Letters Home: Obon Festival in Japan

This year, the annual Obon Festival in Japan is roughly from August 13-16, and it honors the spirits of one’s ancestors. It is a Buddhist holiday, so it is religious in scope, but also offers a cultural component that is widely celebrated and observed all over Japan with elaborate folk festivals with traditional dancing and fireworks displays.

The first time I experienced the Obon Holiday was in 1979 when I was a summer high school exchange student in a suburb of Tokyo called Hino. At the beginning of the holiday, my host family observed Obon formally by inviting a Buddhist priest to the house to pray at the family altar; he stayed afterward to dine with us for the evening meal, and if I remember correctly, he stayed for several hours eating, drinking, and enjoying himself.

I distinctly remember the moment when the Buddhist priest arrived because my host mother hurriedly ushered all of us outside to not only welcome him, but also to greet my host family’s deceased ancestors who were arriving at the house for the Obon holiday observance.

I remember my host mother joking, at the time, that the ancestors may think they have the wrong house with me standing alongside them, just outside the entrance, bowing and greeting them as they entered the house. I was only 17 years old so it was all very exotic, fascinating, and intriguing to me. 

I was mesmerized by the Buddhist priest’s measured cadence while he was chanting the sutras in the house, his deep voice booming throughout the house. It was all so solemn and very Japanese. However, as soon as he finished, my host mother immediately started bringing out the catered food and my host father started drinking cold beer with the priest. At this point, the culturally imposing ceremony metamorphosed into a lighthearted and fun family party.

Before the priest arrived, my host mother meticulously made preparations using muted colors of chrysanthemum flowers in and around the altar, which are the standard type of flowers used during obon, and she made little animals out of vegetables, using waribashi (disposable wooden chopsticks) as the legs. She then carefully arranged these inside the family altar along with the favorite foods and drinks of the deceased ancestors as offerings.

One of the animals is normally a horse made out of cucumbers, and a cow made out of eggplant. The symbolism is that the family wants their ancestors to arrive quickly by horse but return to the spirit realm by cow, which is much slower.

Why are foods offered to the deceased ancestors? The origin of this tradition and custom is related to one of the disciples of Guatama Buddha. This particular disciple, Mokuren, was revered for his special powers, and one day as he searched for his dead mother’s spirit, he was perplexed to find her in the “Realm of Hungry Ghosts,” wasting away and starving.

The Buddha advised him to make food offerings to Buddhist monks, which in turn would relieve his mother’s suffering in the spirit world. His efforts worked, and he was able to save his mother’s soul through his offerings, and hence the practice of making food offerings to help nourish the spirits began.

 Since Obon commemorates the visiting of one’s ancestors who temporarily return to this world for a short visit during these several days in August, much reverence and respect is afforded to the family spirits during this celebration. Ancestral portraits adorn the Buddhist altar, and specialty foods the deceased relatives enjoyed on earth are included around the altar. If the family member was a smoker, even tobacco is sometimes placed on the altar, or a cup of sake, etc.

The night before the observance with the priest, my host mother prepared a little fire in a discarded tin can that looked to be gallon-sized. She broke up little pieces of limbs from the trees in the yard, and she must have been saving throwaway chopsticks from previous meals to use as kindling.

This is a welcoming fire called mukaebi and it is lit in front of the house in order to guide the ancestral spirits back to the house from the spirit world. Some homes hang a lighted chochin (paper lantern) which serves the same purpose.

No doubt I probably annoyed my host mother with all my questions and keen interest, but I wanted to experience absolutely everything I could during my summer adventure in Japan, and Obon is such a huge event that I was determined to learn as much as I could about all the customs and traditions that were done for this very traditional and family-oriented holiday. So, I was constantly underfoot as she tried to prepare everything for the arrival of the ancestors.

In 1983, I had an opportunity to participate in a huge Obon festival in Kyoto called “Gozan Okuribi” which features huge fires on the hillsides around Kyoto in the shape of kanji (Chinese characters).  The most well-known one is on Daimonjiyama and it features the Chinese character for “big” (大).

There are a number of “fire” festivals around Japan and they all basically have the same purpose — to light the way for the spirits as they make their way back to the earth plane from the spirit world. 

At the end of Obon back in 1979, my host family traveled by train to a great uncle’s home of the family that was near the Buddhist graveyard where the family’s ancestral remains are interred.  After everyone arrived, we all carried buckets of water and brushes, along with incense and flowers, to the grave site where we took turns pouring water over the tombstone using a special hishaku (ladle) which signifies purifying the grave site by cleaning and rinsing it.

It is the living family’s duty to welcome the spirits by cleaning the gravestone thoroughly, offering presents as offerings, and lighting incense as a way to purify the area. Some of the elder members of the family prayed at the gravesite, then we all returned back to the great uncle’s house where we had yet another big dinner and drinking party with all my host family’s extended family. 

Even though my host mother dressed up to travel to the relative’s house, she changed into a more comfortable housedress to enjoy the festivities. We brought yukata (summer kimono) to change into and when it started to get dark, we walked to a local neighborhood festival where we did traditional Japanese dancing and later in the evening enjoyed beautiful fireworks near a river.

Some communities have lantern festivals at the end of Obon, where lighted lanterns or bonfires are used to help guide the ancestors back to the spirit world. These are called “okuribi.”  Communities around rivers will host a “toro nagashi” event which feature floating lanterns that help guide the spirits back to the spirit world.

Even though it has been 45 years since I experienced my first Obon holiday in Japan, as a teenager, it had a huge impact on me because to this day I can recall the entire four days as if it happened yesterday. It was during that summer that I fell in love with Japanese culture and its history, motivating me to pursue formal studies in Japanese history and culture after I entered Purdue University in 1980. 

Without an actual Japanese history program, a professor of Asian History, Dr. Leonard H.D. Gordon, consented to assist me in creating an East Asian minor where he taught me about Japanese history and culture. I am forever grateful for his generosity and kindness in instructing me independently which allowed me a chance to study more deeply about Japan.

The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed.