The Japanese American Bon Odori has become a part of Nikkei life anywhere Japanese Americans have settled in the United States, but its ethnographic history has largely been unrecorded. An unofficial group of Obon aficionados, however, have been working to preserve the history of Bon Odori in America and have put together an exhibit in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Opened July 1, “American Bon Odori: Dancing in Joy and Remembrance” at the National Japanese American Historical Society, features a history of Obon in the United States along with an exhibition of festival materials from throughout the years.

Jane Naito, a member of the Buddhist Churches of America Archive Committee and a member of the Buddhist Temple of Alameda, co-curated the exhibit with Wynn Kiyama, a researcher based in Hawai‘i.

She sourced the collection on display from San Francisco Bay Area Buddhist temples. The chochin (paper lanterns) came from the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, while a collection of geta (traditional raised wooden sandals) came from several communities, as did the uchiwa (round fans) and the happi (decorative coats). She highlighted how the look of Obon paraphernalia has changed over the years, especially as major Japanese American household names like Kikkoman and the Japanese-affiliated banks sponsored various events.

“(Uchiwa) are traditionally a round fan that we use in Obon dance, typically is the first Obon dance and the last Obon dance in a series. And traditionally, they’re made out of silk fabric, but these are all made out of just bamboo, maybe plastic and paper,” she said. “And in the past, they were all kind of sponsored by different groups, like the banks or Kikkoman, Ajinomoto, and so you have one side with the drawing and one side with the advertising. But in more recent years, we’ve had more commemorative uchiwa celebrating a temple’s anniversary or event.”

The collection includes an old obi sewn in camp. According to Naito, the obi is on loan from Reiko Iwanaga, whose mother sewed it using material ordered through the Sears Roebuck catalog while the family was incarcerated at Granada (Amache) concentration camp in Colorado.

The history of American Bon Odori started with the Rev. Yoshio Iwanaga, Reiko Iwanaga’s late father-in-law, teaching the practice in California in the 1930s. Meanwhile, the sash and interpretive panels delve into the history of Obon through the wartime incarceration. The history, researched by Kiyama, highlights how the practice was continued during the war.

“Bon Odori happened in around half of the euphemistically called ‘assembly centers,’ the temporary detention centers, and then all 10 of the War Relocation Authority camps, as well as some of the other camps that we don’t often hear about, those administered by the Department of Justice, like the Santa Fe internment camp,” Kiyama told the Nichi Bei News via an online call.

Kiyama said the research initially came together as he delved into the history of Obon in America while he was a musician in the Lower East Side of New York.

“So when I lived in New York, I had a band that was called ‘Happy Fun Smile.’ And we did old fashioned Japanese music, … and we wanted to end each show with Bon Odori,” Kiyama said. “I started to transcribe and look into those old scratchy record music, “Tokyo Ondo” and “Kagoshima Ohara Bushi,” “Fukushima Ondo,” all of those. And I was surprised at just how little I was able to find.”

With a dearth of information and an academic mind, Kiyama began seeking out more information on his own. His search led him to Reiko Iwanaga, the recently retired long-time instructor for San Jose’s Bon Odori, as well as Julie Yumi Hatta, who was then employed at the Buddhist Churches of America. Together they formed the American Bon Consortium.

“It’s a very informal collective between Wynn, Reiko and myself. And we kind of came together before 2019,” Hatta, who independently helped organize the various efforts, said.

With the World Buddhist Women’s Convention gathering in San Francisco in 2019, the consortium worked to present some Obon history at the gathering. Kiyama created a series of historical panels, also on display in the current exhibit for the conference while Iwanaga helped organize a public Bon Odori at the Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco.

The public dance display was a success and the Yerba Buena Gardens wished to continue the display, but the pandemic cut short those plans for several years. With the 125th anniversary of the Buddhist Churches of America this year, however, Hatta said it was an auspicious time to re-engage and revive the project.

While Obon and its dancing is a Buddhist tradition, Kiyama and Hatta said the annual practice has become a more widespread part of Japanese American culture and beyond throughout the years. This originated with the wartime incarceration, where non-Buddhists and Buddhists increasingly co-mingled in the concentration camps. The annual Obon became a community gathering for Japanese Americans.

“Personally, even though I did grow up in a church community, I didn’t really look at it as a Buddhist experience,” Hatta said. “It’s just what you do, and it is connected to your family or community and your food, and just that sense of, ‘this is a unique place,’ comfortable, very, very memorable, and identifiable to many.”

Kiyama meanwhile noted the practice has become more ethnically diverse over the years as well, especially starting in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Certain temples started to innovate their Obon festivals, particularly the Senshin Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles. Rev. Mas Kodani worked with the songwriter and activist Nobuko Miyamoto … to create this body of work of new American Obon dance songs, written in a combination of English and Japanese, and — recently English, Japanese and Spanish — which really speaks to the growing community of people attending Obon,” Kiyama said, noting an equally eclectic group gathering in cosmopolitan New York City.

Through that growth in diversity, Hatta and Kiyama both recognized an even newer change to how Obon is celebrated in the community as events like Queer Obon in Los Angeles and BonPop in San Francisco aim to attract a bigger community of people to join in on the dancing.

“Recently, in Northern California and Southern California, there have been Bon dance events that highlight the queer community,” Kiyama said. “And so those are spaces that use Bon dance in new, innovative ways. And so this year, this happens to be the 125th year of the founding of the Buddhist Churches of America. So at this moment, I find it very exciting to be a Bon dance fan, because Bon Odori is being danced by a larger community than we seen in its history, and I’m excited to see where it goes in the next 125 years.”

The “American Bon Odori: Dancing in Joy and Remembrance” exhibit is on display at the National Japanese American Historical Society’s Peace Gallery, 1684 Post St. in San Francisco’s Japantown. The exhibit will host a workshop on Bon Odori Saturdays, Aug. 3 with Reiko Iwanaga and Sept. 7 from 1 to 2 p.m. at the gallery with Nobuko Miyamoto. A public dance will take place Sept. 8 at the Yerba Buena Gardens Great Lawn located on Mission Street between Third and Fourth Streets in San Francisco from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information visit, www.njahs.org/events or call (415) 921-5007.