Aims: Comparative analysis of the soil bacterial communities inhabiting the fairy ring of Tricholoma matsutake. Methods and Results: The bacterial communities in soil samples collected from inside, beneath and outside the T. matsutake fairy ring were investigated using barcoded pyrosequencing. A total of 15 129 reads were obtained, and 500-536 operational taxonomic units were observed at a 97% similarity level. Taxonomic analysis showed similar taxa distribution patterns inside and beneath the fairy ring. Three bacterial phyla, Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Actinobacteria, were dominant in all sampling sites. A heat-map analysis of the bacterial genera showed that the uncultured bacterium EU445199 was remarkably abundant outside the fairy ring, and the uncultured bacteria GU727715 and DQ451510 were more and less abundant, respectively, beneath the fairy ring than inside and outside the fairy ring. Conclusions: The results indicated that there was no significant difference in bacterial diversity inside, beneath and outside the fairy ring even though T. matsutake is predominant beneath the fairy ring. Significance and Impact of the study: This study is the first report on the numerous culturable, unculturable and unclassified bacteria in the fairy ring of T. matsutake using the pyrosequencing method.