Nagoro or Nagoru, now known as Nagoro Doll Village (Japanese: 名頃かかしの里), is a village in

the Iya Valley on the island of Shikoku in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. It is known for the large
number of realistic dolls positioned throughout the village, which have made it a tourist attraction.
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The village is located on Route 439 in the Iya Valley, 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
[3] [4] [5]
2015, 30 as of August 2016, and 27 by September 2019.
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
[4][6]
since made more than 400, including replacements, and about 350 are in the village. 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
[2][3][4][6][7][8]
large number of dolls; in one classroom, two children are self-portraits by the last two
[4]
students to study there, who dressed them in their own clothes. Other dolls include three men
sitting at the base of a telephone pole on the outskirts of the village, a man fishing in the river, a
[4] [6]
group in a bus shelter, and utility workers performing roadwork. The village has become a tourist
[2][9] [1][8]
attraction and is now known as Nagoro Doll Village.
[10]
The nearby Nagoro Dam was completed in 1961 and is used for hydropower generation.
In 2020, the village was featured in the final episode of James May: Our Man in Japan, where James
was made a scarecrow based on his likeness.