The garage on the first floor of Kenichi Kubota’s used car and parts dealership is something of a neighborhood hangout, where children often gather after school. Piles of board games are tucked under a table, and tennis rackets hang on the wall. For those who want to make some noise, guitar amps are available, as well as drums made from old tires the shop has no shortage of.
Things get lively around here every August around the Bon holidays, when a small festival is held along the street facing Kubota’s business in Tatekawa, an area in Tokyo’s eastern Sumida Ward that’s home to dozens of used auto parts shops. On the day of the festivities, a mikoshi, or portable shrine, is hoisted on the shoulders of happi coat-wearing adults and carried through the neighborhood, where food stalls are set up to tempt the locals.
Before dusk, a makeshift bandstand is assembled for the musicians leading the main event: a Bon odori, or Bon dance, traditionally performed to console the spirits of ancestors believed to return to their living families at that time of the year. Many of the performers are youth who have practiced drumming under a program Kubota introduced years ago to revive this particular festival, which was once on the verge of extinction.