Bon Festival (o-bon) (05)

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Bon Festival, O-Bon, Obon (Japan)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Early Autumn
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

O-bon Festival in Japan お盆 by Shizuko Mishima, About Japan 2005 The 13th through 16th of August is called o-bon in Japan. O-bon is a Buddhist event and one of the most important traditions for Japanese people. It is the period of praying for the repose of the souls of one's ancestors. People believe that their ancestors' spirits come back to their homes to be reunited with their family during o-bon. People clean their houses and offer a variety of food such as vegetables and fruits to the spirits of ancestors in front of a butsudan (Buddhist families altar). The butsudan is decorated with flower and CHOOCHIN, lanterns . On the 13th, chouchins are lit inside houses, and people go to their family's o-haka (graves) to call their ancestors' spirits back home. In some regions, fires called mukaebi are lit at the entrances to homes to guide the ancestor's spirits. On the 16th, people bring the ancestor's spirits back to o-haka, hanging chouchins painted with the family crest to guide the ancestors' spirits. In some regions, fires called okuribi are lit at entrances of homes to send the ancestors' spirits. The air in houses and cemeteries are full of smoke and the smell of incense called senko at this time. Bon Dance During o-bon, bon odori (folk dances) are held all over Japan. The kind of dance varies from area to area. People wearing yukata (summer kimono) go to the neighborhood shrine, temple, or park and dance around a yagura (stage) set up there. Anyone can participate in the dance. Join the circle and imitate what others are doing. Awa odori of Tokushima and bon odori at Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo are very famous. Also, Toro Nagashi (floating paper lanterns) are held in some areas. On the evening of the 15th, people send off ancestor's spirits with a paper lantern, lit by a candle inside and floated down a river to the ocean. Firework Displays (hanabi-taikai) are often held during o-bon. It is a typical Japanese summer scene to see hanabi. Since o-bon is an important family gathering time, many people return to their hometowns during o-bon. Most businesses are closed during this time. Although it is crowded everywhere, it is common for many people take trips during o-bon, too. The beginning and end of o-bon are marked with terrible traffic jams. Airports, train stations, and highways are jammed with travelers. I recommend you do not travel around o-bon! © About Japan http://gojapan.about.com/cs/japanesefestivals/a/obonfestival.htm http://gojapan.about.com/cs/japanesefestivals/a/obonfestival_2.htm

For more about the light offerings, read Gabi Greve about
Daruma Pilgrims in Japan: Koya San in Wakayama
Light offerings afloat (tooroo nagashi) (05)　kigo in the database

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Next to the New Year celebrations, O-Bon (Obon) is one of the most important festivals to unite the family. It comes with many local customs and all of these can be used as kigo in haiku. I will try and introduce some of them here.

Bon Festival, O-Bon, Obon お盆、盆
Lantern Festival, Festival of the Dead, Ancestor's Festival
..... Urabon, Ura-Bon 盂蘭盆, urabon-e 盂蘭盆会

visiting the ancestor's graves in preparation for O-Bon
... hakamairi 墓参
visiting graves, bonsan　盆参
cleaning the grave, especially the weeds
....tenboo 展墓
scrubbing off the moss from the graves, sootai 掃苔
washing the grave stones, haka arau 墓洗う
..... These preparations are done a few days ahead of the Bon festival.

Bon Lantern, bon choochin 盆提灯
Bon Dance, bon odori　盆踊り
Bon Dance in Awa, Awa odori 阿波踊り


Tower for the Bon Dance, bon yagura 盆櫓



welcoming fire at the gates, mukaebi 迎え火
Festival for the souls, tama matsuri 魂祭
sending-off fire, okuribi 送り火
sending off the souls, tama okuri 霊送り

Eggplant Horse and other vegetable BON decorations



shelf for Bon offerings, bondana 盆棚
shelf for the souls, shooryoodana 精霊棚
shelf for the ancestors, sensodana 先祖棚
empty shelf, karadana 空棚
shelf for the sutras, tanagyoo 棚経



first bon ceremony, hatsubon, hatsu bon 初盆, shinbon 新盆
..... for a person who died since the last O-Bon. There are many special rituals for the family to perform, which are different in many areas of Japan.


preparations for o-bon, bonjitaku 盆仕度
before o-bon, bon mae 盆前
holidays during o-bon, bon yasumi 盆休み
..... usually three days, when people travel home to visit the graves of the ancestors
after o-bon, bon sugi 盆過ぎ


In the Buddhist Saijiki of our database you can find many more kigo related to O-Bon.
WKD : Saijiki of Buddhist, Shinto and other Ceremonies


Graves (haka)

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.. .. .. .. .. Links about O-Bon

The O-Bon ABC. The most detailed explanations.
http://www.bonodori.net/E/sekai/bonabc1.HTML

Safekeep copy without photos is here:
O-Bon / ABC


Japanese haiku about O-Bon
盂蘭盆チャット句会２００３
Suien Obon Chat Taikai

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Worldwide use

Hawaii

The Obon in Hawai'i

This Buddhist observance honoring the ancestors came to Hawai`i in the late 19th century with a large wave of Japanese immigrants. Obon is observed in Hawai`i during the summer months, when family members place flowers and food on the graves of ancestors and friends and recite the nembutsu, an expression of appreciation, before the family altar.


