The Jodo Mission Bon Dance and Hawaii's Nikkei Community
Bibliography Type
Sole Author
Author
Sunao Goto
OwnerRoles
 
Summary
The author stayed at the College of Education University of Hawaii at Manoa as a visiting scholar from April to September 2017 and had the privilege to present his research at the end of his stay. This paper briefly introduces the presentation that he gave at the university on September 21st 2017. The research question of this study aims to discover roles that the Jodo Mission O-bon services which is a major local activity play in the Nikkei community in Hawaii. Phase 1 of this research which the author conducted at Jodo Mission temples on three different islands in Hawaii indicates that the maintenance of temples itself has become challenging due to the drastic decline in parishioner numbers except for one temple; Lahaina Jodo Mission in Maui. He focused on Lahaina Jodo Mission in Phase 2 and learned that Japanese newcomers (recent immigrants) have played an active role in the Nikkei community.