate Prefecture, a city famed for its associations with folklorist Kunio Yanagita, the author of The Legends of Tōno.

Locally known as Denderano (or Rendaino as recorded by Yanagita), the field is a somewhat remote site located on a hill between villages. This is said to have been the place where the villagers of Yamaguchi-Tsuchibuchi brought their parents once they turned the age of sixty, leaving them to die. They did not, of course, die instantly. Yanagita reports that they would come down to the village in the morning to work on the farms and go back up onto the Denderano after dark.

The site is shrouded in mystery, with the etymology of the toponym uncertain and the veracity of the claim unconfirmed, but local folklore also suggests that the area was once believed to be a sort of gateway between the mundane realm and the netherworld.

Today, the city of Tōno and its villages welcome tourists following the footsteps of Yanagita and his tales. There is are reliefs of ubasute scenes adorning the bridge that leads to the Denderano field and a rustic hut has been built on the site.