Obon is the Japanese Festival of the Dead in which Japanese believe the souls of the departed return home for a brief while. Obon is a Buddhist tradition but in the native Shinto faith there is the Mitama Festival which is in association with Obon. Mitama means soul of a deceased person.
At Yasukuni Shrine they celebrate Mitama/Obon Festival in July. Although a place of Shintoism, Yasukuni pretty does much of what traditional Obon celebrations do particularly Bon Odori (dances) and Toro Nagashi (place paper lanterns in the water). The only difference is the Mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine) which they march up to the shrine swaying and chanting.
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Aw man, this is pretty cool! I've heard a lot about it! 😀
Tanabata/QiXi is performed on August 8th this year due to the lunar Calendar…although I do agree that celebrating it on July 7th every year is much easier 😛
Thank you Dave. That was fun to watch.
Your videos are the best, Dave. Watching them always makes me long for Japan.
awesome video yet again sir!
How unusual to see so many women carrying the mikoshi! But then Dave has that knack….. Thanks again for posting another way cool video!
Thanks again Dave!
So interesting! 🙂
@nydaimyo kind of with the idea of spirits coming back which was the original idea of the Celts from which Halloween came from except with the Celts they also thought evil and/or mischievous spirits came into our world and needed to be scared off hence the origin of halloween masks.
OMG i love japan & japanese 😉
more like not
2:32 say hi to the camara!
When they celebrate the memory of the dead ancestors its a war crime festival because everyone in Japan, since the beginning of time was a war criminal?
The war's over now. We don't have to be controlled by 75 year old propaganda.
Awesome video! This year I'll be graduating high school and might be going to Japan with sensei and some classmates :).
So may I assume your answer is, "Yes, every one who ever lived in Japan was a war criminal"? Or is their some vague subtlety that's not coming through?
they don't worship them nor is Yasukuni Shrine solely dedicated to WWII and the war criminals. I bet you don't you don't even know when the controversy with Yasukuni Shrine began. This particularly festival predates the shrine by centuries
Yes I do. The reason why they were enshrined in the 70s has to do with Buddhist&Shinto customs regarding 33 years of Buddhist mediation on those souls. In Shintoism even spirits of enemies like Taira-no-Masakado who rebelled against the Imperial Court were placated by enshrinement so that they wouldn't bring harm to the living. By enshrining them they aren't supporting or condoning the war criminals' crimes but following their belief system
I see. You were talking about the festival, which is celebrated throughout Japan, when you actually meant the shrine itself. So I looked it up.
This festival is Obon, for all the ancestors. The ceremonies dedicated to the souls of the shrine are held in April and October.
The shrine was established in 1869 to for the souls of all those who died in service to the Emperor in the Meiji restoration and holds the souls of all those who died until 1951. Currently over 2,466,000 souls are enshrined.
This number includes 27,863 Taiwanese and 21,181 Koreans, civilian prisoners who died in Soviet slave labor camps as well as the children of the Tsushima Maru, which was mistaken for a troop transport and sank while evacuating school children from Okinawa.
And it also includes a handful of war criminals among the many soldiers who served their country, much as our soldiers served America. With 2,466,000 dead honored there it's hard to believe everyone is there specifically for a few criminals.
It's closer to celebrating 4th of July at Arlington, despite the fact that some of the people buried there committed war crimes.
I don't ascribe implicit support to people in St Louis, despite the monument to Sherman.
But there are no Nazi flags, or banners celebrating Tojo. Just a festival.
337拍子・57調の和歌があるように、奇数月の神祭(七五三はじめ1.1-3.3-5.5-7.7-9月)は縄文時代からの祭りです。文献が見つかってます。
中国からというのは逆輸入したから。孔子・秦氏の時代に上塗りされたと思います。
The obon festival is when the spirits of their ancestors come back to earth during this holiday and the celebrations are to honor their ancestors.
Why should i care about the people that created the american empire? An empire starting wars and spending billions of dollars every year on the military while the economy is in chaos? Americans honour their war dead in Iraq, Vietnam and all other wars but then cry about other countries honouring their own people and soldiers. That is americans for you, never caring about other people and won't even let other people honour their own soldiers.
in indonesia, even the matsuri organized by the Japanese Embassy (Nihon Taishikan) theres hardly any beers!!! but i always manage to smuggle a few cans inside, even a bottle of shochu once XD, yay for alcohol on matsuri!!
I've watched several of your videos and they are great but for future reference it's not called "o-bone" or "bone". It's bon like bonbons the candy. Short 'O' sound, not long. 🙂
He pronounced it wrong. The accent is not on the O, it's on the B…..