Byodoji Online · Obon Memorial Service 2026
Homecoming of the Heart
You long to return — yet you cannot.
Let our temple's inner hall hold that prayer for you.
2026 · Two periods of seven days
Homecoming of the Heart
As Obon draws near, there is a quiet moment when the heart turns toward home.
“This year, I really must go back.” “I want to visit the family grave.” “I want to put my hands together properly for that person.” And yet — work, distance, health, family circumstances — there are years when none of it goes as we hoped. Many people feel a quiet pang of regret at not being able to return.
Yet Obon, at its heart, is a time to turn one's mind toward those who have passed. More than the place where we stand, what matters most is how fully we direct our heart toward our ancestors and loved ones.
We welcome the departed and our ancestors home, prepare offerings, give thanks, dedicate the merit of our prayer, and quietly see them off again. Obon is the time when each of these gestures becomes a layer of prayer.
The Byodoji Online Obon Memorial Service holds that prayer on your behalf — gathered as a service before the Spirit Altar of our temple's inner hall — for those who cannot make the journey home or visit the family grave. From your home, while traveling, or from overseas, you may join your heart to the same service.
This Obon, let our temple welcome your “okaerinasai” — your “welcome home.”
2026 Services
The timing of Obon varies by region and by family. In Tokyo, Yokohama and other metropolitan areas, July Obon is observed; in Shikoku, Kansai and most other parts of Japan, the month-later August Obon is more common. Neither is more correct than the other. Please choose whichever fits your family's calendar, your hometown's tradition, or simply the time when it is easiest for your family to put their hands together.
Following the urban calendar of Tokyo, Yokohama and other metropolitan areas
7.10 ― 7.16 (Fri → Thu)
Held in keeping with the July Obon observed in Kanto and other urban regions, in memory of your ancestors and departed loved ones.
The month-later Obon observed across most of Japan
8.10 ― 8.16 (Mon → Sun)
Held in keeping with the August Obon observed in Shikoku, Kansai and many other regions, in memory of your ancestors and departed loved ones.
Nightly Memorial Service
Throughout the July and August Obon periods, the priests of Byodoji conduct a memorial service each evening from 8:00 PM before the Spirit Altar of the temple's inner hall. The names of the ancestors and loved ones you entrust to us are read aloud, and the merit of the service is dedicated to them.
Here is how the service unfolds, and how you might join in. If you can be present at 8:00 PM, do; if not, simply put your hands together quietly at a time that suits you.
20:00
Throughout Obon, from 8:00 PM each evening, we hold a memorial service before the Spirit Altar set in the temple's inner hall, dedicated to your ancestors and departed loved ones.
Through nightly service from 20:00, we hold this memorial carefully across the entire period.
Recitation & Dedication
Through sutra recitation and dedication, we prepare the offerings, welcome the departed, and convey our gratitude — giving form to the spirit of Obon.
Every day, throughout the period
Rather than a single observance, we hold service each evening across the Obon period — welcoming the departed, presenting offerings, dedicating the merit, and seeing them off again. We hold the entire flow with care.
What You Receive
From your computer or smartphone at home, you may join the Obon memorial held before the Spirit Altar of our temple's inner hall. Whether returning home is difficult, or going out feels uneasy, you may put your hands together from wherever you are.
The names, posthumous Buddhist names and prayer intentions you entrust to us are read aloud by a priest during the service, and the merit is dedicated to your ancestors and departed loved ones.
Family members living far apart may join the same livestream, the same service, with hearts together. Even in years when gathering in person is hard, you can share a single hour of prayer.
Throughout Obon, at 8:00 PM each evening, we hold the memorial before the Spirit Altar of the inner hall, from welcoming Obon all the way through sending Obon.
Whether your reason is work, distance, illness, caregiving, raising children, or living overseas — even when attendance is difficult, you may continue this practice in whatever form is possible for you now.
What we hold dear is the wish itself: to think of the departed, to give thanks to your ancestors, and to put your hands together. If you have a family temple (bodaiji), please honor its services and your family's customs first; in years when returning home or visiting graves is difficult, please make use of our online memorial as a complement.
Memorial
The names, posthumous Buddhist names and prayer intentions you entrust to us are read aloud at 8:00 PM each evening of the period, before the Spirit Altar of our temple's inner hall. Even from afar, you may put your hands together at the same hour.
