Launching in tandem with the Obon Festival on Saturday August 12, Okaeri (Welcome Home): The
Nisei Legacy at Shofuso will run through December 10.
Rob Buscher, 203-449-6140; rbuscher@japanphilly.org
Philadelphia, PA – On August 12, 2023 Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia will launch Okaeri (Welcome Home): The Nisei Legacy at Shofuso, a site-based multimedia exhibit telling the story of the Nisei (second-generation), American-born persons of Japanese descent, and their unique connection and contributions to Shofuso. Focusing on the early 1980s to late 1990s, this exhibit explores the Nisei leaders who organized the Friends of the Japanese House & Garden, a volunteerled non-profit organization that oversaw the restoration and maintenance of Shofuso until its merger with JASGP in 2016.
Under the Friends’ leadership beginning in the early 1980s, Shofuso became a convening space for the Japanese American community. These Friends were activists. They participated in the Redress
Movement, which advocated for a formal apology and reparations for their forced removal and mass incarceration during World War II. Through the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), they also
combated anti-Japanese hate spurred by the US-Japan Trade War and participated in multiracial coalition-building within the larger civil rights movement.
Utilizing audio and projection of never-before-seen archival footage from the 1957 installation of Shofuso, the exhibit will allow visitors to hear the stories of the Japanese American community in their
own words, through oral history recordings that have been compiled from archival interviews taken with the local Nisei in 1994 and a dozen new oral history recordings captured earlier this year. The exhibit
explores topics related to the forced removal and wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII, resettlement to Philadelphia in the postwar era, the role that arts and culture have played in local
Japanese American activist movements, and the untold labor that has gone into preserving this Philadelphia landmark.
The Okaeri exhibit will be on display throughout the rest of the 2023 season at Shofuso, and is included in the regular site admission fee. In addition to the site-based exhibition, users can also access a
curated selection of digital documents, photos, and videos related to this project at http://www.okaeri.japanphilly.org (site will go live on August 12).
Okaeri will launch in tandem with the 2023 Obon Festival taking place at Shofuso on Saturday, August 12 from 3-9pm. There is a separately ticketed lantern floating ceremony at Shofuso from 7-9pm,
otherwise regular admission rates apply. Highlights of the Obon Festival include:
- Performances by local Taiko drummers
- Participatory bon odori (festival dancing) led by the Seabrook Minyo Dancers
- Select Japanese Food and Retail Vendors
The Okaeri exhibit was made possible with financial support from The Japanese American Community Foundation, The George and Sakaye Aratani CARE Award, and UCLA’s Asian American Studies
Center. Additional funding was provided by the Japanese American Citizens League. To request interviews and more information, contact: Rob Buscher, 203-449-6140; rbuscher@japanphilly.org
ADDITIONAL EVENTS
Philadelphia Obon Festival
Saturday, August 12, 3 – 7 PM
Obon is a Japanese Buddhist festival celebrating and remembering the ancestors. Each August, people return to their hometowns to remember the dead and reunite with loved ones. Obon is celebrated with regional dances called bon odori along with dances and other cultural celebrations. The Philadelphia Obon Festival includes bon odori folk dances with Seabrook Minyo Dance Group, and taiko drumming performances by KyoDaiko, Hoh Daiko (Seabrook Buddhist Temple) and Casual Fifth. Attendees can also enjoy arts and crafts, a yukata dressing station, as well as a vendor market. The event will take place outside of Shofuso and is free and open to the public. Regular admission is
required to visit Shofuso, and a separate ticket is required to participate in the Obon Lantern Lighting Ceremony.
Obon Lantern Lighting Ceremony
Saturday, August 12 & Saturday, August 19, 7 – 9 PM
The Lantern Floating Ceremony continues a new Shofuso tradition to light lanterns and float them on the pond to remember those no longer with us. Typically, in Japan, people return to their hometowns to celebrate Obon each year. Families gather, clean their graveyard, the shrine in the house and light the lanterns to welcome the spirits home. After the spirits spend a few days with family, the bon odori dancers form a circle under the lanterns to guide the spirits back to the otherworld.
Non-Members: $30 with lantern, $20 without lantern | JASGP Members: $20 with lantern, $10 without lantern. Members must sign in to receive the $10 discount.
Find more info at japanphilly.org/obon.
The Parkside Journal 