© Photo: Melvin M. Takahashi

The centerpiece of the ceremony is the bon dance.
It is believed that the first bon dances were performed in the fields where the immigrants labored, and in between houses on the plantation. Later dances were held in temple courtyards. As work schedules began to conform to the Western five-day week, bon dances began to be scheduled for weekends. The bon dance is a way of expressing gratitude to ancestors and loved ones no longer here. It is a way of reflecting upon the preciousness and fragility of this life. Even though the sense of loss of family and loved ones is strong, a festive mood prevails at the dance.

Although the dance nearly died out with the onslaught of anti-Japanese fervor that swept Hawai`i during the '40s, a post WW II event spurred its revival in 1951 when four Japanese-American veterans' groups sponsored a bon dance to honor the war dead from Hawaii. That revival was also powered by tourism and the convergence of several island traditions: interfaith services, interracial marriages, racial harmony, and bon dance clubs.

Today the bon dancers are not only Japanese Buddhists, but Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and native Hawaiian, Protestant and Catholic. Bon dance clubs in recent years have enlivened the bon dance tradition. Each bon dance club specializes in the music and dance of one of the prefectures of Hawaii's immigrants. Some clubs provide musicians and group of dancers to lead the dancing, while others provide only the music.

Over the years, the ceremony and the practice of Buddhism itself underwent significant change to adapt to the islands' multicultural society. The 23-page essay submitted as part of the project explores the history of that transformation and the present place of the Obon in Hawaiian culture.

© by Local Legacies Hawaii
http://www.loc.gov/bicentennial/propage/HI/hi_s_akaka4.html

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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

okuribi ya
jiisan baasan no
kami shiroki

sending-off fires -
Grandfather and Grandmother
their hair so white



Nobody had come this year from the neighbour's family for the celebrations. So the two of them where all alone in the apple orchard in the Western part of the estate, symbolizing the Paradise of the West, where the graves are located, to send off the ancestor's souls.

I have written a bit more on the rural family graves here:
http://happyhaiku.blogspot.com/2004/10/lonely-graves-in-mist.html

Gabi Greve, 2005

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12 Bon Lantern Haiku by Issa

同じ年の顔の皺見ゆる灯篭哉
onaji toshi no kao no shiwa miyuru tôro kana

a wrinkled face
he's my age...
lanterns for the dead

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よそ事と思へ思へど灯篭哉
yoso-goto to omoe omoedo tôro kana

someone else's affair
you think...
lanterns for the dead

... //cat.xula.edu/issa/

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13 Haiku by Issa about the Bon Festival Dance

山かげの一軒家さへおどり哉
yama kage no ikken-ya sae odori kana

an isolated house
in mountain shade
but a festival dance!

.. .. .. .. ..

踊から直に朝草かりにけり
odori kara sugu ni asa kusa kari ni keri

after the dance
right away, cutting
the morning grass

.. http://haikuguy.com/issa/

Cutting the grass and weeds in the morning, when it is still cool, is a way of doing things even nowadays. My husband also is on weed cutting duty most mornings...
Gabi Greve, Japan 2005

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Issa on the seeing-off fire

送り火や今に我等もあの通り
okuribi ya ima ni warera mo ano tôri

fires for the dead
soon enough they'll burn
for us

http://haikuguy.com/issa/

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Issa on the Buddhist Shelf for the Souls

魂棚や上座して鳴くきりぎりす
tama-dana ya jooza shite naku kirigirisu

Buddhist shelf--
in the seat of honor
a katydid chirrs

Sakuo Nakamura notes that the katydid singing in the honored place of the altar takes on the role of Issa's ancestor. The Buddhist shelf (tama-dana) is an altar for the spirits of the dead used during the Bon Festival. The Bon Festival of the Dead takes place in Eighth Month in the old lunar calendar. At this time, people light lanterns to guide their ancestors' spirits back home.

A katydid (kirigirisu) is a green or light brown insect, a cousin of crickets and grasshoppers. The males possess special organs on the wings with which they produce shrill calls. Although katydid is the closest English equivalent, many translators (such as R. H. Blyth) use the more familiar "grasshopper" and "cricket." See Haiku (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1949-1952; rpt. 1981-1982/reset paperback edition) 4.1068-69.

Tr. David Lanoue

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迎え火や山から続く村の道
mukaebi ya yama kara tsuzuku mura no michi

wellcoming fire -
from the mountain down
a road to the village
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

© 能生町・矢沢龍蔵 Yazawa Ryuuzoo
http://www.lib.itoigawa.niigata.jp/np/2003-9.htm

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水色を軒端に吊るす盆提灯　　
mizu-iro o nokiba ni tsurusu bon choochin

water-colored
hanging down from the eves -
bon lantern
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

© Keiji けいじ
http://www.suien.ne.jp/0001/chat/bon03a.htm

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少年の野太き声や盆仕度
shoonenn no nobutoki koe ya bon jitaku

the loud wild voice
of a young boy -
preparing for o-bon
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

茜由の俳句　Senyuu no haiku 　
http://homepage2.nifty.com/senyuu/haiku-2003.htm

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Related words

***** Saijiki for Buddhist Ceremonies and Events

***** Awaodori Dance (05) Japan, Bon-Odori, Bon-Dance

Bon Festival (o-bon) Japan
..... Bon Boats for Souls (shooryoobune) (05) Japan
..... Bon Flowers (bonbana) (05) Japan
..... Bon Stove (bongama) (05) Japan
..... Bon of Wind (kaze no bon) (05) Japan
..... Jizobon, Jizoo Bon (05) Japan

Bon Lanterns (bonchoochin) and other lanterns

Light offerings afloat (tooroo nagashi) (05)　

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