Obon Festival

We had a family of five that left in the middle of the Obon holiday. Our new customers arrived a day before that. Luckily the family of five were from Hawaii and of Japanese descent. They could speak a little Japanese which helped make the night at our home with Tomoe's father and niece one of the funnest of the entire "tour".

It's too bad the family couldn't stay another day because they missed out on our local Obon festival. This is by far the biggest event of the year here. EVERYONE was back home for the holiday and the bath was more crowded than I had ever seen it. I was supposed to be practicing for a part in the festival ceremonies, but work caused me to miss so many of the nightly practices that I ended up stepping down.

The part I was to practice for was either playing the flute or drums for the "shishi" dance. This is a mask that is supposed to represent a female lion. Apparently this is a tradition passed from the Chinese influence on Japan, as there are no lions here. A nearby shuraku (hamlet) has a male lion and I am told that the dance is a lot more violent.

While I did not take part in the shishi dance, I was also recruited by the folks in our "kumi" which is like a city block - although there are no blocks here - to help carry our lantern through the streets as the flutists played on and people left their houses to follow the procession to the local shrine.

I had not realized how involved everyone is at a local festival like this. From the nightly practices for the people who participate in the shishi dance, to a 6 am wake-up call by drumming at the local shrine where there is a ceremony followed by the men of the community setting up all of the lanterns and tents and anything else needed for the festival that night.

• 3 weeks before: Nightly practice begins for people involved in the shishi dance and ceremony to cleanse all the houses of the village of evil spirits.
• 2 nights before: Obon festivals begin in other hamlets. Everyone wants us to come to theirs.
• Morning of our hamlet's festival: I am awakened at 6am by the sound of the drum coming from the local shrine. Only later do I find out that I was supposed to be present at the ceremony followed by hanging lanterns and other preparations for the night's festivities with the other men of the village. (women will make the god jealous and cause bad luck)
• 10 am: I join the men of my kumi (the 7 or so houses at the end o our road) to help build our kasaboko (pictured above) which I will then carry through the streets in a procession with the other kumis' kasabokos
• 10:30 am: We gather for beer, sake, and lots of food in the living room of the kumi-cho (the person in charge of collecting fees and hosting gatherings for the kumi. This duty is passed from house to house each year.) The wife of the kumi-cho is allowed to join this because she cooked the food and has to keep our beer glasses topped off.
• 7 pm I am told to meet at the kumi-cho's house again to carry the kasaboko, but that was mis-information. I run frantically through the village looking for everyone as the sound of the flutes and drums signals the start of the procession.
• 7:30 pm Luckily the procession starts on the other side of the village from another shrine where I have found the kasaboko waiting. Once the procession arrives here, everyone will light the lanterns and walk together to the main shrine.
• 8:00 pm Lots of beer and takoyaki as the shishi begins its dance. Followed by a cucumber eating contest (I lost) and a raffle (I won a garden hose)
• 8 am the following day We are awoken by the sound of drums and flutes again. Our neighbor comes over to warn us that we have 20 minutes to clean the entrance and living room because the shishi is visiting every house in the hamlet to do a dance inside the living room that will keep us free from evil spirits for another year. It takes them all day to visit every house.
• 2 pm The men of the hamlet gather again at the shrine for a closing ceremony with a Shinto priest. After the ceremony everyone drinks a cup of sake and we move to another shrine down the road for another smaller ceremony, and another cup of sake.
• 3 pm We are supposed to clean-up the shrine grounds, but its raining so we postpone it until tomorrow.
• 7 pm Those who were part of the shishi procession take a bus to the nearby town for a well-deserved otsukare-sama dinner with lots of booze and some "companion" women who have been brought in from as far as 2 hours away to help pour beer and laugh at the men's jokes.