Project 760 Productions

[SPOT] Los Angeles 2012 Obon Festival

Derek Dyrenforth - Contributing Writer

Nestled near the heart of Little Tokyo in Downtown Los Angeles is the Higashi Honganji Temple. To many regulars to the area, it’s often a quiet Buddhist temple but for the weekend of July the 27th to the 28^th it was anything but quiet. On this particular weekend an Obon Festival was held on the temple grounds. The Obon (or “Bon” by some) is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor one’s ancestors, in Japan you will find temple grounds and street corners alive with a variety of live acts, dances, food stands and carnival games.

For the Obon Festival in Little Tokyo, the best description of the venue is that it was a combination of the traditional and modern. As I drew closer to the temple ground, the first thing I was greeted by a tune from surf rock legend, Dick Dale by one of the live bands. Such a sound appropriately set a ‘California’ vibe for this festival in LA. Most of the bands primarily stuck to 1950s-1980s rock music which the attendees seemed to enjoy, myself included. While the music may be “old” to some, all ages seemed to enjoy it. Proof of that was when I and other attendees saw a child no older than four years old doing ‘the twist’ to the song “Pretty Woman” as a small crowd awed at the absolute cuteness.

There were also more traditional Japanese performances during the festivities that gave me a warm reminder of my experience of Obon such as taiko drums, martial art exhibitions and Minyo bands. However, the centerpiece of any Obon is the bon dori, a dance that is designed to welcome ancestral spirits. Attendees in Little Tokyo danced in a large circle to the infectious beating of a drum. It was interesting to see people in traditional Japanese dress such as kimono and yukata dancing alongside others in modern western clothing such as jeans and shirts.

Along with the performances there were also other activities for attendees in the form of carnival games. They were all mostly designed for young kids but there were definitely some adults that were hyped to play. One such game was a rubber duck race in which the object was to propel a rubber duck with a spray bottle past a finish line; for one “kid at heart” it was the first time I saw an adult so amped to win a toy car. There were other games like penny toss and a tic-tac-toe game by throwing softballs into squares. I was rather sad to not see my favorite game, the goldfish scoop. It’s a game that I remember seeing as kid watching Anime in which a player uses an extremely flimsy paper net to scoop a goldfish into a bowl. One’s prize is the goldfish they catch, it’s pretty much a scam since the paper in the net dissolves the second it touches water but I wanted to play it.

If performances or games aren’t your thing or you just worked up an appetite, the food at the festival was very delicious. Attendees had their choices from Japanese dishes such as somen (cold noodles), teriyaki and dango (a Japanese pastry). There were also Western dishes like burgers, hog dogs and tamales. Finishing any of those foods with a shaved ice really hit the spot when the heat started to hit hard this weekend. I tried a little bit of everything myself throughout the day and felt guilty going off my diet but felt I amazingly satisfied all the same.

Being thoroughly entertained and well fed these past two days, I definitely came out happy with attending this Obon festival. One doesn’t have to be Buddhist or even believe in sprits to have a good time. If you love fun and food and were in the area but didn’t attend, you missed out but there is always next year.

For more information about the Obon Festival and other events at the Higashi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, please visit their website at http://hhbt-la.org