Posted on: Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Different paths of bon dance

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Bon dancing isn't likely to replace the hula as Hawai'i's most popular art form, but it was alive and well Saturday at Hawaii's Plantation Village in Waipahu for the kickoff of the new season.

Yvet Remus, a Mililani resident born in France, will attend every O-Bon festival on the west side of the island right through to the end of August.

She told me something I never knew: Hawai'i has invented a new way to celebrate O-Bon that's different from Japanese tradition. Remus discovered this while visiting Japan. She asked where the next bon dance would be held.

"Nobody knew what I was talking about, because they have only one," she said. "It's a national festival (like the Fourth of July).

"Japanese immigrants in Hawai'i worked in different sugar plantation camps. The Buddhist church didn't organize until 1898. There wasn't anybody to decide when to hold the O-Bon festival so each plantation camp held its own. That's why we have so many bon dances on different dates."

O-Bon is a once-a-year religious observance that includes commemorative services as well as the more familiar celebration to welcome the spirits of departed ones. People play music and dance. When the season is over, you send the spirits back by setting paper boats adrift with candle-lit lanterns.

The 'Aiea Taiheji Yagura Gumi is what's happened to the 'Aiea plantation camp bon-dance orchestra. The oldest member is Gunji Tachino, 77, who started beating the taiko drums about 20 years ago after he found himself pounding out the rhythm on the ground at bon dances.

Now his 13-year-old grandson, Kevin, is a member of the orchestra and his daughter-in-law, Susan, plays the flute and sings. She explained that the orchestra has only one bon-dance song but many verses. They're about the moon and rice-planting and the spirits.

Todd Imamura, age 36 and the start-off drummer, knows seven verses. But he cheats. He has a little slip of paper that he can hide in his palm when he's on stage. The troupe goes into training in February for the start of the O-Bon festival season in June.

"I'm retired from the big drum," said Tachino. "I don't have the stamina anymore."

The big taiko drum and seven small ones belong to the temple. They are all in use, plus six bamboo flutes, when the orchestra is on the stage. The players take turns so they can rest.

Like hula, bon dancing attracts both men and women and people from other ethnic groups. Howard Sugai, who started when he was 13, is now 50. He drafted his wife, Gayle, who also plays the flute and sings. Wesley Ho and Darren Lee, two members of the orchestra, are of Chinese descent.

Imamura explained, "The Okinawa and the 'Ewa groups sing a different song. The beat is a little different, too. Ours is called the Fukushima style. 'Ewa's is called the Niigata style."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.