Bon dance season is here! - The Garden Island

Kauai residents had the distinction of Bishop Takumi Inouye officiating when the Waimea Higashi Hongwanji Mission welcomed the first obon festival of the 2026 season last weekend. Introduced on Friday by Bryson Hiraoka, the chair and primary announcer, Inouye performed the Hastsubon service for people who passed away between last year’s bon dance and this year’s bon dance. People from all parts of the island converged on the music, dancing and fellowship that mark a bon dance on Kauai, and the plantation days-sized lot housing the church was quickly filled to overflowing along Kaumualii Highway, across from the West Kauai Technology Center. “This is our mother’s 33rd anniversary,” said Dean Nonaka of the recently opened Nonaka Bakery in Waimea Town. “We just came straight from work.” The obon festivities move across the island this Friday and Saturday to the Lihue Hongwanji Mission in Kapaia. According to information from the church’s newsletter, the Kapaia bon dance is a cash-only event with no outside food permitted. Pop-up tents will not be allowed either. Parking within the temple grounds are set aside for handicapped parking with placards, and for those with permits. Motorists should be mindful of the parking attendants’s instructions. Bon dance attendees should also be aware of the traffic monitors when crossing Kuhio Highway. Food available for purchase will include flying saucers, pronto pups, andagi, assorted bento, snacks and dinner plates. The food booths, dinner plate sales and Country Store opens at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The bon service starts at 6:45 p.m., and the bon dancing starts at 7:30 p.m. on both evenings. Bon, the shortened version of obon, is based on Buddhist scripture and Japanese folklore when people remember and celebrate the souls of deceased ancestors. It is a time of joy and happiness as demonstrated in the dancing as the spirits of the deceased are believed to return to Earth during the bon season. Children return home for the reunion with the spirits, and lanterns guide the way for the spirits. The bon tradition arrived in Hawaii with the first Japanese people who were brought over from Japan to work in the plantations. As they were housed in plantation camps, the tradition caught on with other ethnic groups in the camps because of the strong sense of community.