Huge community dance showcased at San Jose's traditional Obon Festival

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- San Jose's Obon Festival is the largest of its kind in the U.S.

The festival honors loved ones who have passed away, but that's only part of what makes it so special.

"The Obon Festival is seen as a big party," said Rinban Gerald Sakamoto, who is the head minister of San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin, which organizes the annual event.

The festival's big attraction is the traditional Bon Odori, in which hundreds of people perform a community dance.

"The dance portion is a visual symbolism of what the day is. It's a lot of joy and a lot of feeling, like I belong to a community," said Japantown resident Brittany Sicat.

She was one of hundreds of people who crowded into the multipurpose room at the Buddhist temple to practice some of the dances.

Many of the dancers will be dressed in yukata, a lighter version of the traditional kimono, but that is not required to participate.

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The festival is commemorates a sacred Buddhist scripture that tells the story of a monk who saw his dead mother as a hungry ghost who could not satisfy her appetite, because everything she touched would set on fire. Unable to help with prayer, the monk asked Buddha, or Shakyamuni, for help.

"The instructions were not to meditate more, but to prepare a feast for your friends. Do something for your community," Sakamoto said. "When he did that, he went back to meditation and saw that his mother was released from this realm of hungry ghosts. And it's this dancing for joy for the release of his mother that is reflected in the dances that we have at Obon."

Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga created a lot of the dances used at the festival. She taught Bon Odori for 25 years at Buddhist Church Betsuin in San Jose before retiring.

"We dance in joy and gratitude to our ancestors. In Japan, they dance to one number. We dance to many," Iwanaga said.

Last month she was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment of the Arts for her work to preserve Japanese folk dance and evolve it for new generations.

"The dances have been simplified so that everyone can enjoy them. To see it evolve and into American Obon is exciting," Iwanaga said.

She first learned the dance in a Japanese-American concentration camp during World War II. She was four when her family was forcibly moved from San Jose to the Granada War Relocation Center, a concentration camp in Amache, Colorado.

The mass incarceration devastated San Jose's Japantown.

"For many people, everything was gone -- businesses, homes. You lost everything," Sakamoto said.

Those who returned found refuge in the temple, which the community built a few years before the start of World War II. After the war, it served as a shelter.

"The pews were taken out, and it was used as a sleeping quarters while people could get reestablished," Sakamoto said.

San Jose's Japantown is one of only three left in the United States. That makes the festival that much more significant.

"It is a recognition for all that came before us," Iwanaga said.

The San Jose Obon Festival will be held on Saturday, July 12 from noon to 10 p.m. and on Sunday, July 13 from noon to 9 p.m. on 5th Street between Taylor and Jackson Streets.

The Bon Odori dance begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

The Bon Odori dance opens and closes with a thankful prayer to the Buddha by the head minister of the temple. This will be Rinban Gerald Sakamoto's last time leading it. He's retiring after 39 years at the church.

"The history of Japanese Americans , the difficulties, the challenges that they face, helps to shape that identity. It is not one that is bitter or one that is to exclude other people. They have an understanding of what they themselves went through. Hopefully it is open and welcoming," he said.

For a complete list of festival events, visit the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin website.