O-bon ceremony in Japan

Hello, I’m Tatsuya, one of the internship members of Focus Japan. In Japan, it is now the season of “Obon” or a Buddhism ceremony to pray for the ancestors of each family. I live in Kobe alone, but now, I am back in my hometown, Nara. I visited my grandparents’ grave with my family today.

Let me introduce the Obon ceremony. This ceremony is to pray for our family’s ancestors around July 15^th. However, today’s Obon ceremony is held in around July in some areas, an in August 15^th in some other areas. Why?

 That’s because, now, we use the solar calendar here, but we used to use the lunar calendar until about 140 years ago. (Of course, August 15^th in the solar calendar may not exactly be the equivalent of July 15^th in the lunar calendar, though.) That’s why Obon ceremony is held either in July or August. The areas follow the traditional lunar calendar hold the ceremony in July, and the others in August follow the solar calendar.

Well, what do we do on Obon? It, again, depends on region, but at my hometown, we have mainly two ceremonies. One is to offer prayers to our ancestors in front of my family’s Buddhist altar. It is believed the souls of our ancestors come back to this world on the Obon day, so we offer foods to welcome the souls. The other is to go to family’s grave and also offer flowers and prayers.

This is the temple which my ancestors are enshrined.

Although, I was totally indifferent in these events, I’ve got interested in them as I grew older. Throughout this internship, I have much opportunity to review our daily lives.

Japanese family crest

In Japan, most of houses have their own "Family crest". This is my house's. In ancient times in Japan, when some clans were very strong, some clans who move to local region created their own family name from their lands to distinguish the same clans in other areas. This is the origin of surname in Japan. Family crest was created as the symbol of house. Family crest usually shows the family name.

Alcove and scroll paintings

This is an alcove of a house. This is a section of Japanese room, functioning as an ornament. While almost all areas of Japanese room is filled with tatami mats, the alcove has a wooden floor and some scroll paintings. Many people enjoy the arts on the alcove. Though this is a typical Japanese traditional interior style, there are less and less houses without alcove.

Rice Paddy Field

Rainy season passed away. There are many paddy fields in Japan, and the rice is gradually growing! We usually plant the rice on the end of April or May. Rice gain much nutrition from paddy and rain, especially in rainy season. They are usually cut 
in September, and we can store the rice in whole year.