It Continues

Reopening after covid has not stopped the destruction of traditional Japanese events.

Whether it’s having to deal with hassles that were a part of life that we just dealt with being eliminated due to the panic that people do not want to have to deal with again now that the lockdowns lite have been lifted, the heightened concern of sei/responsibility, or something else, even more traditions of Japan are being cancelled.  Now it’s the summer time fireworks festivals.

All photos in this post are the author’s. All rights reserved.

According to the Japan Times, ten places in the Tokyo area and 22 nationwide are being cancelled this year due to complaints.  The complaints include debris from the exploded fireworks falling on private property, crowds and litter left by the crowds.  Surprised noise was not listed.

As stated by the article, these complaints are not new.  This does not surprise me as I have experienced grumpy elderly neighbors complain about kendo practice in school gymnasiums or dojos.  And while these persons and dealing with them are troublesome, as long as keiko (practice) did not run too late, was not held nightly, the complainers were respectfully told that nothing could be done and to just grin and bear it.  So why do traditional events have to be cancelled now because of the whiners?  I have my guesses, see above, but this bodes ill for the survival of dying Japanese social and cultural events.

After enduring the previously unimaginable (outside of wartime) three summers without fireworks, many areas are forced back into the darkness again.   What are the down stream effects of these cancellations?  For starters, the places that sell snacks and drinks for the viewers will continue to lose out in a huge seasonal windfall despite reopening after the panic.  Ridership of the various commuter conveyances serving the areas that once held fireworks displays will not get their traditional yearly summer bump.  The yearly gathering of the young in their neighborhoods in their yukata is gone…unless Japan comes back to its senses.  Given that they are still “requesting” residents to get boosted and calling for volunteers as young as 6 months to serve as human guinea pigs for their domestic clot shot, coming back to their senses is not even on their to do list.  But I digress.  Yatabane that serve the flowers of fire viewers are also out income.  Not to mention the companies that make the fireworks and put on the displays.    

The Yatabane my wife and I had a monja dinner on.

Two Yatabane viewed from ours off Odaiba, Tokyo Bay.

But wait, there’s more!

Not able to go to their own fireworks displays, because they have been cancelled, many though not all will attend others.  Unless the event planners were aware of this last year when they started planning, there are going to have more attendees that planned for.  Shortages in places to spread a picnic sheet, shortages in food and drink and the increased crowds will cause trouble.  Trouble that is likely to set off the complainers in that area which will undoubtably cause more cities to cancel their plans for fireworks next year.

But that’s not all!

Bon Odori is another traditional summer event.  Different regions in the country celebrate it at different times and in differing ways.  One that is quite common is the Bon Odori or the Obon dance.

Think of Obon as Japan’s Halloween; it is when the ghosts of their ancestors return.  Like we in the West, they too set out lanterns or candles.  But for very different reasons.  Our Jack-o-Lanterns are to ward off the spirts, their lanterns are to welcome and guide them home.  There are special foods and activities undertaken to entertain their ghostly guests and the dance under lanterns is one of these.

You can see some dancers on the stage but most are dancing around the stage. Couldn’t find the photos I wanted to share of that though. I think, but am not sure, that the fireworks also were or are a part of the entertainment for the deceased.  A park near our home was the venue for the local children’s group’s Bon Odori.  Despite knowing people involved, we never got advance warning that it was being held.  Instead, we would hear the music, the kids would don their yukata and jinbei and we would head on over.  They always had freshly popped popcorn for the whole family to enjoy, slushies for the kids and cold draft beer for the wife and I.  The kids would play with their neighborhood friends and the friends from day care and kindergarten.  We parents would get together and have an impromptu adhoc picnic party.   Cancelled again this year too.

Girls in Yukata.

Kids in Jinbei and Yukata at the Obon Odori festival.

After three years of lockdowns lites, they, like our matsuri group, could not get definitive word from the cognizant Chokais (neighborhood associations on steroids) on whether we were allowed to host an outdoor group event in time to begin planning.  For us it meant we had to greatly scale back our festival last October.  Their event being several months earlier, they had to cancel it last year.  This year was for a different reason.  It now costs too much; roughly 8,000 USD to rent the stage, sound system, tents and whatnot needed to provide refreshment.  We have no idea how much it used to cost, but as this would have been the first time to host this since summer 2019, it must have been much higher than in the past and more than they could manage despite the pent up demand.

Why so expensive?  There are fewer event planners in existence now.  After four years of not being able to hold any events, many companies thus engaged simply folded or found other actives they could earn money doing.  It is not known if this event will resume in the future, but it will not be held again this year for the 5th year in a row.  That’s half the life time of my oldest kid.   Do they and younger kids even have any memory of this event that they so looked forward to each year.  The future is bleak.