Aso Saru Mawashi Gekijō, Monkey performance theater in Minamiaso, Japan

Aso Saru Mawashi Gekijo is a performance theater in Japan where trained monkeys display their skills through scheduled shows held multiple times each day. Each performance features acrobatic routines, balancing acts, and coordinated movements between the animals and their trainers.

Monkey performances in Japan trace back several centuries to folk festivals and religious celebrations where they served as popular entertainment. This tradition gradually transformed into dedicated theatrical presentations held in specialized venues like this one.

The Aso Saru Mawashi Gekijō opened on 3 September 1989 as a permanent theatre of the Suō Saru Mawashi no Kai, a troupe founded in Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture, in 1977 and designated a municipal intangible folk cultural property there in 2004. The troupe revived a monkey-show art that had lapsed in 1963, and trains its own performers.

The theater opened on September 3, 1989, in Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, as a permanent venue of the Suo Saru Mawashi Association. Shows run in short sets of 15 to 20 minutes, repeated many times a day, so visitors can plan around a single set rather than a long program. The site lies in the Aso region of Minamiaso, reached by road; check current opening days before traveling.

The performers execute surprising skills such as playing drums and performing intricate balance acts that would never occur in nature. These learned abilities develop through years of close collaboration between each animal and its trainer.