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Obon Walking Tour
See Obon-related temples & Obon preparations
This month's walking tour passes by or through many locations associated with preparations for the Obon or Festival of the Dead. Ideally, this walk should be done in the early morning or late afternoon before Obon (Aug. 16th), especially between August 7th and 10th, when the pottery fair lines Gojo Street (see pg 9 to learn more about the event) and a number of temples in the area hold special events. However, even if you miss the pottery fair, this walk is sure to please.
Once a year, at Obon in August, the spirits of the dead return to their descendant's homes. This walk is more about welcoming the spirits than it is about sending them home. A visit to any of Kyoto’s major graveyards on the 16th will yield glowing images of how to send off or guide the spirits back to the other world (see pg 3 & 4 for details).
As part of the welcoming process, the family altar is decorated with fruit and lotus flowers, and the ceramic dishes used in the altar are traditionally replaced. Moreover, the family grave is cleaned up and offerings of flowers and incense and quite often alcohol are arranged on the grave by the family itself or the monks of the temple that oversee the graveyard.
Major stops along the Obon walk
1) Rokuhara Mitsu-ji Temple
Founded in 963 by the priest-saint Kuya. It is the 17th station for pilgrims touring the 33 holy places dedicated to Kannon in western Japan. The temple has an exquisite candle-lit lantern ceremony (8/8-10, 16). North of the main hall you will see a water trough and people pouring water over a number of Buddhist images. The water in this trough comes from the temple’s original well, said to have reached all the way to the world inhabited by the dead.
2) Saifuku-ji Temple
This temple is home to a large collection of Jizo. Jizo, usually wearing a handmade red bib, can be seen all over Japan: at road crossings, in groups in temple grounds, and in cemeteries. This deity protects small children. And people often make offerings at these statues for the spirits of children that were stillborn, miscarried (or aborted, as is so common in modern times). The Jizo is also the patron saint of travelers, and this is why you will often see them at the crossroads of ancient roads and in every neighborhood in Japan (as we, the living, are traveling between worlds).
3) Rokudo Chinno-ji Temple
Try to visit this temple August 7-10, when the big pottery fair is on. At this time, the temple grounds are packed with stalls selling all kinds of things used on the altar at home, on graves, and then, of course, stuff to eat and drink. Many of the stalls lining the entrance to the temple sell the branches of a special kind of Chinese pine (called koyamaki), that are supposed to attract the dead and give them something to hold on to as they climb from their world to ours.
Dance for the Dead
A popular part of the Obon festival, the fascinating Japanese Buddhist inspired Nembutsu Odori dance developed in the Kamakura period (1185-1333). The dance is a way to offer spiritual assurance to the living, respect to the dead (who return from the spirit world twice a year at the New Year and in mid-August, to visit their living descendants). Despite its esoteric origins, nembutsu odori quickly developed into a popular village event as a way to welcome, console and then again send off the spirits of loved ones. All nembutsu odori are of the so-called wa-odori (circle dance) variety, with the dancers moving in a large circle around the spirits in the center. However, since the dance is performed essentially for the dead, the dance is rather solemn. Some dancers chant while moving slowly around the empty center of the circle. In ancient times, the male dancers would dress up as women and wear hats to cover their faces as a way to prevent the spirits from getting too attached to the dancers and the world of the living. For detailed Kyoto nembutsu event information, see pg 4.
2008 Ocotber
Published on the 1st
of every month.
The 225th issue, since 1987.