Japanese Festival of the Dead - (Obon) Mitama Festival at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo

Obon is the Japanese Festival of the Dead in which Japanese believe the souls of the departed return home for a brief while. Obon is a Buddhist tradition but in the native Shinto faith there is the Mitama Festival which is in association with Obon. Mitama means soul of a deceased person.

At Yasukuni Shrine they celebrate Mitama/Obon Festival in July. Although a place of Shintoism, Yasukuni pretty does much of what traditional Obon celebrations do particularly Bon Odori (dances) and Toro Nagashi (place paper lanterns in the water). The only difference is the Mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine) which they march up to the shrine swaying and chanting.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• japan
• tokyo
• festival
• Obon
• religion
• spiritualism
• Yasukuni
• culture
• Yasukuni Shrine
• Japanese culture
• matsuri
• Festival of the Dead
• Mitama Festival

[nydaimyo]

Japanese Halloween?

[RoninDave]

@nydaimyo kind of with the idea of spirits coming back which was the original idea of the Celts from which Halloween came from except with the Celts they also thought evil and/or mischievous spirits came into our world and needed to be scared off hence the origin of halloween masks.

[SunsetMoon91]

So interesting! :)

[Shadowdancer21b]

Thanks again Dave!

[tanukisan666]

How unusual to see so many women carrying the mikoshi!  But then Dave has that knack..... Thanks again for posting another way cool video!

[Masa2525s]

Hello ! , You already have visited many festivals in Japan . Great ! I have never

visited this time , and Nebuta . Please enjoy Japanese life !!

[APOKALYPSE34]

awesome video yet again sir!

[Jimaera]

Your videos are the best, Dave. Watching them always makes me long for Japan.

[ladyhistorian]

Thank you Dave. That was fun to watch.



[7Dante7]

Thanks Dave. Outstanding camera work and video editing as always.