Homecoming of the Heart
Join Byodoji's Obon memorial service from home.
Each evening at 8 PM, a priest reads the submitted names and dedicates the merit of the service to the departed.
Two seven-day observances in July and August 2026
Choose the period observed by your family or hometown. July Obon is common in Tokyo, Yokohama, and some other cities; August Obon is common in Shikoku, Kansai, and much of Japan. If you are unsure, follow your family temple's calendar or choose the period when your family can most easily join in prayer.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At Obon, families welcome the departed, prepare offerings, give thanks, dedicate merit, and see them off. If travel is not possible, you can still observe Obon and pray from home.
For Byodoji's online service, a priest reads the names, posthumous Buddhist names, and prayer intentions submitted before the shoryodana, the memorial altar prepared in the temple's Jibutsudo hall. You may join the same service from home, while traveling, or from overseas.
If your family has a temple, please give priority to its services and your family's customs. Byodoji's online service is available when returning home or visiting the grave is difficult.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Choosing between July and August Obon, joining online, first Obon (shinbon · hatsubon), tradition, stupas and bestowed items.
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。
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。」
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。
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。
「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。
(大同)四年。帝幸同泰寺設盂蘭盆齋。
(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。