If you request a stupa (sotoba) or memorial tablet (ihai), it is enshrined on the Spirit Altar set in our inner hall, and held there for the duration of Obon. We treasure the full flow — welcoming, holding, and seeing off.
Certificates of dedication and any requested items are sent to you in due course after the services conclude. When they reach you, please enshrine them at your home altar or in another fitting place — receiving them as an occasion to put your hands together from time to time.
Customs
The mukaebi, or welcoming fire, is a light kindled to receive ancestors and departed loved ones. “Please come home — without losing your way.” That wish is entrusted to the small flame.
The okuribi, or sending fire, is a light kindled to see them back to the world of the buddhas. “Thank you for returning to us this year as well.” With this gratitude, we see them off.
The cucumber horse carries the wish that the departed return to us swiftly. The eggplant ox carries the wish that they take their time on the journey back, and the reluctance to part. In these humble offerings, the heart that awaits a reunion and the heart that grieves at parting are quietly placed side by side.
The Bon lantern is a marker placed to welcome ancestors and departed loved ones home. For a first Obon (shinbon or hatsubon) after a passing, a white lantern may be lit — a family's prayer that the departed, returning for the very first time, may find their way without difficulty.
For Obon, families set out seasonal fruit, somen noodles, vegetarian dishes, and the things the departed loved. What matters is not so much the splendor of the offerings as the heart that places them with care — and in that very gesture, the meaning of an offering is carried.
“This was your favorite, wasn't it?” “Here it is for you again this year.” Remembering, and quietly speaking to the departed, is itself a form of memorial. To remember through food is, in its own way, a precious form of welcoming at Obon.
Apply
Whether you choose July or August, the heart you bring to your ancestors is no different. Please select the time that fits your hometown, your family temple's calendar, or simply when your family can most easily put their hands together.
Choosing between July and August Obon, joining online, first Obon (shinbon · hatsubon), tradition, stupas and bestowed items.
Source
Obon is a festival that grew from several streams meeting over time. The story in the Ullambana Sutra, in which the Buddha's disciple Maudgalyāyana sought to save his late mother; the ancestor festival held in China since ancient times on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (the Zhongyuan); and the Japanese custom, passed down through generations, of welcoming the departed home, hosting them, and seeing them off again. Over many years these flowed together, and what we now call "Obon" took shape.
Here, drawing on the words of the original sources, we follow each of those streams in turn.
年年七月十五日，常以孝順慈憶所生父母，乃至七世父母，為作盂蘭盆施佛及僧。
At the heart of Obon lies a single passage the Buddha taught to Maudgalyāyana. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the rains retreat ends, present offerings to the saṅgha (the assembly of monks and nuns), and dedicate the resulting merit to those who have passed. The short sutra plainly records the root of Obon.
This practice spread in China as an annual observance, then traveled to Japan, where it joined naturally with the long-cherished local custom of welcoming ancestral spirits home. Below, we read the sutra's words, the long-standing reading of the term, and the earliest records preserved in China and Japan, drawing on the original sources in turn.
大目乾連始得六通，欲度父母，報乳哺之恩。即以道眼觀視世間，見其亡母生餓鬼中，不見飲食，皮骨連立。目連悲哀，即鉢盛飯，往餉其母。母得鉢飯，便以左手障鉢，右手摶飯。食未入口，化成火炭，遂不得食。
Mahāmaudgalyāyana, having just attained the six supernatural powers, wished to save his parents and repay the kindness of having been nursed at the breast. Looking out upon the world with his Dharma-eye, he saw his late mother reborn among the hungry ghosts, with no food or drink, her skin and bones clinging to one another. Sorrowful, he filled a bowl with rice and brought it to her. When she received the bowl she shielded it with her left hand and grasped the rice with her right; but before it could enter her mouth it turned to fiery coals, and she could not eat.
The story's opening. Even Maudgalyāyana, foremost in supernatural powers, could not save his late mother by his own strength alone, and so ran to the Buddha. The pillar of Obon — prayer for those who have passed — begins here.
T16, no.685, 779a
佛告目連：「十方眾僧於七月十五日僧自恣時，當為七世父母及現在父母厄難中者，具飯、百味五果、汲灌盆器、香油錠爥、床敷臥具，盡世甘美以著盆中，供養十方大德眾僧。」
The Buddha said to Maudgalyāyana: "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at the time when the saṅgha of the ten directions hold their pravāraṇā ceremony, prepare for the sake of your ancestors of seven generations and your present parents in distress: rice, the hundred flavors of fruits, vessels for offering and washing, fragrant oil, lamps and candles, bedding and mats — gather all that is sweet and fine in the world, place it in the offering tray, and present it to the great virtuous saṅgha of the ten directions."
