“OBON”, a Family Reunion Holiday

Almost all the relatives met up at the Yoshino house at the occasion of “Obon”. No one lives at the house, and they lives in neighboring areas or around Tokyo. It’s not a typical “Obon” story, but I wrote up what it’s like as an example.

 

“OBON”, A FAMILY REUNION HOLIDAY

Obon is a Japanese Buddhist custom for commemorating one's ancestors. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years. Through the course of mass-migration into Tokyo, the custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars.

It falls on several dates around August 15 each year. It’s not statutory holidays, but a lot of people take days off. Meanwhile, a lot of festivals including traditional dance events are held in every region of the country, so long-distance express (Shinkansen) and airline flights are crowded, and the expressways from/to Tokyo have traffic tie-ups. It’s a custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors, but amusing events, rather than gloomy. Some writers likened it to the Halloween of the West. If you're interested, please read : https://savvytokyo.com/obon-the-japanese-festival-of-the-dead/

According to a questionnaire survey conducted by a travel agency in 2018, 56.1 % of respondents said the office was closed during the Obon holidays. The frequent ways of spending holidays were: 1) relaxing at home (38.0%), returning home (14.0%), overseas traveling (13.9%), domestic trip other than returning home (12.8%), still working (11.7%), and so on. For the survey, please refer to the link (in Japanese):
https://www.skygate.co.jp/sa_city/mqr/042.html

OUR OBON PLAN

In our case, the ancestral family places are already not active, and relationship among relatives isn’t tied tightly, particularly for me. They are on relatives on the maternal side. Like surnames are basically succeeded for generations by the paternal line even today, women are considered to move from their natal home to the husbands’ when marring. In addition, my mum and I live far.

The family reunion of that size was for the first time in these years. One reason is the death of grandaunt, and it’s getting difficult for his brother (my granduncle) living next to Tokyo to travel a long distance. So, the relatives decided to meet up while one have a chance.

The agenda of the day was: 1) meeting up and having lunch at the house of the late grandaunt, a 20-minute car ride from the Yohsino house; 2) a visit to the grave and the Yoshino house; and 3) dinner and stay at a hotel at Mt. Yoshino.

Probably not a few families spend the Obon holidays in a similar way. They stay at their ancestral houses.

VISIT TO THE GRAVE

My granduncle has progressing symptoms of dementia and a faraway look, but the childhood memory obviously picked him up. He goes on and on labyrinthian sloping paths without confusion.

Then we visited our ancestors' graves in a small mountain/hill. Such private burial sites have some legal problems in terms of the Graveyards and Burials Act. The Act is meant to draw legal boundaries between abandonment of a corpse and burial, as well as limit operating owners of the public graveyards (cemetery garden). Actually, there are countless private burial sites in traditional villages, as if it were a matter of course. But the authorities usually tolerate such grey but unmalicious cases, which predate the act (entered into force in 1948).

From our provate graveyard

 

FIRST LOVE OF 70 YEARS' STANDING

To be honest, I’m not familiar with the mindset of people living in this village. Interesting was the episode that a group consisting of about 10 relatives including my granduncle and me crashed the house of my granduncle’s first crush without any appointment. 

Visiting the house, we’re not sure whether it’s her house or not. Just my uncle guessed so, as it could be identified to some extent by age and name in such a small village. We rang the doorbell, and a lady answered. Indeed, the lady is supposed to be a daughter of my granduncle’s first crush, though one's first crush was in a nursing home for the elderly. He and his nephew confessed to a lady that he had liked her mum about 70 years ago. The lady is a daughter between his first crush and another man. It sounded surreal, rather than romantic (like The Theatre of the Absurd) to me. She welcomed us and served iced coffee for us. People there are all easygoing. My granduncle left a famous confection of Yamanashi, where he lives.