Life Care Center to hold bon dance

Life Care Center of Hilo invites the community to its annual bon dance on Friday, Aug. 17, beginning with a short service by Higashi Hongwanji at 6 p.m., followed by bon dancing to music by the Hilo Bon Dance Club. Project Dana representatives from eight local Buddhist temples will demonstrate traditional dances from 6:15-7:30 p.m. Refreshments will be available.

For the eighth year in a row, Executive Director Fred Horwitz and Activity Director Lee Ann Iv, have continued to expand the event to include the community.

Bon dances began as a religious celebration honoring ancestors who return to visit the living. After a religious service, the event becomes a social activity full of music, dancing and food.

According to the late Ruth Fujimoto of Hilo, the first bon dance ever held on the Big Island was at Five Miles in Kaumana.

This inaugural event was held in front of the Japanese school on gravel-covered ground. The young men of both Four Miles and Five Miles got together and went from house to house for donations. With that money, they built a yagura, a platform on very high posts for the singers and musicians. They told everyone that there would be a bon dance that Saturday night.

“The women got together, early in the morning, to make musubi (triangular rice balls) and koko (sliced pickle radish). Mr. Kaikichi Tamane was in charge of the music. Mrs. Kaku Chonan was to beat the drum, while Mrs. Sato was to sing the folk songs for the dance,” said Fujimoto. “The first dance we learned was the Iwakuni Ondo, taught by the older women.

“We all wore yukata (cotton kimono) and flat straw slippers. During the second annual bon dance, everyone got cotton towels properly stenciled ‘Kaumana’ in Japanese alphabet.”

Horwitz said the center believes in the importance of tradition, and is pleased that Life Care can present the dance for center residents, their family members, the staff and the community.