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HPR’s Obon Special

Kyle Nishioka / Flickr
Kyle Nishioka / Flickr

Hawaii Public Radio’s "Obon" is an hour long show about the annual Obon festival, celebrated every summer by millions of Japanese and others, in Japan and other countries where the Japanese have settled.  From June to September, there will be dozens of Obon festivals in communities on all Islands. 

 The program was written and narrated by Keith Haugen, and first aired on Hawai`i Public Radio in 2007.  Haugen, who lived in Japan for eight years as a young man, built the HPR program around about 20 of most popular minyo (folk songs) that are part of the Bon Odori dances.  The program details the background, meaning and history of Obon dances.  Although the festivals have Buddhist origins, they are now popular with people of other faiths, all circling a musicians' tower in graceful rhythm as taiko drummers and shakuhachi players provide the haunting sounds of traditional Japanese music.  Haugen also explains the traditional instruments used to accompany the songs.  It'll make you want to get up and dance.

A complete listing of this years Obon Festival on Oahu, Maui, and All Islands.

Music playlist:

  1. Hietsuki Bushi
  2. Kiso Bushi
  3. Kuroda Bushi
  4. Kappore
  5. Tanko Bushi
  6. sound of a shamisen
  7. sound of a kane
  8. sound of a taiko drum
  9. Soran Bushi
  10. Donpan Bushi
  11. Aizu Bandaisan
  12. Sado Okesa
  13. Yagi Bushi
  14. Kiso Bushi
  15. Yosakoi Bushi
  16. Kuroda Bushi
  17. Otemoyan
  18. Itsuki no Komoriuta
  19. Kagoshimia Ohara Bushi
  20. Asadoya Yunta (Okinawan)
  21. Kiyari Kuzushi
  22. Hole Hole Bushi, 5:59 (written by Japanese women laborers in the cane fields of Hawai`i. They would strip (holehole) the leaves from the cane, in days before fields were burned.
  23. Kappore
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