Travelling Butterflies Come to Former School Yard in Kyoto Pref., Delight Locals

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, October 20, 2025

MAIZURU, Kyoto — Chestnut tiger butterflies have arrived in the yard of a former elementary school in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture.

Since 2015, locals have been growing fujibakama plants, which the butterflies like, in the former schoolyard. Now sometimes more than 50 of the butterflies visit.

The butterflies, also called “travelling butterflies,” are known to migrate north in the spring and south in the fall. In 2018, an individual marked by children in Maizuru was spotted on Kikai Island in the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, about 940 kilometers away.

“They don’t seem to be afraid of people,” said a 78-year-old local man. “It’s adorable to see them flying around right in front of people.”