So, several weeks ago, I attended the first Obon dancing meet during the 24th Annual Obon Celebration, which is still actively running through the summer, with my family.
The Japanese Buddhist tradition of Obon celebrates the dead similar to the Spanish Day of the Dead tradition, where families return to the resting places of their ancestors to pay their respects. It's a joyous celebration and the songs reflect a very upbeat refrain in their pieces.
The festival usually lasts three days but begins depending on which calender you go by. Some observe the tradition in the early summer, some late. Here in Hawaii, the festival season begins in June and lasts through September. Several Hongwanji/Missions (Buddhist temples) rotate locations around the island to perform their set of music and dances for a roughly four-hour celebration where all are welcome to dance and dine on traditional Japanese festival cuisine.
We went to the first meet this year at the Hawaii Plantation Village, a bit of a spooky place in Waipahu. We had never attended an Obon in this location before and the place was already hopping by the time we arrived.
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| Dancers move in a ring around a centerpiece--this time a light-strung bush. |
The dancers move around in a ring with the experienced dancers in the innermost showing the rest of us the steps to the song.Some songs have a complicated set of steps (up to 32 count for a couple) while others repeat after only the sixth bar such as my absolute favorite, the Fukushima Ondo.
And this song runs anywhere from 10-30 minutes nonstop. It's often the only song this Hongwanji will play and one that is super popular among the locals. If you watch closely, you'll see the inner ring is moving much faster than the outer rings because they're doing a modified version of the traditional set. I usually am in the thick of the inner ring and shrieking the Japanese rejoinders with the rest. I'm sweating bullets at the end of this one. And I love it.
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| The Hawaii Plantation Village Obon from another angle. |
The Hawaiian Plantation Village was a different experience and I was sorry to not have any undagi (deep fried doughnut holes with a cinnamon breading, superb!) this time around--a highlight of the experience. This location also didn't have the tower to dance around like you see in the above video, but the plantation was in this grassy, wooded area steeped in the history of a former plantation village. Their sound system was plenty loud enough, but a bit grating on the ears when you passed the speakers on the stage to the east side. They did play a number of songs I enjoy though including the Sakura (flower) and shovel one which I do not know the name of.
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| No undagi in the lineup! But plenty of other local fare. |
So while I still prefer the Aiea area Obon the most, I still had a great time kicking up my heels to the local Japanese Buddhist tradition that welcomes anyone willing to join the dance.