The concrete practice the Buddha taught for delivering the deceased. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when the rains retreat ends, present offerings to the saṅgha and dedicate the resulting merit to one's late parents and ancestors. The core of Obon — offering and dedication of merit — is concentrated in this single passage.
T16, no.685, 779b
年年七月十五日，常以孝順慈憶所生父母，乃至七世父母，為作盂蘭盆施佛及僧，以報父母長養、慈愛之恩。
Year after year, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, with constant filial reverence and loving remembrance, prepare an Ullambana offering for one's living parents and ancestors of seven generations, present it to the Buddha and the Sangha, and so repay the kindness of being raised and loved by one's parents.
Not a single act, but an annual observance to be kept on the fifteenth of the seventh month each year. This is the textual ground for Obon's life as a yearly observance in Japan.
T16, no.685, 779c
盂蘭，是西域之語，此云倒懸。盆乃東夏之音，仍為救器。若隨方俗，應曰救倒懸盆。
"Yulan" is a word of the Western Regions (i.e., India); here it is rendered as "hanging upside down (daoxuan)." "Pen" is a sound of the Eastern Land (China), namely a vessel of rescue. If we follow local idiom, it should be called "a vessel that rescues from being hung upside down."
The heart of the Tang-dynasty commentary by Zongmi (780–841) on the Ullambana Sutra. Reading "yulan" as the suffering of being hung upside down — said to be the lot of hungry ghosts — and "pen" as the vessel by which they are rescued, became the long-standing traditional gloss. Note that even Zongmi himself is explicit that "pen" is a Chinese word for a vessel.
T39, no.1792, 506c
「盂蘭」即梵語 odana(米飯)之中期印度語口語形 olana 之音譯；「盆」為漢語盛食之器。
"Yulan" corresponds to olana, a Middle Indic colloquial form of Sanskrit odana (boiled rice); "pen" is a Chinese word for a vessel that holds food.
Karashima Seishi (Soka University, ARIRIAB 16, 2013) reassessed Zongmi's traditional gloss philologically. He notes that the supposed Sanskrit ullambana never actually appears in extant Sanskrit literature, and that the sutra's own usage ("placed in the offering tray," "making the Ullambana") plainly treats pen as a vessel for offerings. He therefore argues that yulanpen is more naturally read as "a tray of rice offered up." In Japan, this plainer reading is in fact attested as early as the Edo-period Wakan sansai zue.
Karashima Seishi, ARIRIAB 16 (2013)
(大同)四年。帝幸同泰寺設盂蘭盆齋。
In the fourth year of the Datong era (538), Emperor Wu of Liang visited Tongtai Temple and held an Ullambana service.
The Southern Song compendium Fozu tongji preserves the earliest known record of an Ullambana service in China: Emperor Wu of Liang held one at Tongtai Temple in the Liang capital Jiankang in 538. Its sponsorship by the emperor as a state observance helped fuel its rapid spread thereafter.
T49, no.2035, 351a
(推古十四年) 是年自始、毎寺、四月八日・七月十五日設齋。
(斉明三年七月辛丑) 作須彌山像於飛鳥寺西。且設盂蘭瓫會。
(Suiko 14, 606) From this year, every temple began to hold a ceremony on the eighth day of the fourth month and the fifteenth day of the seventh month. (Saimei 3, 7th month, day xinchou, 657) An image of Mount Sumeru was made west of Asukadera, and an Ullambana service was also held.
By the reign of Empress Suiko, ceremonies on the fifteenth of the seventh month — the original form of Obon — were already being held at every temple. The terms "yulanpen-e" and "yulanpen-e" (variant) appear in the records from the reign of Empress Saimei. Not long after Buddhism's introduction, Obon was already taking root as a yearly observance.
Nihon Shoki, Bk. 22 (Suiko 14) and Bk. 26 (Saimei 3, month 7)
Welcome them, set out the offerings, dedicate the merit, and see them off again.
Each gesture of Obon is a quiet way of saying to the departed: “We have not forgotten you.”
Even in a year when you cannot return, there is a memorial you can make. Even from afar, there is a prayer that reaches.